I'm not sure who of you are fans of the movie "Shawshank Redemption," but one of my favorite quotes in the film is, "Geology is the study of pressure and time. That's all it takes, really. Pressure and time."
So you might ask, what do pressure and time have to do with this month's dean's message? I view our curriculum revision process in that light. As many of you know, we began conversations in the summer of 2020 about revising our curriculum to focus on competency-based veterinary education. There have been hundreds of hours of meetings over the last two and a half years to discuss and help develop a new curriculum that will enhance the education we provide to our veterinary medical students. That is a lot of time and a lot of pressure on all who have been involved in the process.
We knew when starting the revision that it wouldn’t be easy. I hear from the leaders at other schools who have done this that it is challenging and often difficult work. I want to offer many thanks to all who have been part of this massive project. Well over 70 SVM faculty and staff have contributed their time and energy to developing a framework for our new curriculum.
Continued discussion, negotiation and compromise are normal parts of a complex project such as this. This past month, in conversation with our four department chairs and Peggy Schmidt about the best pathway forward, we decided to recruit a small number of faculty and staff from each of the four departments to develop in detail the modules to be used in phases one and two of our curriculum. We will then provide the detailed modules to school faculty and staff for their input and further refinement.
The department chairs, Peggy and I will continue to meet twice a month to address concerns and suggestions about the new curriculum. In addition, starting this month, I will have a one-hour open office hour each week for any faculty or staff member who would like to discuss curricular revision and share their perspective. Kaye Garrison will share details of those office hours.
I look forward to these conversations and moving the process and discussion forward in a positive direction. I very much hope we can ultimately arrive at a detailed framework and curriculum that the majority of us support. You can find further details about the curricular revision below.
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UW Veterinary Care Updates from the Director |
Welcome to new employees Peyton Andersen, veterinary technician assistant with Emergency and Critical Care; Aimee Andrewjeski, pharmacy technician; and Ryan Zwetter, sterile instrument technician with Central Supply. In addition, welcome back to Neil Christensen, a former clinical assistant professor of radiation oncology, who has returned to UW Veterinary Care to complete a radiology residency while also occasionally serving as a clinical instructor. And congratulations to Charisma Chadwick, certified veterinary technician, who has assumed a full-time role with the hospital's Special Species service after previously also serving in the administrative office.
Congratulations to clinical pharmacist Jenna Boram, who passed her Veterinary Pharmacy Board Certification Exam and is now a Diplomate of the International College of Veterinary Pharmacy.
Best wishes to Kim Holman from large animal reception who has retired after years of service with UW Veterinary Care.
Thank you for your continued efforts hospital-wide in providing positive experiences for our patients and clients, including this recent Oncology client who shared the following comment:
"Good experience. The doctors, nurses & receptionists made us feel welcome. I felt safe leaving my dog there for treatment." -Brian
Christopher Snyder, DVM, DAVDC
Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs
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This winter, the active learning classroom in the School of Veterinary Medicine's Renk Learning Center was named in honor of professor emerita Linda Sullivan DVM’87, who passed away in February 2022, in recognition of her profound impact on the school, UW-Madison, the Madison community, and her philanthropic generosity to the SVM. This naming is an opportunity to celebrate Linda's many contributions and the impact she had, and will continue to have, on the school.
Corpus Callosum, Ebling Library’s online arts journal, is accepting original visual, written and multimedia art from students, faculty and staff in UW-Madison’s health sciences schools. Submissions for the next issue are welcome through March 7. View submission details.
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Teaching and Learning News
An update from Peggy Schmidt, associate dean for professional programs
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Many UW School of Veterinary Medicine faculty and staff have participated in teaching- and learning-related professional development, including classroom visits, education days, campus programming and international opportunities. We are proud to highlight a few current programs:
- A group of faculty members are participating in the Association for Medical Education in Europe’s Essential Skills in Medical Education course and will have monthly meetups to share new ideas.
- We will continue our Friday Teaching and Learning community virtual meetings, where we share teaching tips and how to use them now and in our new curriculum.
- Peggy Schmidt and Chris Snyder are holding professional development programming for a group of CVTs, critical members of the teaching team on the clinic and hospital floor.
We will continue to provide new opportunities and always welcome suggestions. Feel free to connect with Margene Anderson if you would like to talk more about professional and faculty development.
Many thanks to all who have been part of our massive curriculum revision project and contributed their time and energy.
- Curriculum revision is what might be called a “wicked problem,” or a task that has incomplete information, multiple and sometimes seemingly contradictory or competing priorities, and evolving requirements.
- The foundational work of discussion, negotiation and uncovering dependencies is a standard part of a project of this magnitude, and it is a slog. This has been true for colleagues across the country as other health sciences programs adopt competency-based education.
For the spring 2023 semester, a smaller, more nimble curriculum revision module development team will utilize our robust topic inventory in combination with the proposed phase, body system and unit-level learning outcomes to begin to lay out proposed topics, learning activities, and summative and formative assessments for each week of curriculum phases I and II.
The module development team will share their proposal after each body system. Faculty can provide input and expertise and contribute existing teaching materials during the review period. Details of the team members and strategies moving forward are in progress.
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Welcome to Kathleen Cummings, administrative and curricular specialist with the Office of Academic Affairs, who will provide administrative support, organize course and room scheduling for DVM year 1-3 courses, manage student enrollment, and serve as the school’s curriculum representative with the university.
Professor Tony Goldberg provided the keynote address, "Adrift in the Virosphere: Animal Health in the Age of Viral Metagenomics," at the 103rd Conference of Research Workers in Animal Disease (CRWAD) in January in Chicago. He was introduced by retired SVM professor Chuck Czuprynski, current CRWAD president.
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Allison Ludwig, a dual degree DVM/PhD trainee with the school’s Comparative Biomedical Sciences program, is co-first-author of a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The work demonstrates that retinal cells grown from stem cells can reach out and connect with neighbors, completing a “handshake” that may show the cells are ready for trials in humans with degenerative eye disorders.
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Clinical assistant professor Jessica Pritchard co-authored an article in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine highlighting the potential drawbacks of a new serologic panel for diagnosing intestinal disease in dogs. Their results raise concerns that use of this diagnostic panel in clinical practice might lead to misdiagnoses and delayed or even detrimental treatments in dogs with intestinal diseases.
Adrianna Sage, clinical assistant professor of anesthesia, is the lead author of a study published in January in the journal Veterinary Record. The retrospective investigation of decreasing body temperature trends during anesthesia in dogs shows that anesthetized dogs exhibited a distinct pattern of decrease in body temperature.
Faculty members Amy Nichelason and Peggy Schmidt, former staff member Molly Harris, Tom Bach DVM'94 of Lakeview Veterinary Clinic and a member of the school's Board of Visitors, and Nathan Bollig of UW-Madison's Computation and Informatics in Biology and Medicine unit published an educational research report in the Journal of Veterinary Medical Education titled "Comparison of Community Practitioner and Clinical Educator Expectations of Veterinary Graduates."
Two UW School of Veterinary Medicine faculty from the Department of Surgical Sciences received funding from the Morris Animal Foundation to support new studies of cat health. Professor Gillian McLellan will delineate age-related neuropathology and correlations with behavioral abnormalities in feline cognitive dysfunction syndrome, and assistant professor Susannah Sample will study the genetic foundation of tooth resorption in felines. Related: The Morris Animal Foundation also funds research by professor Lauren Trepanier, who is examining links between environmental toxin exposures and the development of lymphoma.
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Professor Masatoshi Suzuki with the Department of Comparative Biosciences, center, speaks with Brady Mallory, right, an anchor with News 3 and Fox 47, for a story about research in Suzuki’s lab using cow and pig stem cells to cultivate artificial meat.
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February 17
Dean's Get Together
4:30-6 p.m.
School of Veterinary Medicine
February 20
Western Veterinary Conference UW SVM Alumni Reception
7-9 p.m.
Border Grill at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas
March 17
Dean's Get Together: Breakfast with Sally
7:30-9 a.m.
School of Veterinary Medicine
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March 31
Committee on Academic and Staff Issues Forum: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Noon
School of Veterinary Medicine
April 21
Dean's Get Together
4:30-6 p.m.
School of Veterinary Medicine
April 29
Celebration of Excellence Awards Banquet
6 p.m.
Madison Concourse Hotel and Governor’s Club
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NIH Research Matters
Channel 3000
Wisconsin Public Radio
The Mid-West Farm Report
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“We can’t just expect what we did, they will do.”
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-Keith Poulsen DVM'04, PhD'12, associate clinical professor with the UW School of Veterinary Medicine and director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, discussing differences among varying generations of veterinarians. Poulsen is a Wisconsin delegate for the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and was part of a recent discussion among the AVMA House of Delegates regarding the impact of workplace culture on employee retention and well-being and related AVMA resources available.
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