A veterinarian with Prairie Livestock Veterinarians in Red Deer says her practice's participation in the Western College of Veterinary Medicine Pharmhouse Summer Student Swine Experience Program has proved to be extremely rewarding.
The Western College of Veterinary Medicine Pharmhouse Summer Student Swine Experience Program, which is now moving into its third year, provides first and second year veterinary students hands-on summer work experience while exposing them to pigs, to the swine industry and to the swine veterinary profession with the hope of increasing recruitment of swine veterinarians in Canada.
Dr. Jessica Law, a veterinarian with Prairie Livestock Veterinarians in Red Deer, says her practice has been part of the program from the start.
Clip-Dr. Jessica Law-Prairie Livestock Veterinarians:
I think we have students with us around half the year, whether through internships or summer placements, and so having a source of funding and an ability to create an actual structured program that involves a little bit more practical on farm aspects as well as possibly research as well as the veterinary side was really exciting to me as well as some opportunity for follow up in subsequent years for that student.
Through these two years it's been really exciting to see the students coming into WCVM and their excitement around learning more about pigs or learning about pigs, depending on their experience level.
I really enjoy the mentorship opportunity as well as the ability to work with the next generation of veterinarians. Students are a valuable piece of practice, just to give a fresh perspective and that's actually helped us in terms of managing our protocols and tailoring things to the farm to maker things work better so we can work better with our producers.
It's had a lot of benefits on a number of different levels and being able to promote a career path in production animal medicine is also very important.
Dr. Law commends Farmhouse Consulting and its CEO Bill Maxwell for providing the funding for the program.
Source : Farmscape.ca