Farm Animal Medicine and Surgery

Objectives

Advanced clinical training and specialization in the diagnosis, treatment and surgery of diseases of the animals of the food and fiber species
To facilitate obtaining MS or PhD degrees in Veterinary Clinical Sciences or related degree
3-year combined residency and graduate studies program leading to a Certificate of Residency and Master of Science degree

Develop comprehensive, state-of-the-art expertise and clinical proficiency in medicine and surgery of food animals;
Satisfy the criteria necessary to qualify for Board Certification by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) or the American College of Veterinary Surgeons (ACVS)
Prepare for future career goals of teaching, clinical research, scientific publication, or specialized practice; and,
Attain the Master of Science degree in a specific area of research interest.

Faculty and staff

Faculty

Dr. Mike Rings
Dr. Jeff Lakritz
Dr. Andrew Niehaus

Residents

Dr. Austin Hinds (2008-2011)
Dr. Troy Brick (2008-2011)
Dr. Rebecca Pentecost (2009-2012)

Staff

Amanda Warchol
David Fredrick

Prerequisites and applications

You must meet admission requirements to The Ohio State University Graduate School without conditions - see Residency Program Handbook, CVM Graduate Program Handbook and Graduate School Handbook
Applicants must be graduates of an AVMA-Accredited or faculty-approved College or School of Veterinary Medicine with academic standing in the top 50% of the class
Applicants must have completed a one-year rotating internship or acceptable equivalent clinical experience
Residents who are foreign nationals (non-US citizens) must be in possession of the appropriate visas and work authorization as outlined in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences – see Residency Program Handbook .
In addition, foreign nationals must also meet the requirements of the university Graduate school for the Test of English as a Foreign Languages (TOEFL) or Michigan Test of English Proficiency (MTELP) – see Graduate Program Handbook.
DVM or equivalent
Significant out of hours duty, ability to lift >50 lbs and some knowledge of food animal medicine and surgery.

Employment and benefits

(see Residency Program Handbook)

Salary
Health insurance
Book/travel allowance
Personal + Professional days leave (from policy)
External consultation and employment
Licensure

Orientation

During the first few days at the commencement of the residency program, all incoming residents participate in a comprehensive orientation program to introduce them to the department, college and university, to complete necessary documentation, and to facilitate integration into our program and activities.

Advisors and mentoring

Each resident is assigned a clinical advisor at the beginning of the program. The advisor can be changed according to the individual needs and interests of the resident.
Academic advisor: The principal academic advisor is decided once the area of research is decided.
Thesis committee: Once the specific area of research is selected, an Advisory committee will be formed to provide advice in the development of a specific research project, during the project and to completion of the study. Typically, the Advisory committee serves as the Examination committee for the thesis defense. These committees must consist of at least 3 graduate faculty members.
Mentoring: Case management is carried out with the guidance and collaboration of experienced faculty who are recognized experts in their respective fields.

Clinical Service responsibilities

Description of service clinical operation – Residents are expected to attend daily rounds with students beginning at 0900 h. Residents are expected to be present when students are working with cases to ensure appropriate patient management. Residents are expected to be responsible for patients, and answer telephone calls after hours specifically dealing with hospitalized patients or emergency calls.
Clinical duty – Monday – Sunday coverage of hospitalized cases unless pre-arranged coverage by other house officer. Residents will be expected to be available for consultation on all hospitalized patients while on clinic duty. Residents are provided 8 weeks per year off clinic time for boards preparation (years 1-3 ACVIM, and 1-2 ACVS with 12 weeks year 3), Masters degree research, thesis and manuscript preparation. All off clinics time is to be pre-arranged and approved by section head and clinical/research advisor.
Expectations of development of clinical knowledge and skills – Residents are expected to read and become very familiar with large animal internal medicine and surgery; to become conversant with students, colleagues and clients on procedures, problems and alternatives such that they may become independent of their mentors in the clinic.
Faculty oversight and mentoring – Faculty will generally be consulted on all patient management for the 1^st year of their program. After that, at the discretion of the faculty, the resident will be provided increased responsibility for case management and communications with students, staff and owners regarding their cases. Faculty will provide back-up for emergency duty on all cases and for each day of the year (including holidays). Residents should be aware that specific clients will request that a faculty member be contacted in the management of their animals. Some examples include: Animals from Select Sires, Inc., Genex, several dairy farms and often camelid clients. With the exception of Select Sires and Genex, these clients will often develop a relationship with the resident and be less reliant on faculty input.
Emergency duty – Expected of the house officers. Rotation to be determined depending upon the number of house officers and schedules. House officers are encouraged to decide among themselves an equitable division of emergency on-call duty scheduling. All days (including weekends and holidays) should be covered.

Teaching responsibilities

Teaching responsibilities include clinical teaching to 3^rd and 4^th year veterinary students assigned to the section as well as participating in teaching technical skills to 3^rd year veterinary students during laboratories. Interested residents will be given the opportunity to develop lecture skills by preparing and delivering selected formal classroom lectures to professional students.

Educational opportunities

Numerous specialty seminars, conferences, and journal clubs are available for residents. One specialty seminar in either medicine or surgery is required weekly, providing the residents an opportunity to learn from others as well as improving lecture and presentation skills. A comprehensive collection of graduate level courses in medicine, surgery, and herd health provides residents with relevant course material for partial fulfillment of the Master of Science degree requirements.
The Ohio State University Center of Excellence in Food Animal Health, Production and Well Being is currently under development with one key arm to be increasing the exchange of residents from the in-house program to the Marysville practice as well as our work on large farms associated with the Ohio Department of Corrections allowing development of herd-health management skills.

Graduate program

(see Residency and Graduate Program Handbooks)

MS thesis: Original research or clinical investigation leading to scholarly publication is required. Significant research and a thesis are required of residents in a 3-year combined program leading to the MS degree. The college’s Council on Research reviews proposals and administers funds for research projects. Opportunities also are available to collaborate on extramurally funded research projects with the faculty in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, Department of Veterinary Biosciences and Veterinary Preventive Medicine or in other departments on campus. To facilitate research opportunities, residents are given time off clinics each year during which they are free from scheduled hospital duties and clinical case responsibilities to develop research and scholarly writing.

Research and scholarly activity

MS thesis (see Residency and Graduate program Handbooks)
Graduate students must fulfill the requirements for a Masters’ of Science Degree. A research project and thesis are required.
Without exception, each resident will have a “Research Advisor” and the resident will be responsible for planning, obtaining funding for, completing the agreed upon project and publishing the results in refereed journal(s). This requirement will be completed under the direct guidance of an experienced faculty clinician.
Each resident must submit at least one scholarly paper to a refereed journal prior to completion of the residency program.
Each resident must present at least one formal paper at a state or national veterinary meeting or to the equine faculty prior to completion of their program.
Residents in the graduate program are expected to prepare and submit their thesis research for publication.

Evaluations

Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences: Formal Resident Performance Evaluations are completed by December 1st and June 1st each year. Details of the nature and structure of these evaluations can be found in the Residency Handbook.
A formal resident evaluation form (as adopted by the Graduate Studies Committee) is completed, presented to the resident for discussion. Once finalized the evaluation is distributed to the resident, Department Chair, Section Head and the Graduate Studies Committee Chair as a matter of record.
Specialty College evaluations currently consist of the requirements for ACVIM or ACVS board certification. The requirements for ACVIM can be obtained online at www.ACVIM.org under “general information guide.” The requirements for ACVS can be obtained online at www.ACVS.org under “General Program Information” under the “Residents” tab.

Specialty college requirements

(See “General information guide” at www.ACVIM.org or “General Program Information” under the “Residents” tab at www.ACVS.org )

Basic ACVIM Requirements:

104 weeks of clinical experience will be supervised by faculty. Of these 104 weeks, 52 must be directly supervised by ACVIM, ACVS diplomates, 16 weeks supervision with other specialties (ACVIM-Cardiology, Oncology, Ophthalmology, ACVR, ACVA, ACVP, ACVCP
1 week (40 hours minimum) in radiology and anatomic or clinical pathology
Remainder of training is to include scholarly activity (research for thesis, writing thesis, manuscripts) and clinical duty which is not necessarily directly supervised.

Basic ACVS Requirements:

156 weeks (3 years) of supervised training, postgraduate education and clinical experience in the science and practice of veterinary surgery under the supervision of an ACVS diplomate.
During the 3 year residency, 80 hours (2 weeks) must be spent in each of the following supporting disciplines: internal medicine, radiology, anesthesiology, and pathology. These 80 hours must be supervised by a diplomate of their respective specialty college.
At least one scientific publication is required to be eligible to take the board examination. Scientific publication must be accepted for publication by an “approved” journal prior to the time of applying to take the board examination. This publication must also be approved by the examination committee prior to taking the board examination.

Board certification

We offer a comprehensive didactic and clinical training program that we believe provides excellent preparation for successful completion of the board certifying examinations.
It is important that our residents realize that although eventual board certification is clearly anticipated, our primary goal of our training program is to encourage and assist our residents in becoming highly skilled and expert internal medicine and surgery clinicians

Expectations

What do we expect of the resident – We expect the resident to develop skills that provide him/her to be able to manage cases independent of the faculty and maintain the long standing tradition of the OSU College of Veterinary Medicine, Farm Animal Medicine and Surgery rotations. We expect the candidate to seek input on cases when needed to ensure optimal case management.
What can the resident expect of their mentors – The resident can be assured that faculty will be available for in house assistance with cases during their 3 year program. Resident will be provided ample opportunity to attend necessary coursework required for matriculation to the MS degree. Faculty in section will provide guidance and instruction in areas of specific relevance to Veterinary clinical medicine, information for board certification exams and for research as it applies to their area of expertise. Faculty will offer guidance as to appropriate faculty or staff whose expertise overlaps with the areas of interest of the residents research focus.

Appendices

Service draft schedule (week, month or as appropriate – To be determined at the time of hire)

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