UF’s future veterinarians will sharpen skills in emergency medicine through new clerkship in Tampa

University of Florida veterinary students who hope to sharpen their skills at handling pet care emergencies will soon be doing just that 24-7 in a new program that will send them to Tampa for an intense private practice experience.

Starting in May, the first students to sign up for the new emergency medicine clerkship will begin two weeks of mostly overnight shifts and interactive learning with experienced emergency and critical care experts. The clinical rotation is being offered by the UF College of Veterinary Medicine and Florida Veterinary Specialists and Cancer Treatment Center, a 24-hour private practice and critical care center located in Tampa. Neil Shaw, D.V.M., who founded FVS and now serves as its medical director, is a UF veterinary college graduate.

“Our agreement with FVS is a landmark for the UF veterinary college,” said college Dean Joseph DiPietro, D.V.M., who announced the launching of the new program during the May 8 meeting of the Hillsborough County Veterinary Medical Association in Tampa. “While this idea has been talked about for years, this is the first time our college has officially collaborated with an established private practice to provide an ongoing rotation for our students, one which will supplement their knowledge in emergency and critical care in a way that can only be possible in a major metropolitan environment.” DiPietro said FVS will provide “a top-quality learning environment” and that veterinary students have for years requested more exposure to animal patients needing emergency care.

“The problem is, Gainesville is only so big, and on top of that, our Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital is primarily a tertiary referral facility,” DiPietro said. “In a big city, the volume of emergency cases is bound to be significantly larger than in Gainesville and that will enhance the students’ experience over what they could see here at UF.”

Two students at a time will be supervised by a full-time staff of veterinary specialists at FVS. The students will be exposed to all aspects of emergency and critical care for pets, which include not just dogs and cats these days, but also increasingly popular exotic animals, such as rabbits and ferrets.

People skills will be emphasized in the students’ learning experience as much as attention to specific veterinary medical details, said Sonja Olson, D.V.M., the FVS veterinarian and UF-affiliated faculty member who will be the students’ primary supervisor.

“When people come to us in the middle of the night with their beloved pet who has been hit by a car, it’s like we’re taking care of their child. It’s important that the students learn to deal with the emotions of clients as well as how to better understand the potential care and treatment of the animal at that point,” said Olson, who taught a similar rotation to veterinary students at Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine when she worked at a 24-hour private emergency facility in North Virginia.

“In my mind, we’re basically practicing pediatrics,” Olson said, adding that veterinarians handling a medical emergency need to be able to communicate quickly with clients about what’s going on with their pet, and in terms that makes sense.

“The first thing is to be able to stabilize that family emotionally, then work toward the common goal — what can we do and how can we help the pet,” she said.

Students are expected to gain confidence in the areas of leadership, responsibility and authority by working alongside clinicians who are experienced in both emergency medicine and critical care, two related but separate disciplines.

“Emergencies are urgent situations that can consist of everything from dogs hit by a car or going into congestive heart failure to a cat suffering a severe allergy attack at 3 a.m. and not allowing the owners to sleep,” Olsen said. “Critical care is more likely to involve an animal that’s already been seen by the emergency service but has been stabilized and now just needs to be managed. This might be an animal with a severe bleeding disorder, on many medications, in our intensive care unit and receiving oxygen therapy. With a critical care case, we’re digging in; we’re in it for the long haul.”

Shaw added that Florida Veterinary Services has worked closely with UF’s College of Veterinary Medicine for many years to help improve the training and educational experience provided to its students.

“This new program represents one of our most ambitious joint undertakings, and significantly expands upon our partnership efforts and mutual commitment to the profession as well as to pet owners,” Shaw said.