At the Veterinary Teaching Hospital your animal is seen by a veterinary team with a great amount of collective knowledge and expertise. The individuals who make up this team have different levels of training and are at varying milestones in their careers. We define each type of veterinarian at our hospital so you can feel confident that everyone caring for your pet is qualified as well as compassionate.
A board-certified veterinarian is one who has completed four years of veterinary school, an Internship, and a two- to four-year Residency program. After the residency, the veterinarian takes a comprehensive, multiple-day examination to become certified in their specialty, such as Surgery, Internal Medicine, or Neurology.
The American Veterinary Medical Association restricts the use of the term specialist to a veterinarian who is board certified. Generally, a specialist has a focused area of expertise such as Dentistry and Oral Surgery, Dermatology, or Cardiology.
A faculty veterinarian is a veterinarian who is seeing clinical patients at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital. Most of our faculty veterinarians are board certified.
Residents are veterinarians who have received their veterinary degrees and and have completed a qualified Internship. As residents, these veterinarians spend three to four years training to be specialists and to become board certified.
Interns are veterinarians who have received their veterinary degree and are spending one year advancing their training in an internship. Many of our interns go on to complete residency programs.
Our veterinary technicians and nurses are individuals who have received at least two years of education from a school of veterinary technology and have taken a licensing examination. Veterinary technicians and nurses are required to attend continuing education on a yearly basis. These individuals also can be specialized in areas such as Critical Care and Surgery. They are the equivalent of nurses in the human medical environment.
The students who are part of the team caring for your animal are finishing their fourth and final year of veterinary school. Veterinarians can practice as soon as they graduate from veterinary school and pass appropriate licensing examinations. These students are in a very similar role as interns in the human medical environment.
