North American Veterinary Medical Educational Consortium

The North American Veterinary Medical Educational Consortium (NAVMEC) was created to develop a non-proscriptive roadmap for future education that will prepare graduates in the next 20 years to meet the changing and ever-expanding needs of our society.  We will not simply focus on clinical abilities, but on the knowledge and skills that are broader and relevant to all entry level veterinary graduates regardless of their career path.  In addition, the Consortium is different from prior initiatives (i.e., Foresight, Brakke, Pew, etc) since we are including the testing/accreditation/licensing bodies in the discussion; there is recognition that if our future graduate is created by different education models, we need to make sure that graduate can pass licensing exams. 

Garrett Stewart (Kansas State ’11) and Aaron Gibbons (Washington State '11) will be attending the first meeting of NAVMEC on February 11th – 13th. This first meeting will address 3 main questions. 

What will society need from the veterinary profession over the next 20 years?

What skills & competencies will veterinarians need to meet society’s needs?

What skills will be required for specific disciplines in veterinary medicine?

 If you have questions, suggestions or feedback relating NAVMEC and its purpose of developing a roadmap for future Veterinary education, please send your comments to aarongibbons@vetmed.wsu.edu or gstewart@vet.k-state.edu

They will make sure the student ideas and questions are presented at the meeting.

Plus the dog has to wear a sweater...

Taste of Island Vet School Life

By: Elizabeth Maxwell

Ross University

4' x 6' Oil on canvas

Humane Society of the United States—Field Services Adventure

By: Michelle Larsen
Class of 2011, Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine

Many veterinarians and current veterinary students had told me that a Humane Society of United States- Field Services trip, formerly known as Rural Area Veterinary Services (RAVS), trip would be meaningful and invaluable.  I was prepared for the hard work and the hands-on experience, but I was unprepared for the trip souvenir I brought home.

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India’s Dudhwa National Park: not quite forsaken

By: Arvind Badrinarayanan
Ross University

A really wild experience usually involves a wild journey there. Along India’s 1,700km border with Nepal, vast swathes of forest at the foothills of the Himalayas shelter some of the last substantial areas of biodiversity in the continent. The Terai grasslands run through here and Nepal all the way to Bhutan.

Yet even in these remote corners of the world, the extensive Indian railway network sends an ancient metre gauge train, barely occupied, curling around the rising hills to just within range of my destination. Dudhwa National Park, a forgotten and not quite forsaken treasure trove of nature sits on this border, a front line in the fight on wildlife poaching and trafficking.

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