Internships

• During the first two weeks of the internship programs, all incoming interns participate in a comprehensive orientation to introduce them to the department, college and university, to complete necessary documentation and requirements and to facilitate integration into our program and activities. 
• Following the general orientation program, interns will meet with faculty from their respective service to discuss expectations, participate in hands-on training labs, clinical shadowing and be gradually introduced to the clinical workflow of their respective service.

• Interns are classified as faculty for benefit purposes. 
  Learn more about the comprehensive benefits offered by The Ohio State University 
• Interns are provided 10 personal days by the department to utilize during their internship. 
• Interns are provided 5 professional days by the Department throughout the duration of their internship to attend conferences, participate in educational experiences or interview for post-internship positions. 
• Interns accrue sick time based on their position classification which is 4.6 hours biweekly. 
   

While formal teaching is not required, all interns are expected to participate in clinical teaching including case discussions with veterinary students.  
 

• Numerous seminars, conferences and journal clubs are available to interns. 
• Interns are provided with $500 in continuing education funds during their internship program to attend and/or present at their specialty college annual conferences. 
• External (off-site) rotations are not permitted.

• Internship Director: The Internship Program Director is responsible for approving leave, reviewing performance reviews and addressing significant problems with intern performance.
• Mentor and Co-Mentors: Interns will be assigned a faculty mentor from the internship committee within their service and in specific circumstances, a co-mentor. The mentor is responsible for advising the intern regarding career plans, assisting in finding research opportunities if desired by the intern or other professional development activities. The mentor will also be responsible for contributing to the intern’s performance evaluations and providing feedback.
   

• Online evaluations are required to be completed by each service.
• Formal performance review meetings are held at 1, 4 and 8 months of the program.
• Interns will also receive online evaluations from students assessing their clinical teaching.

To provide mentorship in an educational environment, and to gain experience and knowledge necessary to be successful in a residency position or in a progressive equine private practice. All interns will receive direct and indirect supervision based upon their experience and specialties. Our interns are here to be trained to become highly skilled equine veterinarians; this is our number one responsibility and guiding philosophy for the internship. Our interns go on to surgery and medicine residency or enter high-end private practices with multiple competitive job offers.

Clinical Service Responsibilities

Primary case care under the direct supervision of senior clinical faculty and residents. The intern will rotate on equine internal medicine, equine emergency and critical care, equine orthopedic surgery, and equine soft tissue surgery.  It is the philosophy of faculty at Ohio State is that interns be given primary care responsibilities. The intern rotating in the hospital will be assigned emergency duty depending on the level of their level of performance.

The intern will receive hands-on training and experience in equine field surgeries, portable digital radiography & ultrasound, endoscopy (both 1 & 3 meter), power float, and lameness locator. The intern will also be practicing joint injections, CFS taps, and nerve blocks on day one. Practicing these skills and other advanced skills under supervision for an entire year has allowed our intern graduates to become very successful equine practitioners. The ambulatory emergency duty will be directly supervised for the first 3-4 months of the internship by senior faculty until the intern is confident and capable of handling primary calls with the senior faculty member as backup.

Elective Opportunities

Interns have the opportunity to rotate through other specialties or ancillary services offered within our veterinary medical center including Farm Animal Medicine and Surgery, Theriogenology, Anesthesiology, Ophthalmology and Radiology.

Educational Opportunities

The interns are welcome and encouraged to participate in the medicine/ECC/ambulatory and surgery journal club. Interns could be asked to assist faculty in the teaching of second and third-year veterinary student laboratories. Interns are required to audit the resident medicine and surgery resident graduate courses and seminars. The intent of these courses is to prepare residents for specialty board exams, e.g. internal medicine, surgery, dentistry, and theriogenology, an overarching purpose is to provide a comprehensive framework on how to successfully critique cutting-edge published literature for any high-level equine practitioner regardless of specialty interest.

Contact Information

Jonathan Yardley, DVM
Yardley.8@osu.edu  
 

The internship program is designed to provide successful candidates with a broad learning experience in various areas of farm animal medicine and surgery. The internship is ideal for preparing individuals for residency training programs, but graduates seeking advanced training and experience prior to beginning practice will also benefit. Interns will have the opportunity to work with four faculty specializing in either large animal medicine or large animal surgery, as well as two residents. We expect interns to demonstrate enthusiasm for learning, collegiality, active participation, and meticulous attention to patient care. In addition to clinical duties, interns may engage in seminars, rounds, and journal clubs to enhance their learning experience, however priority should remain with their clinical responsibility.  A specific Farm Animal Medicine and Surgery Intern continuing education program is in place to provide interns with learning opportunities in topics such as client communication, student teaching, and management of commonly seen medical and surgery cases. 

Clinical Service Responsibilities

Interns share clinical responsibilities with the residents (collectively known as ‘house officers’).  In most instances, house officers are expected to be the primary clinical veterinarians on the cases presented to the hospital for farm animals.  However, during the initial two months, interns will receive comprehensive faculty supervision for all cases. Subsequently, the level of supervision during both regular office hours and after-hours will gradually decrease, contingent upon the comfort level of both the intern and the faculty. Interns are in direct supervision of the senior students assigned to rotations.  Their clinical responsibilities include ensuring that patient care is maintained at all times, clients are provided adequate communication on their patients, and that medical records are accurate and completed in a timely manner all under the guidance of faculty mentorship.  

Interns are expected to arrive at the Hospital for Farm Animals no later than 8 am, unless alternate arrangements have been made, to supervise students as they examine and treat inpatients, ensuring adequate patient care. Interns with assigned in-patient cases must maintain patient care standards at all times, or they must ensure continuity of care (i.e. appropriate transfer of patient responsibilities) to provide necessary oversight or care for their patients. 

Elective Opportunities

While the OSU Farm Animal Internship is not structured as a rotating program, interns who express interest may have the chance to explore additional rotations (ex. Equine or ancillary services). As residents have obligations to fulfill alternate rotations or dedicate time to research or scholarly activities, priority for elective opportunities will be granted to residents over interns.  

Contact Information

Joe Lozier, DVM, MS, DACVS – Large Animal
Lozier.29@osu.edu 

The internship program is designed to provide successful candidates with a broad, and intensive learning experience in various areas of small animal medicine and surgery. The program is designed to prepare individuals for residency training programs, and graduates seeking advanced training and experience prior to beginning practice. Interns should expect to advance their technical skills, clinical decision-making, and clinical teaching abilities. Our caseload is one of the largest academic caseloads in the country and is well suited for advanced clinical training.

Clinical Service Responsibilities

Primary duties during the program include diagnosis, treatment and care of patients; timely communication to client and referring veterinarian; instruction and supervision of senior veterinary students; and timely and thorough maintenance of patient medical records. Case management will be under the guidance of the senior members of the clinical service team.

Interns will rotate through emergency (approximately 45% of the time), critical care medicine, internal medicine, soft tissue surgery, anesthesia and neurology. Interns are expected to have primary case responsibility on emergency, critical care, internal medicine and community practice rotations as well as other rotations at the discretion of the service head.

All interns will participate in emergency receiving with residents and faculty on-call or on-call support. This includes daytime, evening and overnight emergency rotations (also includes weekend and holidays) with primary emergency case receiving. Interns on overnight emergency duty do not have clinical duties the following day.

Elective Opportunities

Interns will have 8-10 weeks of total elective time. Elective rotations are available in the following specialties cardiology, clinical pathology, community practice, dermatology, medical oncology, ophthalmology, orthopedic surgery, surgical oncology and radiology. There is a maximum of 6 weeks in one elective. Research can also be taken as an elective for a maximum of 2 weeks with approval from the mentor and internship director.

Educational Opportunities

• Required weekly intern didactics covering pathophysiology and management of common medical problems
• Required monthly communication rounds
• Strongly encouraged to attend resident level journal clubs in the intern’s area of interest when schedule allows

Contact Information

Page Yaxley, DVM, DACVECC
Yaxley.1@osu.edu