Master's Degree in Small Animal Medicine

The objective of this Master's degree is to respond to a natural need for specialization of the veterinary profession towards a branch with a historical entity such as Small Animal Medicine, and therefore to a professional orientation of it. This fact is evident even in the eyes of any profane observer in the matter and is justified in itself by the obviousness of its existence.

The main objectives of the title are:

• Train professionals with a high degree of scientific and technical training, with extensive training in solving professional problems and able to meet the demand of the labor market.
• Provide the necessary research training so that students can access the Doctorate Program, helping to train researchers with the capacity to join competitive research teams, start developing their own research activity and, eventually, start their university career.
• Provide students with specialized theoretical-practical training geared towards diagnosis and treatment in the area of Veterinary Medicine, as a basis for them to adequately develop their professional orientation / specialization.
• Instruct the student in the use of the different sources of knowledge in the area and the importance that this has for the development of their professional activity.
• Provide advanced knowledge about the diagnostic and therpeutic possibilities that are established and recognized by the veterinary medical-scientific community.
• Train students to systematically develop correct diagnostic and therapeutic protocols with the use of the different available techniques applied to Veterinary Medicine.
• To show the systematic selection of prioritized sources of information and the diagnostic techniques and therapeutic methods available to respond to different professional situations.

Master's file

Justification

The Master's Degree that is proposed comes to respond to a natural need for specialization of the veterinary profession towards a branch with a historical entity such as Small Animal Medicine and therefore a professionalizing orientation of it. This fact is evident even in the eyes of any profane observer in the matter and is justified in itself by the obviousness of its existence. In addition to this, we will provide specific data that justify it.

Competencies

Proposal of competences that students must acquire during their studies and that will be required for them to be awarded the title. The competencies proposal has been made considering the current legislation, the recommendations for specialization in the Veterinary White Paper, the Strategic Plan for the Empowerment of the Veterinary Profession of the Spanish Veterinary College Organization and the European Board of Veterinary Specialization.

Basic skills

In accordance with RD 861/2010, by which Royal Decree 1393/2007 is modified, which establishes the organization of official university education and with the Spanish Framework of Qualifications for Higher Education (MECES), in order to grant the title, the that students are able to:

• Possess and understand knowledge that provides a basis or opportunity to be original in the development and / or application of ideas, often in a research context.
• That the students know how to apply the acquired knowledge and their ability to solve problems in new or little-known environments within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to their area of study.
• That students are able to integrate knowledge and face the complexity of making judgments based on information that, being incomplete or limited, includes reflections on social and ethical responsibilities linked to the application of their knowledge and judgments.
• That students know how to communicate their conclusions –and the knowledge and ultimate reasons that support them- to specialized and non-specialized audiences in a clear and unambiguous way.
• That students have the learning skills that allow them to continue studying in a way that will be largely self-directed or autonomous.

General / Cross Competences

The Universidad de Murcia has established general competencies associated with common training content and values that must constitute a hallmark of its graduates:

• Being able to express yourself correctly in Spanish in your disciplinary field.
• Understand and express themselves in a foreign language in their disciplinary field, particularly in English.
• Being able to manage information and knowledge in their disciplinary field, including knowing how to use basic information and communication technology (ICT) tools as a user.
• Consider ethics and intellectual integrity as essential values of professional practice.
• Being able to project the knowledge, abilities and skills acquired to promote a society based on the values of freedom, justice, equality and pluralism.
• Ability to work as a team to interact with other people from the same or different professional field.
• Develop skills of research initiation.

Specific Competences

The specific competences are in accordance with the objectives described above. The student must be able to:

• Relate the knowledge and skills acquired in the Veterinary Degree and Veterinary Degree in matters related to Veterinary Medicine of small animals for application to diagnosis and treatment.
• Prioritize the performance of one or more diagnostic techniques in Small Animal Veterinary Medicine, depending on the medical problem that arises.
• Prioritize the implementation of a treatment protocol in Small Animal Veterinary Medicine, depending on the medical problem that arises.
• Critically interpret the information provided by the different diagnostic techniques and apply said information to solve the problem in Small Animal Veterinary Medicine.
• Select from among the different sources of information specific to the subjects of Veterinary Medicine of Small Animals, those with sufficient rigor and reliability in each case to respond to the problem that arises or for scientific documentation on a study topic .
• Correctly handle the specific technical language of the different specialties of Veterinary Medicine of small animals, both written and oral, particularly those related to diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.
• Structure a written work in scientific format and prepare its presentation and defense in court.
• Demonstrate advanced skills in solving complex professional problems within the different Veterinary Medicine specialties in small animals.
• Demonstrate specific diagnostic and treatment skills in the different specialties of Small Animal Veterinary Medicine taught in the Degree.
• Demonstrate knowledge of the different national and international forums in which to update the knowledge and skills of the different specialties of Veterinary Medicine of small animals and, eventually, communicate professional results.
• Correctly select the procedures for obtaining the internationally recognized specialization in the different specialties in small animals within Veterinary Medicine within the scope of the European Board of Veterinary Specialization.