PBL curriculum from a veterinary student's perspective

Katrina Billote and Mariana Martinez, Western University of Health Sciences, DVM 2025, dvm360 student ambassadors, interviewed fellow students Michelle McCorkell and Haley Salas, Western University of Health Sciences, DVM 2025 to discuss a primarily problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum from a students’ point of view.

During the interview, the students discuss the curriculum structure, how it prepares students for clinical years, their favorite parts of the curriculum, and their advice for students entering a veterinary school with PBL components.

Below is a partial transcript.

Mariana Martinez: At Western University, we utilize the PBL Curriculum in order to organize basic science learning activities so each of our PBL cases we take big concepts and break them down into smaller scientific concepts [and] analyzing basic sciences that you would learn in undergrad such as anatomy, microbiology, nutrition, and physiology, and all that fun stuff so every week we are able to break those down and then after 2 cases, you are tested on those exact concepts.

For example, if we had a case that was based off of pancreatitis, you might get anatomy questions on blood supply to the pancreas. By doing that, we are able to take smaller concepts and put them into a whole case and apply them into clinics later on.