The Small Animal Internal Medicine Residency Program at the University of Florida has been in existence since 1978. Emphasis is placed on clinical medicine, teaching, and clinical research in preparation for boards. The Small Animal Medicine referral service operates on a 2 team system with one faculty member and one resident on each team. Teams see cases other weekday with non-receiving days reserved for workup and teaching. We have a separate outpatient service and most patients seen by the small animal medicine team are therefore referrals with a small number of emergencies.
Residents take primary responsibility for inpatients and outpatients within the team concept.
An external rotation at another university is encouraged to broaden resident experience. Elective rotations in several specialty services including radiology, clinical pathology, ophthalmology, dermatology are optional and can be selected to suit individual resident needs and interests. The general outline of the rotation schedule is shown below in Table 1. Teaching skills are developed in the clinic and in lectures prepared for fellow residents, faculty members, and veterinary students. In addition, residents may be involved in the presentation of clinical problem conferences to freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior veterinary students doting their professional education.