Hey dvm--just curious, how do you like being part of the inaugural class? Love it? Hate it?
Absolutely love it. We're a little spoiled because we're getting all the attention right now, so next year we'll be a little like the older sibling sharing with the new baby when 2019 comes in...although we're getting sick of seeing each other all day everyday, and we're excited for fresh faces!
Joking aside, they have done an outstanding job overcoming unforeseeable hurdles (snowpocalypse and 2 weeks off wrecked havoc with our schedule, but they've worked it out so we still get a full spring break and finals are still the same time because several professors still went in and were able to record lectures). I love that we're only in lecture from 8-noon. We had one week with cardiac physiology where we were in lecture almost all day, and we about went nuts. It's nice have a lot of labs to balance out lectures.
I love that we get hands-on experience from week one. First semester we learned hand ties and instrument handling, in addition to starting animal handling and physical exams. We also had 3 communications labs that get us in talking to "clients" and "team members" so that we can have experience with stressful situations before seeing them in clinics and "real life". They also structure our clinical skills so that we are building on previous semesters. For example, canine physical exam last semester was the very basics-simple palpation, TPR, CRT, hearing lung and heart sounds, etc. This semester they added in more detailed role-play scenario, as well as writing a SOAP for our 'patient', and starting to recognize abnormals and be able to explain those to the "client". We've already learned instrument ties and simple + simple cruciate sutures to start preparing us for surgery next year. We have several models that we'll be learning phlebotomy on before going to real animals, which I greatly appreciate since I haven't had a lot of practice in that area.
They've brought in some top-notch visiting professors for specific physiology blocks, and plan on hiring more specialists as we progress in the curriculum. They're very open to student input, even if it's something that can't be changed. Sometimes, it's something that's "always been done that way" at LMU, but they're willing to take it into consideration and work with other parts of the university, if it will benefit us.
All of the faculty and staff are absolutely wonderful. That's one of the reasons I chose LMU for undergrad-I never felt like a number, they really get to know you. They see us as future colleagues, not just students, and treat us with a lot of respect. They are really willing to help us out whenever possible-for instance, I'm going to be having wrist surgery over spring break, so I'll be in a splint for the remainder of semester. I spoke with my clinical skills professors today and they are completely willing to work with me on practicing skills more towards the end of the semester, when I'll have more mobility. I feel like our administration is very committed to making us good clinicians from the day we graduate, even if that means that some of the students aren't 100% happy (we have some people who feel like the communications labs are pointless; in my eyes, they're extremely beneficial because they allow us to work out kinks in taking a history or dealing with conflict or a mad client-several vets/doctors that I've talked to, many of whom have had students from LMU-DCOM, feel that the communications aspect we bring is very beneficial to the students they precept in practice, and is something that they would have loved to have as students). I feel that any school has some amount of students that don't really want to be there...maybe it wasn't their top choice, or even in top 5, but it's where they got accepted, so they went. Most of our class, though, really loves how well everything is working out and wouldn't want to change schools.
How cold are the classrooms generally...
Anyone else from NYS considering LMU??
I'm still waiting
