Veterinary Medicine Flashcards

What is Veterinary Medicine?

Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine concerned with the  prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, disorder and injury in non-human animals.

Medicine for humans is split into many subcategories yet veterinary medicine covers all aspects of medicine including ophthalmology, dentistry, nutrition and surgery in ALL species including mammals, reptiles, fish, amphibians, insects, and birds, so its scope is vast.

The majority of vets work in private practice dealing with pets and livestock but some vets work in zoos and laboratories, collaborating with research scientists. If your dog gets sick you might be surprised to find that your vet prescribes the exact same medication (but probably in a smaller dose) that your doctor prescribes for you. A great deal of pharmaceutical solutions cross species and canines often try out new drugs for us, first!

In the United States, it takes three to five years of undergraduate study and then another four years of vet school to become a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM).

Careers in Veterinary Medicine

Becoming a vet is the aspiration of many kids but do you have what it takes?

A passion for cute, furry puppies and animal welfare is great but that won’t get you into super-competitive vet school! Vets are usually science geeks and the equivalent of doctors, surgeons, scientists and business people - all rolled into one. Vets can handle blood and guts and all kinds of creatures, are academically-gifted in areas of science and math, are sound business people, AND they are passionate about animals.

If you can handle clinical procedures and love animals but you’re no science geek, then there’s still room for you in a great vet team which is made up of veterinary technicians, and assistants that have fewer qualifications than vets who are doctors. Technicians are the equivalent of nurses and have relevant qualifications and duties, assistants have fewer qualifications than technicians. Dependent on skills and qualifications, other members of a veterinary team will carry out minor procedures, administer medications and provide other often generalized post-surgery care.

Vets are some of the best paid people in America, after graduating a median starting salary is over $75,000. Should you go on to own a practice or specialize in an area of veterinary practice such as anesthesiology then you could be earning in excess of $400,000.

Based on veterinary practices being generally highly profitable, many vets are able to provide charitable services linking with local animal rescue centers, making veterinary work, arguably some of the most rewarding work available.  A human might thank a doctor or nurse for helping them get back to fitness - but watching an abused animal slowly express its gratitude after personally restoring its trust and health, with your own expertise, patience and skill - is a whole new level of job satisfaction.

If you want to explore one of the most rewarding careers available then a fantastic place to start is Vet Ranch. While Dr Matt and his team at Vet Ranch attempt to show educational surgical content for aspiring vets, it’s often removed by YouTube but there’s still great content so check out the videos.

Other great places include American Veterinary Medical Association as well as The Association of the American Veterinary Medical Colleges.  

Learning Veterinary Medicine

To become a vet you’ll need to compete to enter one of only 28 veterinary schools in the United States which meet the accreditation standards set by the Council on Education of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA).

Brainscape has proven to be a significant boost for medical students who face some of the greatest learning challenges possible, in terms of quantities of scientific knowledge and diagnostic application techniques required.

Veterinary students can benefit from an unrivalled educational tool in ongoing clinical learning and achieving excellence in professional practice.

Veterinary Medicine in Brainscape

The North American Veterinary Licensing Exam consists of a gruelling 6.5 hour exam with 360 questions prepared to test visual material and diagnostic skill.

Students can begin to prepare by using the thousands of Brainscape flashcards prepared by top veterinary  professors and students available to use, for free. As you browse through you’ll be able to see decks covering subjects such as Veterinary dentistry, Veterinary anatomy, Veterinary science, and Veterinary terminology.  

If, after reading this you’ve decided that veterinary medicine is for you, then make sure you get the scores you need in this highly competitive sector. There are study guides available for both AP Biology and AP Chemistry that smart students are using to ace their exams and get into college.  

Brainscape is about technique as well as content and if you’d like to use your own content and our Brainscape system to boost your learning, then you’re welcome to do so! It’s easy to create your own personal learning resource and it’s free, you can share it with the Brainscape community or keep it for your own private use.

Learn faster with Brainscape

Brainscape has developed a unique system known as confidence-based repetition (CBR) that allows students to learn twice as fast. The system is proving to be a game-changer, in particular, for medical students who are pushed to their limits in terms of quantities of information they are required to learn and retain.

The Brainscape system is a hybrid of three learning methods:Active Recall, Metacognition, and Spaced Repetition, making it the most powerful learning engine on today’s market.

The difference with CBR is the algorithm that’s fueled by your individual metacognitive responses to each flashcard. In practice, when you review each flashcard the Brainscape system prompts you to provide a record of how well you knew the answer.

It might be that this is the first time you viewed some highly complex content so you record a “1”, in this instance. The algorithm uses this rating to set the frequency of the flashcard and it will repeat this flashcard again shortly to help you drill down the content. Conversely, the flashcard you reviewed about diagnosing canine distemper that you knew well and recorded as a “5” will now be shown infrequently. The shuffling of the deck by the algorithm means you never waste time so you learn twice as fast, whilst remembering longer.

Brainscape additionally incorporates active recall in the CBR system which is also an important mechanism for medical students who must retain and build on knowledge.

Active recall is the process whereby the learner retrieves information rather than simply recognizing a correct answer. The process strengthens the neurons as you retrieve information meaning that when you want to retrieve the information later the pathways are stronger and retrieval is easier.

The final learning method that Brainscape uses in the CBR system is spaced recognition. This tried-and-tested method is a favorite with most computer-aided learning tools. Showing information in small bite-sized pieces at spaced intervals is an effective way of retaining information and completes Brainscape’s CBR system.

Brainscape is the learning tool that’s proving invaluable for thousands of medical students.

How to get started

Getting started learning Veterinary Medicine with Brainscape is easy.

To start creating your own personal interactive learning catalog then just click on the “make flashcards” at the top of the page and get started now.

Alternatively there’s loads of great content already created by top contributors. Choose a deck now from a selection below maybe Neurology, Large Animal, Exotics, or Locomotor. Whichever, you choose you are sure to find Brainscape an invaluable tool.  

We wish you all the best in your future learning and career in Veterinary Medicine. Best wishes!