Veterinary diagnostic internship program doubles trainee cohort at KVDL

The Kansas Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory welcomes a new class of diagnostic medicine interns. From left: Tatiana Paz, Mikkela Cabanillas, Talis Rehse and Irene Dobles.

The Kansas Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory’s diagnostic medicine internship program was established in 2014 to introduce Doctor of Veterinary Medicine graduates to the many facets of diagnostic medicine and to enhance each intern’s opportunity to be selected into competitive clinical and anatomic pathology residency programs across North America.

The Kansas Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, or KVDL, internships last one year and include extensive clinical pathology training, such as performing after-hours testing for veterinary clinicians. Interns also rotate through all 13 KVDL specialty sections, including bacteriology, histology, molecular service, molecular research and development, necropsy, next generation sequencing, parasitology, rabies, serology, toxicology and virology.

“During each rotation, interns form an understanding of the different testing platforms,” said Daniela Hernandez, internship coordinator at KVDL. “More importantly, the rotations allow interns to spend time with each section head learning diagnostic test result interpretation.”

The section rotations are completed during the first six months of the internship. During the second six months, interns can focus on any diagnostic medicine specialty they wish. Hernandez said most interns have concentrated on clinical or anatomic pathology.

“Initially, two interns were accepted into the program each year,” Hernandez said. “Because the number of applicants has increased tremendously over the last several years, KVDL now accepts four interns per year. The veterinary experiences of accepted interns have ranged from new graduates to seasoned private practitioners.”

This year’s interns are Mikkela Cabanillas, Irene Dobles, Tatiana Paz and Talis Rehse.

“I applied to the program to help me pursue a career and specialization in clinical pathology,” Cabanillas said. “I am already learning so much since I’ve started, and I look forward to learning and experiencing more throughout this year.”

Dobles came to the KVDL internship program by way of a clinical pathology rotation at Purdue, where she was a small-animal rotating intern.

There, her colleagues encouraged her to apply after seeing the in-depth knowledge and experience another resident had gained by participating in the KVDL internship.

"I also read some articles about the KVDL in veterinary journals and knew it was very prestigious and large, running many samples for the whole state of Kansas and beyond," Dobles said. "The fact I had completed an externship at the Veterinary Health Center at K-State in 2019, when I was still a student, also helped me decide to apply. I saw the great institution that K-State CVM is. I felt included and learned a lot, so I knew the KVDL was not going to be different.”

Many interns utilize the program to improve their chances of being accepted into residency programs, Hernandez said.

To date, 99.2% of the diagnostic medicine interns who started the KVDL program have finished. Of those who completed the internship, 97% were accepted into residency programs on their first attempt.

Applications open in December each year, with selections completed by February. For questions about the KVDL internship program, contact Gregg Hanzlicek, associate director, at gahanz@vet.k-state.edu.