Dissonance between curriculum and practice
student perception of the caseload during Veterinary Medicine internships
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35699/2237-5864.2026.62575Keywords:
veterinary medicine, higher education, internal medicine, dogs and cats, professional trainingAbstract
This research examined the relationship between the undergraduate Veterinary Medicine curriculum and the challenges faced during the Mandatory Supervised Internship (MSI). The objective was to analyze the correlation between student perception, the formal syllabus, and the clinical-epidemiological demands of the MSI, aiming to identify curricular gaps and propose formative improvements. A mixed-method approach was employed, analyzing 28 students who completed an individual workload of 450 hours (12,600 total hours) between 2015 and 2023. The total caseload encompassed 4,566 animals across 33 institutions – 18 federal (54.5%) and 15 private (45.5%) – with 17.9% of students working in two different units. A predominance of dogs (83.7%) over cats (16.3%) was observed. For in-depth analysis, 682 clinical cases were selected and processed through four analytical stages: 1) quantitative tabulation of the clinical profile; 2) documentary analysis of the syllabi; 3) comparison between student perception and effective curricular coverage; and 4) qualitative content analysis of emerging perceptions. The findings revealed a perceptual disparity: although 91.20% of the pathologies were effectively taught, students recognized only 67.16%, with 15.40% of the diseases remaining unknown due to failures in knowledge consolidation. Areas such as Dermatology (13.6%) and Endocrinology generated a lack of confidence in up to 65% of the students. It is concluded that there is an urgent need for curricular reformulation focused on disciplinary integration, standardization of terminology, and the adoption of active methodologies to better prepare graduates for clinical practice.
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