Program Description: Veterinary Externship
Clinical externships are offered September-May every year. Externships usually run for 2-8 weeks depending on students schedules and availability. Externships are unpaid and students must provide their own housing and transport.
Unique Education Experience
Veterinary student clinical externs are exposed to laboratory animal medicine as performed at one of the top ten NIH-funded medical research institutions in the country. The University of Michigan has all of the classic laboratory animal species (mouse, rat, etc...), as well as nonhuman primates, sheep, and pigs. Externs participate in clinical, pathology and surgical care provided to animals at the University of Michigan. Externs gain an understanding of the laws and regulations which govern the care and use of laboratory animals in the United States, the design and operation of facilities which house animals such that they are appropriate research subjects, the concept of specific-pathogen free animals for use in biomedical research, the evaluation process for written applications to use vertebrate animals in research, and the research process itself, e.g., hypothesis testing, choice of animal models, and technical procedures.
Expected Time Commitment
8 AM – 5 PM Monday – Friday
occasional Saturday or Sunday (not full day)
weeknights – approximately 1-2 hours per night reading or reviewing materials
The student will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
1. Professional conduct
2. Attendance/Participation
3. Clinical acumen
4. Completion and quality of assigned projects
Activities available during clinical externships:
- Expand knowledge base in the husbandry, biology, and diseases of common laboratory animal species through clinical work and participation in didactic seminars, study groups and journal club.
- Improve and expand clinical skills through direct participation in clinical cases and clinical rounds by shadowing veterinary technicians and residents and participating in case management with resident or faculty oversight.
- Work directly with the pathologist(s) and residents on current case submissions, attend and participate in necropsies, and pathology rounds.
- Observe and participate in animal surgeries by assisting Animal Surgery Operating Room (ASOR) technician with surgical procedures performed in multiple species
- Learn principles basic to managing large colonies of laboratory animals by studying the basics of rodent health monitoring and quality assurance, attending rodent health surveillance team meetings, and shadowing rodent health surveillance technicians
- Gain exposure to research techniques pertaining to animal through clinical cases, review of animal protocol proposals and attending select IACUC animal use training classes.
- A project is assigned for student to complete during their externship. The project topics are varied and are tailored to the students areas of interest. The project assignments vary in depth according to the length of the students externship.
Please contact Patrick Lester at plester@umich.edu for more information