Purdue News
Purdue News
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Vet students learn primary care in community clinicPERSPECTIVE – Veterinary teaching hospitals have a long history of providing future veterinarians with challenging referral cases for study:
These types of cases are referred regularly to facilities such as the Purdue Veterinary Teaching Hospital for treatment. However, a large number of students who graduate from vet school will not practice specialized medicine. Rather, they will work in community practices that focus on primary care and pet wellness. "About half of all vet schools in the United States now have some sort of community practice clinic attached to them," says Dr. Steve Thompson, director of the Purdue Wellness Clinic in the School of Veterinary Medicine. "It's a definite trend in veterinary education," he says. "It's also a very important teaching tool from a caseload standpoint because there are only so many lectures that students can sit through before they need to start seeing some animal patients." Purdue vet students are eligible for the community practice elective in their fourth year of study. Under the supervision of Thompson and Dr. Alondra Martin, they perform all of the tasks of a regular community clinician. Before the University developed the Wellness Clinic, the only exposure students had to the community practice setting was through a required externship. At the Purdue Wellness Clinic, "students gather medical and behavioral histories from the client, perform a complete physical exam on the pet, and assist with the diagnosis and development of a treatment plan," Thompson says. "We also work on issues such as client communication, veterinary economics and practice management." Clinic services are available to all pet owners, including those with exotic animals and nontraditional pets. The clinic serves animals within a defined geographic radius of the West Lafayette Campus. "We do a lot more than just dogs and cats," Thompson says. "About 15 percent of our current caseload is made up of exotics like ferrets, iguanas, large birds and even fish." The experience for a client is a bit different from that at a commercial veterinary practice. "This is a teaching tool for us so we spend a little more time with the animals and their owners," Thompson says. "We deal with questions from both the client and the student veterinarian, so appointments for even simple procedures will take longer. "We try to compensate for that by offering early morning and lunchtime drop-off service as well as Saturday morning and evening office hours." Students also learn about the latest developments in progressive veterinary medicine practices. "Veterinary medicine mirrors human medicine in many ways, including an increased focus on wellness issues and special care for aging animals," Thompson says. "Nutrition and behavior consultation as well as animal dentistry are becoming more standard rather than specialty services," he says. "Since pets are living longer, their nutritional and medical needs are changing. "The community practice elective gives students exposure to all of these issues in an actual practice setting." PHOTO CAPTION:
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