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The Ohio State University

College of Veterinary Medicine

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Small Animal Emergency & Critical Care

Objectives | Faculty & Staff | Prerequisites & Application | Employment & Benefits | Orientation | Advisors & Mentoring | Clinical Service Responsibilities |Teaching Responsibilities | Educational Opportunities | Graduate Program | Research & Scholarly Activity | Evaluations | Specialty college requirements | Board certification| Expectations | Appendices

Objectives

  • Develop comprehensive, state-of-the-art expertise and clinical proficiency in small animal emergency/critical care medicine;
  • Satisfy the criteria necessary to qualify for Board Certification, and to prepare the resident for successful completion of the American College of Emergency/Critical Care Certification Examination;
  • 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 endeavor.

Faculty and staff

Faculty:

Current Residents:

Small Animal Emergency & Critical Care staff

  • Courtney Beiter, RVT, VTS (Anesthesia)
  • Kiffy Brickey, RVT
  • Alicia Byrd, RVT
  • Renee Cahill, RVT
  • Stacey Cooper, RVT, VTS (E/CC)
  • Shelly Creager, RVT
  • Amber Criswell, RVT
  • Patricia DeGroot, RVT
  • Jennifer Edwards, RVT, VTS (E/CC)
  • Jessica Fussnecker, RVT
  • Billie Hamilton, RVT
  • Dawn Miklos, RVT
  • Liza Pawlak, RVT
  • Jim Quang, RVT
  • Tom Skidmore, RVT
  • Marjorie Turpening, RVT

Prerequisites and applications

  • You must meet admission requirements to The Ohio State University Graduate School without conditions as outlined in the Graduate Program Handbook of the College of Veterinary Medicine and the Graduate School Handbook at The Ohio State University.
  • 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 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 School Handbook.

Employment and benefits

Residency Program Handbook

  • Salary
  • Health insurance
  • Book/travel allowance
  • Personal + Professional days leave
  • External consultation and employment
  • Licensure

Orientation

  • During the first week at the commencement of the residency program, all incoming residents participate in a comprehensive orientation program (see Residency Program handbook) to introduce them to the department, college and university, to complete necessary documentation, and to facilitate integration into our program and activities.  During this period time to shadow with faculty on the E/CC service will also be afforded to allow the resident to become accustomed to the day-to-day functioning and familiar with the policies and procedures of the service.

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

  • The program is designed to ensure development of clinical competence in a broad range of specialties.  Rotations will be organized to fulfill the requirements of both direct and indirect supervision, and the core and elective specialty rotations as set out by the current ACVECC training guidelines and will be take place over the 3-year program.
  • Residents provide backup support for the hospital interns who participate in the operation of 24-hour emergency service 7 days a week.
  • Clinical rotations facilitate development of clinical proficiency, clinical skills, and knowledge through exposure to a wide variety of cases at all levels of complexity. This goal is facilitated by location of the teaching hospital in a large metropolitan area that provides a rich variety of case material as well as a referral base that includes Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Michigan.
  • Case management is carried out with the guidance and collaboration of experienced faculty who are recognized experts in their respective fields. State-of-the-art equipment and facilities are available to develop technical expertise in diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.
  • According to ACVECC guidelines, clinical service should include the following:
    • Immersion Requirements: 129 weeks broken down into Emergency/Critical Care Immersion with ACVECC Supervision (72 weeks); Immersion in Specialty Practice with Specialty Supervision (22 weeks); and, Independent Study or Practice (35 weeks).
    • Experience Requirements: observation and participation in specific clinical problems, procedures or cases as determined and listed by the Residency Training Committee of ACVECC. It is up to the Resident, with the support of their Mentor to ensure that all Experience requirements are met and logged within the required term of the Residency.
    • Skills Requirements: a list of skills critical to the practice of emergency and critical care as determined by the ACVECC. It is up to the Resident with the support of their Mentor to ensure that all Skills requirements are met and logged within the required term of the Residency.
    • Training Benchmarks: tasks assigned during the year by the Residency Training Committee of ACVECC designed to reinforce and verify knowledge and/or skill of a Resident. ALL assigned Training Benchmarks must be completed, submitted, evaluated, and recorded by the Credentials Committee for the Resident to complete their requirements.

Teaching responsibilities

  • Teaching responsibilities include clinical teaching of senior and junior veterinary students assigned to the E/CC service.
  • Residents also participate in teaching small animal technical skills to junior veterinary students during laboratories.
  • According to ACVECC guidelines:

All residents must document both 6 hours of didactic lecture and 6 hours of laboratory teaching on emergency and/or critical care topics to veterinary students, animal health technologists, faculty or veterinary audiences during their course of training. This teaching requirement CANNNOT be met in an informal setting such as Problem-Based Learning courses, student rounds, cage rounds, or lectures to lay audiences.

Educational opportunities

  • Numerous specialty seminars, conferences, and journal clubs are available to residents.
  • The Emergency/Critical Care service holds two weekly sessions devoted specifically to E/CC book and journal clubs as well as specialty board preparation.  Both small animal and equine critical care faculty and residents attend these sessions.
  • A required weekly clinicopathologic conference provides an opportunity for residents to enrich their clinical problem-solving skills.
  • A comprehensive collection of graduate level courses in small animal medicine provides residents with relevant course material for partial fulfillment of the MSc degree requirements.
  • Residents will be expected to attend the International Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Symposium (IVECCS) in their 1st and 3rd year of residency. He or she will be expected to not attend in their 2nd year to provide service coverage during the conference. There will also be opportunity to attend the human Critical Care Medicine conference (CCM).

Graduate program (see Residency Program and CVM Graduate Program Handbook)

  • The residency requires concurrent enrollment in the Master of Science program, and all residents are expected to maintain their coursework without compromising clinical responsibilities. Senior faculty and other residents on the rotation will maintain flexibility in scheduling so as to accommodate the required coursework.
  • Original research or clinical investigation leading to scholarly publication is required. Significant research and a thesis are required of residents in the 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 faculty in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, Department of Veterinary Biosciences, or in other departments on campus including the College of Medicine.
  • To facilitate research opportunities, residents are given personal enrichment quarters during which they are free from scheduled ward duties and clinical case responsibilities. Enrichment time is provided to allow pursuit of course work, independent study, research, thesis writing, publication, or other elective endeavors. The maximum time available for these enrichment activities is 9 months for residents in the 3-year combined residency and graduate studies program.

Research and scholarly activity

  • Publication requirement: 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 small animal 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 Program 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.
  • ACVECC requires that an Annual Progress Report is submitted for each resident including a completed AVECC Annual Report form signed by the Resident and the Mentor; and, a completed Progress Report documenting Training Weeks and other requirements completed by the resident.

Specialty college requirements

Board certification

  • We offer a comprehensive didactic and clinical training program that we believe provides excellent preparation for successful completion of the ACVECC 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 emergency and critical care clinicians.

Expectations

  • Given the nature of Emergency and Critical Care medicine, and the need to provide 24/7 emergency service, residents will be expected to participate when scheduled in weekend and overnight duty for primary receiving, assisting with ventilation patients or providing back-up for emergency interns.
  • Emergency/critical care places a very strong emphasis on teaching students and interns rotating through the service.  Residents are expected to play an active roll in student and intern education through clinical case discussion, leading rounds discussions, and participation in techniques laboratories. 

Appendices

Outline of goals and expectations every year, draft biweekly schedule

Year 1 - 8 weeks of electives, 6 weeks off clinics, 38 weeks E/CC immersion.  Time on E/CC emersion will be spent with 50% Mon-Fri day shift (primary ICU), 25% Mon-Fri evenings and 25% Sat-Wed day/evening (primary emergency).  In the first year the resident will also be expected to develop a Master’s project and obtaining funding if required.  The resident should also work on a smaller project (case report, retrospective, etc.) for journal submission to fulfill ACVECC requirement for publication.

Year 2 - 8 weeks of electives, 8 weeks off clinics, 36 weeks E/CC immersion.  Time on E/CC will be split as above.  Resident should complete execution and data acquisition for Master’s project during the second year.

Year 3 - 6 weeks of electives, 10 weeks off clinics, 36 weeks E/CC immersion.  Time on E/CC will be split as above.  Resident will write and defend Master’s thesis in fulfillment of residency requirement.  Resident will also submit credentials to qualify to take boards after completion of the residency.