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VOLUME 13, NUMBER 1
SEPTEMBER 1987
The Future of Veterinary Medicine
Purdue's New Direction for Veterinary Medical Education Outlined
existence and the academic isolation and
inflexibility it engenders and promote
collaborative attitudes and programs to
gain the felxibility needed to cope with
rapidly changing times.
In order to provide an ideal learning
Introduction
In our deliberations regarding the
future of the School of Veterinary Medicine, we re-evaluated the purpose, objectives, and operating philosophy of the
School, as reported earlier. In brief, we
believe that the purpose of the SVM is
to educate members of the veterinary
team: veterinary technicians, veterinary
practitioners, clinical specialists, and
investigators. A primary objective is to
produce graduates who are well and appropriately educated to remain current
in both knowledge and skills in an era of
rapid and accelerating change. Our educational philosophy is to provide a challenging learning environment to our students
and to encourage them to develop the
skills and habits necessary to be lifelong
learners. Our evaluation methods will be
designed to reinforce and enhance those
characteristics.
Veterinary medicine has changed
greatiy from the image projected in James
Herriot's books, which depict the slower
and more stable times of pre-World War
II. The profession is much more complex
now; it consists of a disparate collection
of careers, ranging from the traditional
mixed practitioner, still very much
extant in rural areas, to the swine specialist, small animal practitioner, cat practitioner, laboratory animal veterinarian,
feedlot veterinarian, exotic animal practitioner, and equine veterinarian of today.
Increasingly, practices are being limited
to even more well-defined areas. In large
cities, multi-specialist practices are no
longer unusual and often cover a range of
clinical disciplines, e.g., orthopedic surgery, ophthalmology, internal medicine,
oncology, and neurology. The many roles
played by veterinarians in academia,
government, and industry, as well as in
medical and veterinary research institutions, round out the image and opportunities of the modern veterinarian. In
addition, veterinary capabilities are being
amplified by a new member of the veterinary professional team-the veterinary
technician. The value to the profession of
this group is now well-established. Veterinary schools have the daunting responsibility for educating and training all
members of this extended veterinary
team.
In our deliberations, we evaluated our
current programs relative to this responsibility, and we clearly came up short.
This is particularly true for our DVM
program where our focus is still on training generalists, despite the diminishing
career opportunities that require or warrant such training. The modern veterinarian, as described above, is more often
as not a specialist, whose very competitiveness depends on specialist knowledge
and skills, plus the ability to remain current in rapidly changing times.
In the future, the roles of members of
the veterinary team can be expected to
become even better defined. The trend
towards specialization will continue,
indeed will probably accelerate, in response to the expanding knowledge base
and complexity of veterinary medicine
and to society's demand for greater proficiency and competency-reflexedly
expressed as increased accountability.
We have given a great deal of thought
to how the veterinary school of the
future will meet these increased responsibilities. Our conclusions form the foundation for our plan for the 21st century.
These and our plan are outlined below.
The Future of Veterinary Medicine
It is said that scientific information is
doubling every 20 months! This "information explosion" will have a profound
influence on veterinary medicine and how
veterinarians are educated in the future.
The volume of information is becoming
too great for an individual to know, even
for a single discipline or species. The emphasis in professional education will
therefore have to shift from knowledge
acquisition to knowledge utilization.
Understanding how to gain access to
sources of information, how to correlate
and assemble it, and how to make accurate judgements, will be emphasized far
more than factual knowledge in the
future. Thus, the way we educate veterinary students will have to be radically
changed.
The generation and maintenance of
up-to-date data/knowledge bases (increasingly electronic) will become a major
activity of veterinary school teaching
faculty. Their role in disseminating information will change out of necessity, and
emphasis will be given to imparting conceptual understanding, problem-solving,
and decision-making skills, as well as
methods for readily accessing pertinent
veterinary databases, e.g., computer searches, video disc libraries, etc. In addition,
the attitudes and habits necessary for
lifelong learning must be instilled during
the professional training period, along
with the core of knowledge and practical skills that launch a graduate along
a particular career path. A new philosophical approach to teaching the veterinary sciences will be needed, together
with a major effort to develop the necessary data/knowledge bases.
To accommodate the need for lifelong
learning, so necessary for graduates to
remain current and competitive, effective
continuing education programs will be
needed. The profession will increasingly
look to faculty to supply these. Such programs will entail intense educational and
training sessions designed to impart not
only knowledge and skills, but also the
confidence to apply them in the workplace, be it practice, laboratory, or office.
With the shift from knowledge acquisition to knowledge utilization, clinical
training will become even more "hands
S. Royer
Dear Colleagues:
This brief outline of our plan for the future,
out of necessity, lacks detail; It does, however,
convey the breadth of change that we are contemplating. Change is a difficult and stressful process
for all of us, and I am sure that from time to time,
this will show. Nevertheless, change is now urgently needed if we are to be a leading organization in
the future. Purdue SVM has a history of leading
the way, and I have been very impressed by our
faculty's and staff's willingness to chart new directions. Much is needed to support these efforts.
We need to increase the size of our faculty and
staff; we need a new small animal hospital building; we need much more research laboratory space;
we need new animal housing facilities; we need
funding for a vigorous faculty development program; we need many, many things. However, we
have a plan to get all of these things, and what we need most of all is to get behind
it and Implement it with energy and enthusiasm. H ah Bl      I     I
Dean
on" than at present. Students will work
alongside academic clinicians and clinical
investigators in well-equipped and sophisticated veterinary teaching hospitals.
These will provide ideal learning environments. The onus will be on students to
acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to be competent veterinarians throughout their professional
careers. Opportunities will exist for
species, as well as discipline specialization, and for investigative training. Members of the veterinary team will thus be
trained to work together.
To cope with the rapidly increasing
knowledge base, given that resources are
limited (number of faculty, space, etc.),
veterinary schools will also evolve along
specialist lines, reflecting existing discipline strengths and regional responsibilities. Expertise and specialist knowledge
will increasingly be shared between
schools, via access to databases and components of educational programs. Thus,
educational programs will become much
more flexible and will provide many more
career path opportunities to students
than at present.
Where geographically possible, collaborative programs will be established
between veterinary schools and animal
science departments, to train specialists
for the animal production industry and
other segments of agribusiness. Veterinary schools, in cooperation with schools
of science, pharmacy, engineering, and
management will also train veterinary
scientists for non-clinical careers in areas
such as: biotechnology, bioengineering,
pharmacology, toxicology, agribusiness
management, as well as the traditional
basic sciences. Collaborative training/
educational programs will also be established with the private sector and government institutions for the benefit of all
parties. Veterinary schools will need to
modify their closed "professional school"
environment for students preparing for
careers in a rapidly changing science and
profession; faculty will be increasingly
involved with the generation, assembly,
and application of new information.
Veterinary schools will be much more
research-oriented once faculty and students are freed from the engorgement-
regurgitation "learning" cycle typically
associated with the factual knowledge-
based programs of today.
The impact of the information explosion will demand great flexibility and
commitment to innovation on the part of
SVM faculty and administration. Indeed,
this would be an appropriate theme for
success in the future. Educators will
increasingly be expected to understand
the trends and forces that are shaping the
profession and adapt their teaching programs accordingly. Rather than simply
reacting to change, educators would do
better to help shape the future by anticipating trends and preparing students for
them. Obviously, educational programs
will have to become highly flexible, while
curricula must remain current and relevant.
OUR PLAN AND PROGRESS TO DATE
Administration
Administrative flexibility is essential
during times of significant change, i.e.,
the foreseeable future! For this reason,
and to improve operational efficiency in
the SVM, we have adopted a more matrix
operating structure. Decision-making is
decentralized as far as is possible, being
disseminated to the areas of greatest
familiarity and expertise. Such an arrangement encourages contact between
people rather than simply up and down
the lines of authority. Increased responsibility/authority also promotes personal
growth   among  faculty   and  staff. This
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