Pre-Veterinary Internship

490 Pre-Vet Internship (1), or (2) (Prerequisite: Permission of department).
Clinical experience in veterinary medicine under the supervision of a practicing veterinarian. A maximum of 3 semester hours may be earned. Earned hours do not fulfill the requirements for Biology electives for a major, minor or collateral.

The purpose of the Pre-Veterinary Internship includes the following:
1) This course will be for pre-vet students seeking volunteer work experience in the veterinary profession.
2) Students participating in this program will gain experience in regional veterinary facilities, including non-profit spay and neuter clinics (e.g. Spay Neuter Intervention of the Pee Dee or SNIP), working closely with veterinary professionals. This will provide valuable experience for students desiring to pursue veterinary medicine as a career. Furthermore, veterinary programs require work experience on applications, and this internship would assist in accountability for such experience.

Internship Teaching Methods:
We will follow some of the same guidelines already in place for normal Biology Internship (Biol 498). Biology Internships require a total of two supervisors. In this case, the two supervisors will be the veterinary supervisor involved and the Pre-Vet Coordinator (Dr. Tamatha Barbeau).

Textbook and / or Materials:
No textbook or materials are required for this course. However, all students enrolling in the internship are required to attend an orientation session with the Pre-Vet Coordinator. Additional orientation and training will be provided on-site at the veterinary facilities involved.

Course Content:
The purpose of this course is to provide valuable experience for students desiring to pursue a career in the veterinary field. Individual students are assigned to various veterinary clinics in the Pee Dee region, where they will work at least 3 hours per week. Students will work closely with veterinary professionals and take an active role in providing care and support for domestic pets.

As part of their academic requirements, participants are required to keep a weekly journal recording activities performed and skill acquired. Weekly journals should be produced as a computerized Word document, and emailed to Dr. Barbeau by midnight Sunday of each week of the internship. They will also have to submit a final report describing the benefits of the experience. Lastly, students participating in the Internship are required to maintain professional conduct with clinic staff and clients at all times. Unprofessional conduct will be considered a violation of the Honor Code for students at Francis Marion University, and can result in failure of the course.

Course Syllabus:
Biol 490: Pre-Veterinary Program Internship Syllabus,
Francis Marion University

The guidelines in this syllabus are for those registered to earn 1 credit for Biol 490: Pre-Veterinary Program Internship. A credit requires a minimum of 30 hrs on site per semester. This usually turns out to be one afternoon per week for 10-12 weeks. A maximum of 2 credit hours may be applied to graduation and do not count as a Biology elective.

You are expected to act professionally and represent yourselves, your department, and your university with pride and dignity. Be on time, dress appropriately, and treat people and animals with respect. This is a professional opportunity rather than an academic one. You are expected to comply with all guidelines and regulations provided by your particular host site.

Definition of Unprofessional Behavior:
Unprofessional or disruptive behavior is defined as any behavior that is contentious, threatening, insulting, or potentially litigious or otherwise interferes with an individual's or group's professional responsibilities, self-respect, or ability to collaborate productively with others. It is behavior that creates an unsafe, intimidating, hostile, destructive or offensive work, academic or clinical environment. Examples of unprofessional or disruptive behavior include but are not limited to the following:
• Inappropriate conduct such as shouting, or use of vulgar, profane or abusive or threatening language.
• Intimidating behavior.
• Refusal to cooperate with others.
• Conduct that constitutes sexual harassment.
• Refusal to adhere to stated clinic/staff policies.
• Inappropriate comments written in official documents that impugn staff or faculty.

Grading:
This internship is graded on a normal letter grade scale. An A in the course is dependent of satisfactory completion of all the requirements listed in the next section. The percentage of the grade for each required assignment is shown above.

Course Requirements:
1) You must speak with the Pre-Vet Coordinator to be enrolled in Biol 490, and enroll before the end of the drop/add period for the semester. Then, you must attend the Biol 490 (Pre-Vet Internship) orientation session by the end of the first week of the semester. For Fall 2017 interns, the Orientation Session is Friday Aug 25th at 12pm in MSB 301.

2) You must keep a weekly journal of your Internship activities at your location. Remember that HIPAA regulations prohibit you providing me with any names or personal details of clinic staff. I recommend keeping this journal in a traditional three-ring binder.

3) You must email your weekly journal (as Word or PDF document) to the Pre-Vet Coordinator (E-mail) no later than Sunday at midnight of each week of your internship.

4) At the end of each semester, you need to write a final report describing the value of your internship experience (how it has affected your goals and career choices). This should be double-spaced and 1 - 2 page Word document, which meets the following requirements:
• All reports must use appropriate sentence structure, grammar, organization, punctuation and spelling.
• All reports must demonstrate evidence of logical development of thought, clarity, and organization.
• All reports must be submitted by email (attachment) unless instructed otherwise.
Your final report must be emailed to the Pre-Vet Coordinator (E-mail) no later than midnight of Reading Day.

Evaluation Methods:

Assignment	Percent of Final Grade
Attend Orientation Session	10%
Weekly Journal	20%
Final Report	50%
Completed Student Intern Evaluation Form	10%
Completed Student Intern Questionnaire	10%

3) Provide your location supervisor with a copy of the Biol 490 Student Intern Evaluation form and a standard envelope. They can place the complete form in the sealed envelope and return it to you. Please put this in the front of your journal. This should be returned to me at the address listed below by Reading Day.

4) On the Pre-Vet website you will also find a Student Intern End-of-the-Year Questionnaire. Please fill this out and return it to me by Reading Day.

Should you or your site manager need to contact me:
Tamatha Barbeau, Ph.D Associate
Professor of Biology Coordinator of the Pre-Veterinary Program
Francis Marion University P.O. Box 100547, Florence, SC 29502
Office: 843-661-4651
Fax: 843-661-4660
E-mail
Web: people.fmarion.edu/tbarbeau

Written by Tamatha Barbeau, 2004. This web site is for educational purposes; if you own an image on this site and would like it removed or used with permission, or if you have comments, corrections, or suggestions, please contact me.