Veterinary medical education and a changing culture

Veterinary medical education is undergoing rapid change in terms of pedagogy, the demographics of the student body, and, in turn, the membership of the profession. Central to the value of the traditional curriculum and the total student experience is the small-group environment, both in client service and in clinical rounds. It is one of the few Socratic learning experiences in higher education today. Similarly, experience in private practice is of inestimable value in terms of developing people skills and a lasting sense of service and accountabilty. In a generation, the student body has transformed from vanishingly small numbers of women to a predominance of female students. However, the profession still is very white, in a world becoming more and more diverse. With a predominantly white faculty and student body today, this circumstance shows little promise of rapid enough change to maintain relevance to a workforce that, a generation from now, likely will be dominated numerically by people of color. The incorporation of various world views and the impact of stereotyping on performance are central to issues of success and failure of minorities and, in somewhat different ways, women in the veterinary medical profession. These issues must become better understood and addressed. And to accomplish this, and to address a host of other culturally important issues, a greater diversity of world views must be engaged in the work and planning of veterinary medical education and the profession at large. Addressing these issues in an environment in which the values of faculty and administrators are intensely focused on the science of veterinary medicine, and in which the participants hold dear a system that places value only on teaching, research, and clinical service, is a formidable undertaking and will require substantial reconsideration of faculty role and reward systems.