Junior practicum!

This week, the vet school opened up the newly updated descriptions of the clinical rotations we will take next year as part of our junior practicum.

(Review for those who haven't been paying attention: Junior year is divided into half classes and half clinics. You take a different clinical rotation every week, in the morning. Classes are held every afternoon. We get to start "tracking" which means you decide on small animal, large animal, or mixed ["general"] and you can then focus your elective rotations and lecture courses on the species of your choice.)

We have a series of "core" rotations that everyone takes, regardless of your selected track. They are:

1. Anesthesia 1 (both semesters)
2. Anesthesia 2 (both semesters)
3. Client Communications (both semesters)
4. Clin Path (fall only)
5. Parasitology (both semesters)
6. Emerging and Exotic Animal Diseases (both semesters)
7. Independent Study (both semesters)
8. Large Animal Procedures (fall only)
9. Radiology (both semesters)
10. Small Animal Procedures (fall only)
11. Surgical Principles (fall only)
12. Task Booklet (a list of clinical tasks that a mentor has to check off for you) (fall only)

In addition to the core rotations, we get to fill out the rest of our 15 or 16 weeks a semester with elective rotations. There is a huge variety, but the ones I'm interested in are:

1. Community Practice/Medicine
2. Community Practice/Surgery
3. Dermatology/Exotics/Ophthalmology (not too keen on the Exotics part, though)
4. Junior Surgery Lab (surgical practice on live pigs)
5. Orthopedic Diagnostics
6. Oncology
7. Small Animal Surgical Anatomy
8. Small Animal Medicine
9. Small Animal Nutrition
10. Soft Tissue Diagnostics
11. Shelter Medicine
12. Spanish for Vets (though I really am not a fan of the instructor)
13. Advanced Surgical Technologies
14. Complementary/Alternative Medicine & Integrative Pain Management
15. Cardiology

So, no, I obviously won't be able to fit in ALL of those electives, at least not this year. Senior year is structured much the same (except it's all clinics, no classes), with multiple weeks that we can fill with elective rotations, independent study, externships, etc.

We have to rank our most desired electives for both fall and spring semester, with the idea that the higher we rank something, the more likely we are to get it in our schedule, but with no guarantee of getting anything we want....

Registration for our fall courses starts in early April. Looks like we will be taking Clinical Sciences III and IV and Principles of Imaging Interpretation II (all a continuation of this semester's courses). There is also an Alternative & Complementary Medicine elective that I'd like to take -- although I think I'll stick to just that one credit of electives next fall, as opposed to my current 5 credits for 3 elective courses. (Whose bright idea was that?)