UF CVM Goals
Goals of UF College of Veterinary Medicine
Basic goals of the college are:
1. To educate veterinarians trained for the specific needs of Florida. Elective educational areas of concentration might include: comparative medicine, food animal medicine, epidemiology and public health, laboratory animal medicine, aquatic medicine, environmental medicine, equine medicine, urban medicine, and general veterinary practice.
2. To perform research on the subtropical animal diseases that must be controlled in order to provide wholesome food for our nation and developing countries.
3. To provide a biomedical investigational resource of animal disease models with human counterparts. This referral center will include both metabolic and infectious diseases.
4. To provide a Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital necessary for the training of interns, residents, and graduate students, and for continuing education of practitioners.
5. To provide an active referral and extension program designed for the veterinary medical profession, state and federal agricultural and public health agencies, and consumers of food and health services.
Means to the Goals
The design of the college curriculum identifies the expanding horizons of the ever increasing domain of veterinary medicine. Although the first 4 semesters relate primarily to the basic medical sciences, students are introduced to radiology and clinical problems during the first year. The curriculum includes experience in each of the clinical areas (clerkships) and provides a sound foundation in the basic sciences. Elective clerkships permit the student to explore those aspects of clinical veterinary medicine which are most relevant to the individual's interests and needs.
Three phases of study within the veterinary medical curriculum are conceptually based on the study of the normal animal (Phase I), the study of disease processes and therapy (Phase II), and clinical applications (Phase III). Phase I and II are organized on an organ system basis; each system is considered in turn, an approach that lends itself to the concept of comparative medicine. Phase I occupies the first year of the curriculum and Phase II the second year, after which time the student will enter the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital and embark upon rotations through clinical clerkships. During Phase III of the professional curriculum, students will have 2 semesters of focused activity to perform additional didactic course work in a specific area of concentration: Small Animal Medicine and Surgery, Equine Medicine and Surgery, Production Animal Medicine, or Mixed (General) Veterinary Medicine and Surgery. A team approach to instruction will be accomplished to the fullest appropriate extent.
Upon recommendation to the Dean by the faculty, the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) Degree is awarded to those candidates who have satisfactorily completed the requirements of the professional curriculum.