UI Associated Elective Rotations

The veterinary preceptorship program at the John G. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago offers exposure to the veterinary management of a large and diverse collection of fishes, marine mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds, non-marine mammals and invertebrates. Students work closely with the veterinary staff (includes 3 veterinarians, a veterinary resident, 4 veterinary technicians, staff microbiologist and water quality personnel). Responsibilities are assigned based on each student’s level of interest and aptitude. Students observe and assist with treatments, as well as preventive, urgent and emergent care of resident animals, and rotate through several husbandry departments to gain hands on experience in exotic and aquatic animal care. Students must complete a project, which is determined in the first week of the rotation. A full service aquatic sciences library is available to students on-site. Student housing and stipends are not available for this rotation.

Dr. Poll requires that students requesting this rotation be able to document their interest in aquatic animal medicine; this can include coursework, extracurricular activities, work experiences, or volunteer experiences. For this reason, application is required.

    • Students take 2 blocks (4 weeks) as a SINGLE UNIT (3 blocks if approved by instructor)
    • Limited availability – 3 students/year
    • REQUIRES APPLICATION. The application consists of the student’s curriculum vitae and a letter of intent that documents the student’s interest in aquatic animal medicine.  Applications are to be submitted to the ASA Office.  Please do NOT submit applications directly to Dr. Poll or Shedd Aquarium (*see below for exceptions).  The ASA Office will send all applications to Dr. Poll after the application deadline has passed.
    • SELECTION IS MADE BY DR. POLL, IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE ASA OFFICE.

Note to students from Ross, St. George & St. Matthews schools:  You must apply directly to Shedd to determine availability and acceptance.

The Clinical Cardiology rotation in the VM 612-616 course is designed to introduce VM3-4 professional students to the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease in all species (small, large, and exotic) brought to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital. The objectives of this rotation are to develop the skills necessary to diagnose and treat basic cardiovascular diseases as well as familiarize students with the advanced diagnostic, medical, and surgical care available, on a referral basis, to animals with cardiovascular disease. Students will practice cardiothoracic auscultation, indirect blood pressure measurement, and electrocardiography, interpret thoracic radiographs, including vertebral heart score, interpret electrocardiograms, and gain a basic understanding of echocardiography. Students will supplement direct case learning with didactic rounds as well as directed self-study. Year 3-4 students are involved with all cases, including receiving cases, performing and interpreting diagnostic tests, formulating treatment plans, and communicating with colleagues, clients, and referring veterinarians.

  • CLOSED BLOCKS = TBD

Synopses

Syllabus

Students take 1 block (2 weeks) of UI Dentistry.

Students in take 1 block (2 weeks) of UI Dermatology.

  • Synopsis of UI Dermatology Rotation
  • Orientation for students assigned to the UI Dermatology rotation is held at 9:00 a.m. in room 7 SAC on the first Monday of the rotation (when the first day is a Tuesday, orientation begins at 9:00 am).

  • Maximum of 8 students/block

  • Maximum of 8 students/block

Syllabus

This rotation gives students an introduction to the field of Laboratory Animal Medicine. Students participate in clinical rounds and animal protocol reviews, and shadow clinicians and technicians on clinical calls. Hands on training sessions with rodents involve handling and common sampling and compound administration techniques. A field trip offers students exposure to aspects of laboratory animal medicine not available on campus. Students give a presentation on an aspect of laboratory animal medicine at the conclusion of the rotation.

  • 1-block (2 week) rotation
  • Maximum = 3 students/block
  • Orientation for students assigned to the UI Lab Animal Medicine Rotation is held at 9:00 a.m. and students are to meet inside the door of the circle drive in front of VMBSB.  Students should call 333-2564 with any questions or concerns.

This four-week rotation focuses on integrating basic and applied medical skills to solve infectious and noninfectious disease challenges in animal populations. The rotation, which is conducted both on and off campus, exposes students to modern agricultural practices across all major food producing species in North America. Students review clinically important diseases and treatment options and economic considerations involved in the decision making at the individual and herd level for food animal species. They tour modern production and harvest facilities, review diagnostic methods and testing procedures, and discuss the role of veterinarians in controlling disease spread and methods used to conduct and evaluate field trials.

Students should expect several days of travel. Housing is provided, but students must arrange their own transportation to and from the off campus locations.

The first two week block will focus on building critical and clinical thinking skills with an emphasis on diagnosis and treatment.  The second two week block will focus on building herd level diagnostic and prevention plans and conducting herd level investigations.

Participation in this rotation is REQUIRED if students wish to take a Beef, Dairy, Small Ruminant or Swine Focus Rotation at a private practice later in the year. A skill base is developed in this rotation that will be applied in the practice experiences.

Preference for enrollment will be given to students who have completed the Production Medicine Electives and have demonstrated interest in Production Animal Medicine.

  • Both blocks are required to complete this rotation
  • Maximum = 16 students

The Neurology clinical rotation will give students with interest in neurology and those interested in improving their neurologic confidence the opportunity to advance their skills and expand their knowledge of the discipline. The most important tasks are obtaining an accurate history, performing a neurologic examination and localizing the neurologic lesion. Neurologic patients and diseases are encountered in general practice (small, large, and exotic), emergency practice, and public health.

The Neurology service sees referral appointments, emergency cases and consultations. The majority of cases seen are dogs and cats in the small animal clinic, but we do occasionally have large animal, equine and exotics consultations.

  • Minimum of 2 students/block
  • Maximum of 5 students/block

Synopsis of UI Neurology Rotation

Orientation to Neurology Information

ARTICLES:

Students take 1 block (2 weeks) of UI Oncology.

  • Synopsis of UI Oncology Rotation
  • UI Oncology Rotation Guidelines
  • Orientation for students assigned to the UI Oncology rotation is held in SAC 128 at 8:30 a.m. on the first Monday of the rotation.
  • Minimum = 2 students/block
    Maximum = 4 students/block

Students take 1 block (2 weeks) of UI Ophthalmology.

The Public Health Directed Elective Rotation, led by Dr. Will Sander, was developed in 2006 to link students’ interest in public health, their knowledge of animal disease and food animal production systems with concepts of study design, surveillance, sampling, sample handling, field epidemiology and biostatistics. Among the special skills that veterinarians bring to a career in public health, none is more important than our understanding of food production systems and food safety. Veterinarians are the only medical professionals with specialized training in these areas.

The Public Health Directed Elective Rotation is designed to capitalize on students’ prior training to develop their skill sets in epidemiology and their understanding of how food production can affect human, animal, and ecosystem health. Additionally, students will work in close contact with local and state health departments, gain an understanding of the scope of activities in which local and state health departments are involved, study major and current health threats to humans, animals, and ecosystems and consider policy initiatives to address those threats.  Field trips during this rotation may include overnight stays in Chicago without funding to offset travel costs.

    • This 2-block (4 week) rotation should be taken as a single unit
    • Students may take just the first block (2 weeks), but this is not recommended and requires approval by the instructor.
    • Maximum enrollment of 12 students

The Shelter Medicine Rotation takes place under the direction of Dr. Loukia Agapis. It is unique as students will have the opportunity to travel to different shelters or rescues and practice surgeries commonly performed in a shelter environment, as well as learn principles of shelter medicine. Our goal is for students to be able to perform spay neuter surgeries without supervision, maintain good medical records, evaluate and treat community medicine cases with the aid of diagnostic tests typically found in shelters, and gain insight to the unique shelter setting. This includes, but is not limited to: learning preventative care protocols for homeless animals, housing considerations, and performing medical rounds for large populations. Each rotation also includes didactic rounds composed of either a journal club or a shelter medicine-focused  webinar.

It is expected that students have a thorough understanding of the pertinent anatomy, and have reviewed the provided materials by the instructors prior to the start of the rotation. Additionally, students are asked to keep a log of their surgeries and medical cases, including the surgical times. Successful completion of the rotation is dependent on students submitting an accurate and complete log.

    • 1-block (2 week) rotation
    • Maximum = 5 students/block

The Anti-Cruelty Society in downtown Chicago is the city’s largest open-door humane society. During the rotation, students are encouraged to spend most of their time performing feline and canine spays and neuters in order to advance their surgical skills while helping the animals. Students with special interest in shelter medicine may work with the staff veterinarians to further explore shelter management including physical examinations for adoptions and isolation protocols for common shelter infections. Hours are Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM. Students should bring scrubs, a stethoscope and lab coat. The staff hope to create a friendly and professional environment to promote teamwork and quality care.

      • 1-block (2 week) rotation
      • Maximum = 1 student/block (This rotation is over-requested, so students should plan back-up rotations.)

Chicago Housing Information

On the Critical Care Service (CCS), Emergency/Critical Care residents accept transfers of critical cases from surgery, medicine and ER primarily. Examples of likely transfers are patients that are septic or in respiratory distress, patients suffering from multi-trauma or severe toxicities, and patients requiring multiple blood transfusions or mechanical ventilation. In addition to receiving transfers, the CCS is always available for free consultation of cases in the ICU that are under the supervision of another service. The Emergency/Critical Care resident reviews all cases in ICU daily and recommends management strategies to their services. Students are encouraged to perform procedures on their patients (urinary and IV catheter placement, blood draws, thoracocentesis, abdominocentesis, etc.). Emergency/Critical Care house officers and a faculty member staff the CCS. The faculty member oversees the ER as well as the CCS. There are cage rounds in the ICU as well as didactic rounds daily. Students are expected to formulate daily treatment plans and discuss these with the clinicians, and all cases are reviewed during cage rounds.

  • UI ZCAMS Rotation Guidelines
  • The Virtual Learning Environment for this rotation can be accessed on Compass, under the course entitled “OPEN LEARNING – VM 612-616 Zoological Companion Animals Medicine and Surgery”
  • Orientation for students assignd to the UI ZCAMS rotation is held in the Zoological Medicine Round Room (VMSC 180) on 9:00 a.m. the first Monday of the rotation.
  • Maximum = 5 students/block

This rotation is offered through the Chicago Zoological Society’s Brookfield Zoo, located 13 miles outside downtown Chicago. It is designed to give students exposure to and hands-on experience in the field of zoological medicine. Students spend 4 weeks actively involved with evaluating and treating numerous species not limited to: megavertebrates, large carnivores, non-human primates, cetaceans, herptiles, birds, fish and small mammals. This rotation provides opportunity to integrate many aspects of veterinary medicine including clinical medicine, anesthesia, pathology, surgery, immunology, virology, parasitology, toxicology and public health.

Goals of the rotation include:

  1. develop the ability to recognize normal biological features and disease conditions for a wide variety of species,
  2. appreciate comparative anatomy, physiology, and behavior, and
  3. be able to obtain a useful history, perform a physical examination and interpret clinical data related to these procedures.

Dr. Langan requires that students requesting this rotation be able to document their interest in zoological medicine. At a minimum, students must have completed at least two zoological medicine elective courses during veterinary school. For this reason, an application form is required.  On the application form, you will see a list of the elective courses considered acceptable prerequisites.  For questions or additional information, contact Dr. Jennifer Langan at veterinary.education@czs.org.

  • Students take 2 blocks (4 weeks) as a SINGLE UNIT
  • One or two students are assigned to each 2 block unit
  • REQUIRES APPLICATION.  Applications are to be submitted to the ASA Office. Please do NOT submit applications directly to Dr. Langan or the zoo (*see below for exceptions).  The ASA Office will send all applications to Dr. Langan after the application deadline has passed.
  • SELECTION IS MADE BY DR. LANGAN, IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE ASA OFFICE.

*Note to students from Ross, St. George, or St Matthew schools: You must apply directly to Brookfield to determine availability and acceptance.  Contact Dr. Langan for more information.