Illinois Veterinary Curriculum

Faculty Perspective:

The template for this new curriculum is refreshing and reinvigorating. It instills educational values in students. They can see how they are going to use the information, and they take ownership over their learning rather than being told what to learn.
Dr. Mark Kuhlenschmidt, Pathobiology

Student Perspective:

During my first week of vet school, my clinical assignment was to spend time on the ophthalmology service. The very early exposure gave me a great advantage, as I was able to spend the next four years working with the ophthalmology service and assisting with their research.
Dr. Julia Disney, Class of 2013

Table 1 below illustrates the curriculum overview. Clinical Practice courses (rotations, in blue) in each year allow increased experiential learning in the hospital and diagnostic laboratory. Rotations are intended to facilitate integration of pre-clinical sciences (didactic lectures and laboratories in peach, purple, and orange blocks) with spontaneous clinical material. The Professional Development period at the end of the 4th year (green) is designed to provide more focused (by species and discipline) clinical experiences immediately prior to graduation (capstone courses).

time of year	year 1 courses	year 2 courses	year 3 courses	year 4 courses
fall semester first half	VM602 Structure & Function I	VM605 Pathobiology I	VM609 Medicine & Surgery I	VM614 Clinical Practice V
fall semester second half	VM601 Clinical Practice I	VM607 Pathobiology II	VM610 Medicine & Surgery II	VM615 Clinical Practice VI
spring semester first half	VM603 Structure & Function II	VM606 Clinical Practice II Milestone Exam I	VM611 Medicine & Surgery III	VM616 Clinical Practice VII
spring semester second half	VM604 Structure & Function III	VM608 Pathobiology III	VM612 Milestone Exam II Clinical Practice III	VM617 Professional Development Graduation
summer	Vacation	Vacation	VM613 Clinical Practice IV	Employment

In VM 601, Clinical Practice I, first-year students rotate weekly through diverse clinical experiences for a total of 8 weeks. They also attend colloquia and complete online learning modules.

A major component of the new curriculum is the Clinical Skills Learning Center. In this new 1600 square foot facility, students learn, practice, and refine clinical skills under the guidance of experienced coaches. Skills pertain to anesthesiology, animal handling, clinical pathology, critical care, medicine, radiography, surgery, and ultrasonography of both large and small animals.

In the remainder of the first year of the new curriculum, we have created what is essentially a quarter system rather than semester system, where courses are eight weeks long. Courses are organized to present anatomy, physiology, and histology of the same body systems simultaneously to allow better correlation and integration of pre-clinical sciences with one another and with clinical material experienced during VM 601. A typical daily and hourly schedule for VM 603 is illustrated in Table 2 below:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8 AM	Physiology II Lecture	Physiology II Lecture	Quiz hour when used	Physiology II Lecture	Physiology II Lecture
9 AM	Physiology II Lecture	Organology I Lecture	Physiology II Lecture	Organology I Lecture	Physiology II Lecture
10 AM	Neurobiology II Lecture	Organology Laboratory	Physiology II Lecture	Organology Laboratory	Neurobiology II Lecture
11 AM	VM 627 Finance	Organology Laboratory	Neurobiology II Lecture	Organology Laboratory	VM 627 Finance
Noon
1 PM	Gross Anatomy II Lecture	Clinical Correlations	Gross Anatomy II Lecture	VCM 693 Zoo Animal Anatomy	Gross Anatomy II Lecture
2 PM	Gross Anatomy II Laboratory	Clinical Correlations	Gross Anatomy II Laboratory	VCM 693 Zoo Animal Anatomy	Gross Anatomy II Laboratory
3 PM	Gross Anatomy II Laboratory	VCM 608 Equine Husbandry	Gross Anatomy II Laboratory	VCM 693 Zoo Animal Anatomy VCM 608 Equine Husbandry	Gross Anatomy II Laboratory
4 PM			4:30-6:30 PM with discussion group VM 620 Canine/Feline Behavior	CHSC 400 Public Health VCM 524 Bereavement VCM 671 International Vet Med	VCM 697 Feline Medicine
5 PM	VB 540 Wildlife Ecosystem Health elective VCM 697 Feline Medicine	VCM 657 Shelter Medicine	5:30-7:0 PM VCM 510 Science of Animal Well- Being	VCM 678 Reptile Medicine
6 PM

Table 2: Weekly Schedule: VM 603 (First Half Spring Semester, January-to-March 2012). Core hours are in light blue, and elective courses are in yellow with italic print.

Similar courses have been developed for all of the first three years of the new curriculum as outlined in Table 1.

To complement the core courses, a series of elective streams has been developed for the following species and areas of interests: equine medicine and surgery; wildlife, zoological medicine, and ecology; small animal medicine and surgery; food animal; all-species specialties (diagnostic imaging, laboratory animal, ophthalmology, clinical pathology, gross pathology, and therapeutics); business and communication; public health/one health.