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Homework?
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We have had to write a few papers... have one due May 6th actually. 
Other than that we had a couple "lab reports".. if you can call them that, it was just answering questions based off the lab we did.
Anyway, the papers and lab reports were considered to be part of the exam, usually a very small part... around 10%.
Other than that we had a couple "lab reports".. if you can call them that, it was just answering questions based off the lab we did.
Anyway, the papers and lab reports were considered to be part of the exam, usually a very small part... around 10%.
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We've had some group projects, with presentation aspects, and a few papers- usually in pass/fail electives. Mostly tests, lots and lots of tests.
Also we have end of year observation exams. Thus year (1st year) we were filmed interacting with "clients" (really paid actors) in mini clinical scenarios, and seperatly had to demonstrate surgical handling skills, catheter place on models (plastic models, not good looking people) and injection site knowledge. Each year, what you have to demonstrate is different.
Also we have end of year observation exams. Thus year (1st year) we were filmed interacting with "clients" (really paid actors) in mini clinical scenarios, and seperatly had to demonstrate surgical handling skills, catheter place on models (plastic models, not good looking people) and injection site knowledge. Each year, what you have to demonstrate is different.
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Very small number of "homework" type assignments, except for clinical pathology which is basically doing constant case study homework. But that works really well for learning clin path for us.
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At least a few classes per semester will have something other than exams - group presentation, paper, quizzes, labs, etc - but it's not worth much in comparison to the exams. Some classes are midterm and final only, especially first year. Not like, problem sets every week or anything though.
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Videotaping? That sounds horrifying.... :/
We do it also (4th year, if I'm not mistaken, with actual clients that have consented to being videotaped) 🙂
(P.S. Can you tell I'm studying hard for my anatomy final tomorrow?)
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I'm pretty sure I remember being told that k-state does that too, tapes you during clinicals 4th year.
I have an anatomy final tomorrow too I should be studying for, though I'm sure it's not quite as hard as yours 😛
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we've had some homework assignments and group projects here and there - no paper writing (yet) for us! i'd die! 2 of my hw assignments this term required journal article research and brief (<300 words) summarizing. that was annoying and hands down the most difficult part! give me 50 questions any day!
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I thought so, but I watched with a friend after a couple beers and it wasn't too bad. It was helpful, and we had to submit a self critique as part of our grade. The other part was the actor's review and a clinician. I'd rather have been taped then have a clinician sit in the room!
Besides, the camera was on the ceiling, not like a creepy face close up or anything.
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I can just picture me 4th year (inspired by an epic convo by Emiloo and I on FB)...
Me: So, what brings you in today?
Client:: My dog has all these ticks. LOOK!
Me: *examines dog* Ma'am, those are his nipples.
Client: REALLY?
Me: Yes.
Client: Dogs have nipples?
Me: Yes.
Client: MALE dogs have nipples?
Me: Yes.
Client: Are you sure?
Me: You're an idiot.
*end scene*
It's a pretty standard way of assessing communication, according to my research (I'm doing my thesis on vet communication training).
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We haven't had any video taping yet, but we did have to do a "client interaction" with a volunteer (I actually don't know if they were real clients are point or just people involved with the school) and we were the vet. We had to pick a part of the conversation we wanted to work on (non verbal communication, empathy, etc) and then our client and our group critiqued us. We also got to critique ourselves a little bit too. I was super nervous and talked quickly (which I don't actually do with clients) but it was helpful.
As for homework here, we've had a few things but a lot of it has been group work and for easy electives or pass/fail classes. I do have a 1000 word paper due the 7th for a Global Health and Food Security class that I haven't read the books for or been to many of the lectures, but I don't think it will be too bad since we have 5 topics to cover.
As for homework here, we've had a few things but a lot of it has been group work and for easy electives or pass/fail classes. I do have a 1000 word paper due the 7th for a Global Health and Food Security class that I haven't read the books for or been to many of the lectures, but I don't think it will be too bad since we have 5 topics to cover.
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We do it second year, and it's not as horrifying as it sounds. It makes you cringe a little bit watching yourself in two ways: first, thinking of what you should have said that you didn't, and second, hearing yourself say something you totally should have phrased differently.
But it's valuable and nowhere near as scary as it sounds. Especially if you already have some client engagement experience - it's just another 'appointment' like any other (except that here, at least, they tend to set up some difficult scenarios).
They're useful, but I find them to be not very realistic compared to the real client encounters I have. The real ones are always under time pressure with different things pulling you different ways and ... just hectic. The videotaped scenarios are tightly controlled, and it's all you're focused on, so you put on your very best behavior and ... it's just a different experience than reality. It's sorta like roleplaying how it "ought" to be instead of how it really "is".
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Are there cumulative tests at the end of the year?
Also, I know that a lot of schools do 2 years in-class courses, and 2 years fieldwork (I think that's the right name). Is this true? Are the courses math, science, or directly animal related?
Sorry if these are silly questions 😳
Also, I know that a lot of schools do 2 years in-class courses, and 2 years fieldwork (I think that's the right name). Is this true? Are the courses math, science, or directly animal related?
Sorry if these are silly questions 😳
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Cumulative tests: It depends on the school. I believe that sort of testing is popular at the UK schools? Our exam schedule (and, I suspect, many other U.S. schools?) is all over the map because classes are all over the map (as in, they can start/end any time in the semester; it's not like undergrad where classes generally all start at the beginning of the semester and end at the end). For example, I have one class left this semester that hasn't even started yet and I'm done in two weeks. So exams are chaotic, too. For a shorter class you might just have one final exam and that's it for your grade. For a really large full-semester course you might have 6-7 exams. Some teachers like cumulative. Some don't.
You just can't really say it's one way or the other (here, anyway).
We do 3 years classroom and 1 year of clinical rotations.
There are no math classes. Many (most?) first-year classes are basic science focused. Most second- and third-year classes are medicine-focused.
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I think 3 years of classrom and 1 year of clinicals is still the more common route, but there's definitely schools that do 2 and 2. LIS is right about not being able to generalize though about how many exams you might have. For example, he mentioned 6-7 for one course - I can't fathom that. The most we've had is 3 written exams and a lab exam for Parasitology.
Our classes at AVC pretty much all start and end at the beginning and end of the semester, so 15 weeks. Except for second semester in third year when we have three 5 week modules. Most classes will have a midterm and a final. A few classes may have two midterms. Some will also have a practical/lab exam which happens at the end of the semester as well. We have more non-cumulative finals than cumulative overall. Example - for this semester, Therio, Surgery, Anesthesia, Clinical Pathology, Fish Health, Pharmacology/Toxicology and Systemic Pathology were all non-cumulative, so they only tested things that we had done post-midterm. Medicine was cumulative. When an exam is cumulative, it's usually very heavily weighted to things post-midterm.
Strict science based courses are limited to first year, more or less, but obviously certain concepts keep coming up. Math is interspersed through various courses (pharm/tox, epidemiology, anesthesia) but it's never anything more complicated than solving for a single variable, multiple/divide/add/subtract.
Our classes at AVC pretty much all start and end at the beginning and end of the semester, so 15 weeks. Except for second semester in third year when we have three 5 week modules. Most classes will have a midterm and a final. A few classes may have two midterms. Some will also have a practical/lab exam which happens at the end of the semester as well. We have more non-cumulative finals than cumulative overall. Example - for this semester, Therio, Surgery, Anesthesia, Clinical Pathology, Fish Health, Pharmacology/Toxicology and Systemic Pathology were all non-cumulative, so they only tested things that we had done post-midterm. Medicine was cumulative. When an exam is cumulative, it's usually very heavily weighted to things post-midterm.
Strict science based courses are limited to first year, more or less, but obviously certain concepts keep coming up. Math is interspersed through various courses (pharm/tox, epidemiology, anesthesia) but it's never anything more complicated than solving for a single variable, multiple/divide/add/subtract.
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It seems like epidemiology required some statistics or something ... but ... that was, like, last fall. I barely remember taking the course now.
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Yeah, there was stats, but I always found most stats at this level boiled down to "here's an equation, plug in some numbers and solve for x".
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Yeah, like p value sort of stuff. Not anything that is hard as far as the math involved goes - maybe just hard to stay awake during that section of the course. 
We have most classes that last all semester until third year, which is much more divided. Some classes have three exams that are 'midterms' and then a final, and some have two. There may be a lab midterm and final if the class has a lab. First year was base stuff - phys, anatomy, pathology, histology. Second was a bit above that - clin path, clinical anatomy, radiology, bacT/viro. Third year will be specific systems and stuff - therio, tox, ophtho, alimentary, cardiopulmonary. Then fourth year is clinics.
But it's a little different everywhere. 🙂
We have most classes that last all semester until third year, which is much more divided. Some classes have three exams that are 'midterms' and then a final, and some have two. There may be a lab midterm and final if the class has a lab. First year was base stuff - phys, anatomy, pathology, histology. Second was a bit above that - clin path, clinical anatomy, radiology, bacT/viro. Third year will be specific systems and stuff - therio, tox, ophtho, alimentary, cardiopulmonary. Then fourth year is clinics.
But it's a little different everywhere. 🙂
This made me laugh! I seriously just had this happen this week. A client came in with his indoor/outdoor cat and said he thinks he has a couple ticks. I take a look and they are both nipples. It took a lot of strength to not bust up laughing and explain this straight-faced.
This made me laugh! I seriously just had this happen this week. A client came in with his indoor/outdoor cat and said he thinks he has a couple ticks. I take a look and they are both nipples. It took a lot of strength to not bust up laughing and explain this straight-faced.
I had a client come in worried about brown stuff under the toe nail she had never seen before... it was dirt
I had a client come in worried about brown stuff under the toe nail she had never seen before... it was dirt
Haha! It's hard to believe some people can be so dense. Yesterday, I took a call from a woman who was worried because she ingested her dog's Trifexis tablet. Explain to me how that tablet looks like any human pill you have ever taken?! She apparently tried to make herself vomit, with no luck and was looking for advice...
Phone calls are a whole other story... I had someone call and ask if there was anything they could do about their mastiff's drool. He wanted to know if there was anything wrong with him or if they normally drool a lot or if we had something to give him that would decrease the drool.
I had another lady call and ask how to wash her dog's bedding. She said she had been washing it in a barrel outside but was afraid to run it thru her washing machine because she didn't want to fill her washer with dog hair. She wanted to know if we could wash it for her at the clinic.
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I'd rather those people than the ones who come in after their dog has had diarrhea for three months and they aren't too concerned about it.
Sheesh I am jealous! We have soo much homework! Usually ~3-6 online quizzes every week, papers, SOAPs... we have gotten videotapped 3 times already and I'm just a 1st year! We also have cumulative finals in most classes AND a cumulative set of exams at the start of every year that covers EVERYTHING to that point.
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How do those work? Do you get credit for them? Are they just roadblocks that you have to pass with a certain % to stay in the program? For your own edification to assess your progress?
They changed the specifics of it this year. From what I gathered we have a $#&t ton of at home online questions to answer and then a full day our first day back of in-class tests. The score we get affects our rank but not our GPa (?!). We have to score above an 80% on the online portion and above 70% on the in-class portion to pass. If we don't pass it uses up 1 remediation credit of 10 (?) total, and we have to take the test again and pass it. It is going to blow, but at least they are making it more clinically based to help with NAVLE.
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...yay?
and at least I am aware of the Capstone coming in. I'm actually excited for it, I tend to forget things when not regularly tested and pushed to study them, so I'm hopeful these will help for not only the NAVLE but also for jr and sr practicums.
Were the videotapings case reports, anatomy presentations, something else? What kind of papers....
Just so you know, by posting this information, you just earned a semi-stalker 🙂
Haha great! You can stalk but I am not on here much anymore. I think it will definitely help us for jr. /sr. rotations. The amount it will help on NAVLE remains to be seen. In previous years it was not NAVLE based at all, but they are changing it to be more clinically based, so hopefully it will make studying for that less stressful.
The videos were for graded performances of physical exams/neuro exams/cardiology exams/ mock client interviews (I was wrong it has been 4 times! lol).
Oh and the papers aren't bad but they involve a lot of busy work. We write SOAPs for mock cases, reviews of our performances, summaries of scientific papers etc.
The videos were for graded performances of physical exams/neuro exams/cardiology exams/ mock client interviews (I was wrong it has been 4 times! lol).
Oh and the papers aren't bad but they involve a lot of busy work. We write SOAPs for mock cases, reviews of our performances, summaries of scientific papers etc.
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writing SOAP notes should be started early. We didn't really get taught about it until 2nd year and the learning curve is huge. And it's something you will be doing for the rest of your clinical career.
I'm glad we are learning them. It frustrates me that ever teacher does them differently though. How can they understand each other's notes?
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Yeah. That was my suggestion in our course eval this semester after we finally really started doing it.
That said, it's tough to write one if you don't have a foundation. Had you asked me to write a full SOAP first year I wouldn't have had a clue about what my differentials might be for ... everything ... or what my plan might be (for anything). But I gotta think instructors could start you with some more straightforward/simpler SOAPs first year that don't require an incredibly in-depth plan and whatnot (or, just go easy on the grading when you don't cover every single base in a complex plan).
We actually do tackle it (very superficially) as part of VBMA with the VPI Contest that occurs every year. To help our first years along in the VPI Contest, I've asked (for two years now) one of the Critical Care docs to come give a super-abbreviated "How To Write A SOAP" talk in one hour. She does an amazing job covering the basics in only one hour. She's also the one that teaches it in full in the second-year Professional Development course, so it's on her teaching radar, so to speak.
But, bottom line, I agree - we should get it earlier so that we're more comfortable by fourth year.
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Even just routinely making students write out the SO part anytime they do a physical the first two years I think would be super helpful so that it's second nature by clinics. And starting on really simple cases with the rest.
