Editor’s Note: In their fourth and final year of veterinary school, students are required to complete a series of two-week clinical rotations in the Lloyd Veterinary Medical Center. This article is one in a series that highlights those rotations.
There’s a first time for everything.
New fourth-year Iowa State veterinary medicine students just completed their first clinical rotation over the past two weeks.
For Brittany Buehre Stackpole her first clinical rotation was in Veterinary Field Services. That service unit provides on-farm services to livestock producers in the general Ames area.
That required Stackpole to travel outside the College of Veterinary Medicine comfort zone to area farms.
“No two days are exactly alike on this rotation,” Stackpole said.
Stackpole and an Iowa State veterinarian traveled not only to area farms but the ISU Dairy Farm where they examined and treated livestock at those locations. Equipped with full stocked mobile veterinary trucks, the service provides individual animal and herd health veterinary care for beef, dairy, swine, sheep, goats, and camelids.
During the two weeks, Stackpole was involved with chute processing, vaccinations, ear tagging, castration, treatment of uterine prolapse, caudal epidurals, intrathecal euthanasia, fifth teat removal and much more.
“Those are just the procedures I personally performed in addition to the many additional cases I assisted with or observed,” she said. “The variety of experiences available made every day unique and allowed me to tailor my learning based on my interests and willingness to step outside my comfort zone.”
Stackpole is especially interested in working with a variety of species. During the field services rotation, she worked with at least five different species, gaining exposure to a variety of production systems including dairy, cow-calf and feedlot operations.
“The diversity of cases challenged me to continuously learn and adapt,” she said. “I’m not afraid to admit that I sometimes needed to review procedures or research specific topics before appointments.”
That particularly applied when she and the Iowa State veterinarians were seeing alpacas and elk.
Another unique aspect to this rotation, was the number of veterinarians Stackpole worked with over two weeks.
“I worked with at least five different clinicians,” she said. “I found that to be one of the most valuable aspects of the experience.”
That allowed Stackpole the opportunity to not only build relationships with future colleagues while learning from a variety of perspectives and approaches but also identified techniques and approaches that will fit her style as a future veterinarian.
“This rotation was an incredibly positive experience,” Stackpole said. “The clinicians and field services staff are highly knowledgeable and genuinely passionate about teaching and mentoring the next generation of veterinarians.
“One of the things I appreciated most was that they encourage students to step into the role of the veterinarian. That was intimidating at first, but provided me with invaluable opportunities to learn, grow and gain confidence.”
June 2026