Externships

Externships are optional and not required for a student to graduate. However, these experiences provide great opportunities for students to gain insight into working in private practices, specialty clinics and other various locations. Students are eligible to receive academic credit for externships once they enter the clinical portion of the curriculum.

Approved Externship Practices

Students may view the externship database to review approved externship opportunities and locations.

  • You must be connected to the VPN in order to access the database
  • If you have trouble accessing the database through the VPN, you may utilize the Virtual Desktop, using your Gatorlink information to log in
  • Academic and Government institutions are pre-approved sites and therefore may not be listed in the database.

Externship Practice Approval

While the college maintains a database of many available externships, additional locations can be approved by submitting the required Application Request for Practice Approval.

  • This form must be submitted by the practice, not the student.
  • Domestic externship requests need to be submitted at least 2 months before your planned visit.
  • International externship requests need to be submitted 6-12 months before your planned visit (*see additional details on international externships below).

Checklist for Students

Please carefully read the details and instructions below regarding externships. This video tutorial also reviews how to schedule externships.

  • Log into Curriculum Map and review your schedule. Where you have a vacation block scheduled you may request an externship.
  • You must edit your schedule in Curriculum Map BEFORE your externship. This provides ASA with information on where you will be and whom you will be working with; while you may have already given this information to the externship coordinator, we also require this information to maintain consistent record
  • UF students enroll through ONE.UF for academic credit during the semester in which you will be receiving credit, before drop/add ends (Offshore Students, see Melissa). The externship class number will be provided to you in Curriculum Map once your externship has been approved.
  • Externships cannot be substituted for clinical rotations; while scheduled in clinics, UF students may only complete an externship during an approved vacation period.
  • Only third and fourth-year students are eligible to receive credit for externships.
  • Retroactive credit will not be awarded, you must be registered for the externship before attending.
  • Externships must be supervised by a licensed veterinarian or doctoral level research scientist.
  • Students are not permitted to completed an externship under the supervision of a family member.
  • Upon completing the externship, provide the Externship Supervisor with the Externship Evaluation of Student by Supervising Veterinarian grade form so they may evaluate your performance and so that you may receive a grade.
    • Once ASA receives the completed grade form, the grade and comments will be entered into Curriculum Map for the student to view.

Liability Insurance

Students are covered by the university’s malpractice insurance while they learn at UF CVM and attend rotations such as ECC Ocala, Miami-Dade Shelter, PBEC (Practice Based Equine Clerkship) and PBSAC (Practice Based Small Animal Clerkship). Any hands-on experience outside of UF CVM, such as Externships, is not covered.

Students are advised to purchase liability insurance through the AVMA Professional Liability Insurance Application. They have sponsored it for free for members of SAVMA. Please discuss liability insurance with the practice location at some point before beginning the externship; it is a good conversation to have in order to ensure everyone has the same understanding of how you are covered! Should you be completing your externship(s) at an academic institution, then you will remain covered by UF’s insurance.

Earning Credits

  • Students are permitted to complete a total of 4 externship experiences at approved locations.
  • The maximum number of externship credits a student may accumulate towards graduation is eight.
  • Each externship you attend must be at a different location.
  • Each externship experience must be completed in consecutive two or four week intervals.
  • Students are required to participate at the externship location for a minimum of 35 hours per week. Specific expectations for overnight shifts, on call duties, or total number of hours worked in the week (which may exceed 35 hours/week) will be determined by the externship location and should be outlined ahead of time.
  • Students will not receive additional credit for completing more than four externships.
  • Examples of earning externship credit:
    • Earn 2 credits: Complete two consecutive weeks at one practice location.
    • Earn 4 credits: Complete a one month long externship at one practice location. This time must be consecutive, can’t be broken into two separate experiences.
    • Students may earn a maximum of 8 credits. This may be achieved by: attending 4 locations for 2 weeks each, or attending 2 locations for 4 weeks each, or attending 1 location for 4 weeks and 2 locations for 2 weeks each.
    • Any odd number of weeks spent at an externship site will still be given either 2 or 4 credits (i.e. 3 weeks = 2 credits, 5 weeks = 4 credits).

Register for Externship and Grading

  • You must request externship enrollment by reviewing your schedule in Curriculum Map. This must be done before you leave for your externship. Any time you have a vacation block scheduled, you may request an externship
  • You must also register yourself in One.UF to receive academic credit for externships! This must be done during the registration period for the semester in question in order to avoid a late registration fee (assessed by the University). The externship class number for registration purposes will be provided in Curriculum Map.
  • You must provide your externship supervisor with a grade form so that you can receive a grade for your experience.  The completed grade form must be sent to Melissa Pett by the externship supervisor.
    • Once the student’s grade is recorded, a copy of the grade form will be sent to you for review.
  • Additionally, we ask that you evaluate your experience at this location.
  • A video tutorial is also available, outlining the above details.

International Externships

At this time, international externships are considered on a case-by-case basis. Externships occurring at AVMA accredited education institutions will be approved. All other international externships will be reviewed once the request is submitted using the form above. Students who are interested in attending international externships should contact Melissa Pett so that ASA can track student requests and ensure appropriate, advanced planning.

Have More Questions?

If you have further questions, you may contact our externship coordinator, Melissa Pett, 352-294-4262.