Blueprint for a Solid Foundation
Article by: Jessi Behrendsen
Originally Published
When Ondraya Romero, DVM ’26, arrived at The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine four years ago, she knew she was taking a leap of faith. As a member of the Class of 2026, Romero joined the first cohort to complete Ohio State’s newly redesigned Doctor of Veterinary Medicine curriculum—a comprehensive transformation in how future veterinarians are taught.
“There was definitely a trust-the-process aspect to it,” said Romero, who graduated this spring and will pursue a residency in anatomic pathology. “But the college was very transparent about why they were making the changes. They showed us the educational research behind it and explained how it would help us become more day-one-ready veterinarians.”
For Romero and her classmates, veterinary school would look different from what it had for generations of students before them. Rather than learning anatomy, physiology and pathology as separate subjects, they would move through an integrated curriculum designed around clinical reasoning, hands-on experience
and professional competencies.
They would begin developing clinical skills in their first year, practice difficult client conversations long before entering clinics and revisit concepts repeatedly through a spiral learning model designed to reinforce knowledge over time.
Four years later, as the inaugural class graduates and enters the profession, faculty and students alike are beginning to see the results of a curriculum built around a central idea: helping students think like veterinarians from day one.
The redesign was years in the making.
“We wanted our students to be as prepared as possible to pursue their veterinary careers, whether that involved private practice, regulatory medicine or advanced training,” said Jeanette O’Quin, DVM ’93, MPH ’11, DACVPM, DABVP, professor-clinical in the Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine and a member of the curriculum redesign team.
The curriculum emerged from a comprehensive review of the college’s educational program. Faculty surveyed veterinarians across public and private sectors, reviewed feedback from recent graduates and their employers and conducted focus groups with students, faculty and staff. The findings pointed toward a need for greater integration, more hands-on learning and a stronger emphasis on the skills required in contemporary veterinary medicine.
“We shared our findings with the faculty and collectively decided it was time for a complete redesign of the curriculum,” O’Quin said.
Building a Better Foundation
The result was a competency-based curriculum designed around outcomes rather than individual courses.
The first year focuses on healthy animals, where students learn anatomy, physiology, immunology and other foundational sciences through an integrated lens. Instead of studying body systems in separate courses, students learn how healthy systems function together.
The second year shifts to diseases and diagnosis, exploring what happens when those systems fail.
The third year focuses on treatments and solutions, allowing students to apply what they have learned to clinical decision-making and patient care.
“The curricular content is meant to spiral up, revisiting and building on previous topics,” said Alison Gardner, DVM, MS ’15 DACVS, DACVECC,
associate dean for education and student success. “Students learn healthy functions first, then disease and then treatment. Each time they revisit a concept, they’re building on what they learned before.”
Gardner believes that progression helps students develop stronger clinical reasoning skills.
“At the end of the first year, students understand enough physiology that they can begin asking what would happen if a system stopped functioning properly,” Gardner said. “That knowledge of normal allows them to make educated predictions about what is abnormal.”
The approach represents a significant shift from traditional models that often emphasize memorization.
“It’s really about understanding and reasoning through problems,” Gardner said. “That’s what veterinarians do every day.”
Romero said the model became increasingly valuable as she progressed through the program.
“The repetition made a lot of sense,” she said. “We would learn something in one context, then revisit it in another context the next year and then again later. By the time we were studying for our licensing exam and preparing for clinics, it felt much more coherent because it wasn’t the first time we had seen the material.”
“The curricular content is meant to spiral up,
revisiting and building on previous topics.”
-Dr. Alison Gardner
Earlier Exposure to Clinical Practice
One of the most visible changes in the curriculum is the emphasis on hands-on learning from the very beginning.
Students now begin developing practical skills during their first weeks on campus through the Clinical and Professional Skills curriculum. They learn procedures, refine technical skills and gain confidence long before entering clinical rotations.
Rustin Moore, DVM ’89, PhD ’93, DACVS, Rita Jean Wolfe Endowed Dean of Ohio State’s College of Veterinary Medicine, said the shift was intentional.
“In the past, students didn’t spend much time developing those skills until well into the third year,” Moore said. “Now they start learning and practicing those skills from the beginning.” That early exposure allows students to enter clinical rotations with a stronger foundation and more confidence. “When they get into clinics, they aren’t focused on learning how to perform a skill,” Moore said. “They’re focused on putting everything together and thinking like a doctor.”
The curriculum also introduces students to clinical environments earlier through experiences in the Frank Stanton Veterinary Spectrum of Care Clinic.
There, students gain firsthand experience working alongside veterinary healthcare teams while learning an increasingly important concept in modern veterinary medicine: meeting clients where they are. Spectrum of care recognizes that every patient, client and situation is different. Financial limitations, personal circumstances and client goals all influence treatment decisions.
“It’s preparing students for the realities of practice,” O’Quin said. “Veterinary medicine isn’t always about finding the ideal solution. Sometimes it’s about finding the best solution for a particular client and patient.”
Beyond Medicine
While scientific knowledge remains central to veterinary education, faculty recognized that veterinarians need more than medical expertise in today’s world.
They also need strong communication skills.
Throughout the curriculum, students participate in communication and collaboration courses that use trained actors to simulate real-world client
interactions. Students practice conversations involving euthanasia, financial limitations, medical errors and other emotionally charged situations they are likely to encounter throughout their careers.
For many students, those lessons proved just as valuable as the scientific curriculum.
“You can know all the medicine and have all the initials behind your name,” Shadow Montag, DVM ’26, another member of the 2026 spring graduating class, said. “But at the end of the day, people remember how you treated them.”
Among Montag’s favorite experiences was a course where students worked through realistic patient cases, developed differential diagnoses and practiced gathering information from clients. “It was probably the closest thing to real-life practice before clinics,” he said.
The scenarios challenged students to navigate difficult conversations while balancing empathy, professionalism, and client expectations. “There’s a huge human component to veterinary medicine,” said Montag. “Those classes gave us tools to handle situations that you’re going to face throughout your career.”
Students also explore ethics, law, business management and professional identity development— topics that have become increasingly important as veterinary careers continue to evolve.
“You can know all the medicine and have all the initials behind your name. But at the end of the day, people remember how you treated them.”
— Dr. Shadow Montag
Measuring Success
For Gardner, one of the most exciting aspects of the redesigned curriculum is the ability to assess outcomes more effectively. Competency-based
education establishes clear benchmarks for student development while providing opportunities to continually improve the program.
“It gives students clearer expectations and gives us measurable outcomes,” Gardner said. “We can make data-informed decisions about how we’re supporting students and how we’re preparing them for their careers.”
The curriculum itself will continue to evolve as faculty gather feedback and assess results. Gardner sees that process as essential.
“We’ve built a strong foundation,” she said. “Now it’s about continuing to refine it and finding even more opportunities to integrate learning across the curriculum.”
Looking Forward
For O’Quin, the ultimate goal has never been to create graduates who know everything. Instead, she hopes the curriculum produces veterinarians who know how to think.
“We can’t expect new graduates to be fully confident on day one,” she said. “That confidence comes with experience. What we want is for them to be competent, to have strong communication, problem-solving and critical-thinking skills and to be able to adapt and grow throughout their careers.”
Looking back, Romero believes the experience reflected the profession she is entering.
“Veterinary medicine is always changing,” she said. “Science changes. The way we learn changes. I think what Ohio State showed us is that education can evolve, too.”
For the Class of 2026, that evolution wasn’t something they watched from the sidelines. They helped bring it to life.
