Surgical Oncology Internship

Overview

The Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences at Texas A&M University offers a 12-month internship program in small animal surgical oncology. The goal of the program is to prepare the intern to be successful in the VIRMP and ultimately in an ACVS approved surgery residency. This internship combines a large caseload and well-equipped facility with a diverse faculty and superb support staff.

The program is for a 12-month period beginning July 1, 2019. A well-qualified candidate is one who has completed a rotating small animal internship with excellent performance evaluations, letters of reference, and a competitive CV.

General Information

The training objectives for the surgery internship program at Texas A&M University are as follows:

1) To provide the intern with the opportunity to become proficient in advanced diagnostics and treatments in veterinary surgery and oncology;

2) To further equip the intern to competitively compete for an accredited Small Animal Surgery Residency;

3) To improve the intern’s ability to convey clinical information and concepts to other members of the veterinary profession in a concise, professional manner (e.g., in seminars, lectures, and continuing education presentations).

In-depth training will be provided in-patient evaluation, basic and advanced diagnostics, surgical procedures, clinical trials management, and overall medical management of veterinary surgical patients. At least one oral intern seminar will be presented to faculty and students during the year and active participation in oncology journal club and tumor boards is expected. The intern may be required or elect to help with teaching laboratories or to present selected student lectures during the course of the internship; this affords teaching experience as well as furthers professional development. An intern shall not head or have a major teaching responsibility for any course.

The surgical intern will not be required to participate in night and weekend primary emergency coverage. Daytime emergencies are handled by the Hospital’s emergency triage service. The intern trainee is welcome to participate in an after-hours emergency (nights/weekends) in conjunction with the small animal surgical residents at the direction of the faculty mentor, but the intern will not serve as a primary house officer, surgeon-in-training back-up for surgical emergencies.

The intern will be required to initiate and complete a focused research project, with the expectation that a manuscript will be completed and submitted prior to departure from Texas A&M.

Staffing & Assignnments

The Surgical Services (surgical oncology, soft tissue, neurosurgery, orthopedics) at the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital are currently staffed by six ACVS Diplomate Surgeons and one ECVS surgical oncologist. There are five surgical residents (one pre-clinical) in the surgery residency program.

Approximate assignment to the surgical services over the 12 month period will be as follows:

Soft Tissue Surgery – 4 weeks
Orthopedics – 4 weeks
Oncology – 34 weeks

Research Block – 4-6 weeks
Out rotations – 1-2 weeks

Organized rounds and seminars in support of the internship training program include daily student rounds, weekly house officer rounds, ECG interpretation rounds, surgery journal club, surgery boards preparation rounds, cadaver arthroscopy, and surgical approaches labs (twice a month), oncology journal club, oncology multi-disciplinary tumor board, cancer biology rounds and other rounds and seminars offered throughout the Hospital.

Application Package

Receipt of a complete application (VIRMP application, letter of intent, curriculum vitae, transcript, and letters of reference) is required. Applicants are requested to list telephone number(s)that would enable them to be contacted during this time. Note that the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences will not sponsor applicants for H-1B or E-3 nonimmigrant employee categories.

Community Information

Texas A&M University is in Bryan-College Station, TX; a community of ~200,000, located between Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio.

Further information:

State of Texas – http://www.texas.gov/;

Bryan-College Station – http://www.bcschamber.org/

Texas A&M University – http://www.tamu.edu/

Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences – https://vetmed.tamu.edu/

Further information about the surgical intern position is available at the following website: https://vscs.tamu.edu

Benefit Package

This position is eligible for a benefits package and participation in a retirement program is required. Upon employment, you may choose to immediately enroll in a Texas A&M University System sponsored health insurance plan, provided you pay the full cost of premiums. You may also defer enrollment in a health plan until the first of the month following a 60-day waiting period from your date of hire. The costs of benefit programs are shared by the employee and Texas A&M University. The employee’s cost for benefits vary with the number and types of benefit programs selected. Employees of Texas A&M University participate in the federal Social Security program and either the Texas Teacher’s Retirement program (TRS) or the Optional Retirement Program (ORP). Since you will be making your benefit selections on or before your first day of work, you may want to familiarize yourself with the Employee Benefits Guide with can be found at http://employees.tamu.edu/benefits/general/ Interns accrue vacation, sick leave, and compensation time.

Texas A&M University is a smoke-free workplace. Texas A&M University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action/Veterans/Disability Employer committed to diversity.