Lab Animal Residency Program Structure

The 36-month program consists of 27 months of intensive, faculty-mentored clinical rotations, 3 months of electives,  and 6 months of research. 

The didactic portion of the program is scheduled to minimize disruption to the clinical and research rotations, but participants are expected to participate in this portion during the entire 36 months. Faculty-mentored clinical rotations constitute 75% of the 1st year, with 25% remaining to explore available research opportunities.

In the 1st and/or 2nd year of the program, the participant will commit to a research-intensive effort in which they will design, conduct, and write up a research project. Participants’ research efforts are expected to result in a first-author peer-reviewed scientific journal by the winter of their final year, if participants have not yet published such an article upon starting the residency program. This publication serves as one of the requirements for participants to be eligible to take the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine board examination at the end of the training period. 

Stanford has a large and diverse population of animal species and participants in our laboratory animal medicine training program have substantial clinical caseloads. Participants provide clinical care for all the species at Stanford and are given responsibility not only for individual clinical care, but also for evaluating and resolving colony and management issues during their clinical rotations, thus providing excellent preparation for their future careers. Each trainee is responsible for evaluating and addressing all clinical and programmatic issues in one area during a rotation lasting 1-2 months.  

The area for each rotation has a primary species or topic focus and is mentored by the clinical faculty with responsibility for that area. Clinical education is provided via on-call duty during the week (shared between trainees and staff veterinarians) and evening and weekend care (rotated equally between all trainees, staff, and faculty veterinarians). Participants must gather clinical histories when working up cases which require significant interaction with researchers to determine the cause and provide effective resolution to clinical and research-based problems with guidance from their faculty and staff mentors.  Rotation assignments are dependent on the number of trainees participating but are listed below with the required time. 

• Orientation (1 month)
• Large Animal (8 months)
• Rodent (8 months)
• Anesthesia (5 months)
• Gross and Histological Pathology (3 months)
• Aquatics, Avian, and Invertebrates (1 month)
• Training and Compliance (1 month)
• Research (6 months)
• Electives (3 months)

Stanford has a rigorous didactic training requirement comprised of seminars, journal club, “blue book” review, and pathology rounds. There are additional training opportunities that do not require the same level of time commitment but are nonetheless important components of the program. Didactic training requirements include, but are not limited to:

• Laboratory Animal Medicine Seminar Series
• Journal Club
• “Blue Book” Review
• Gross Pathology Rounds
• Mock Exams
• Webinars and Teleconferences sponsored by NABR, OLAW, National Primate Regional Centers

Starting day 1, residents are invited to participate in Stanford’s IACUC proceedings. They may attend monthly IACUC meetings, join in monthly facility inspections, write/review institutional guidelines and SOP’s, and be involved in protocol development and consultations with researchers. Second and third years join as alternate members on the IACUC panel and gain extensive experience with protocol review, consultation, post-approval monitoring. 

Residents have many opportunities to gain experience in public speaking and teaching diverse audiences. Each academic semester, they present chapters of the Blue Book lecture style to fellow residents, faculty, and master’s students during weekly seminars. They present annual updates to their research projects at department grand rounds and often present their research at local and national conferences as well. Residents may assist in teaching a variety of animal handling classes and procedure workshops. Stanford offers extra teaching certifications through the Office of Post-doctoral affairs and additional teaching opportunities may be pursued based on a resident’s interest.