Each summer DVM students from the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) gain practical experience at veterinary clinics across Ontario and additional locales. They visit farms to treat cows and horses, work with dogs, cats and all manner of companion animals. Five OVC students are blogging about their experience in the eight-week externship course.
Funded by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food and Ministry of Rural Affairs (OMAF and MRA), the hands-on course is mandatory for students between third and fourth year and must be completed in a mixed (companion and food animal or companion and equine) practice.
“The externship course is a critical part of the student veterinarian’s training,” says OVC dean Elizabeth Stone. “OMAF and MRA recognize that this hands-on training with both food animals and companion animals is vital to DVM students. Not only do they have an opportunity to apply the skills they’ve learned, they’ll do so both in a clinical setting and on farms, allowing them to practice their diagnostic and problem-solving abilities in a real-world setting.”
Read their blogs at www.ovc.uoguelph.ca/externship and watch a video about the externship at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R1yoyIHOeY .