Veterinarian Program Proposal

docx

School

Liberty University *

*We aren’t endorsed by this school

Course

VETERINARY

Subject

Medicine

Date

Apr 3, 2024

Type

docx

Pages

Uploaded by CrazyStudyMonkey

1 Student Name Prof. Name ENGL Date Liberty University: Adding Veterinary Education Proposal Being a veterinarian is a dream come true for many individuals and it can actually be integrated with something holy like religion. Bringing the passion for God together with the passion felt towards living beings can prove to be a quite harmonious combination. However, there should be a specific foundation to achieve this, the institution needs to have a religious background. Therefore, a university with a Christian foundation could prove to be quite appropriate for such an endeavor. For this exact reason Liberty University is chosen as the goal and the paper aims to propose adding veterinary faculty to this university. Focusing on the Liberty University firstly, it can be seen that is a private Christian university located in Lynchburg, Virginia and Founded in 1971 by Dr. Jerry Falwell, the university dedicates itself to training champions for Christ. With its top-level quality, Liberty University provides world-class education, with over 700 programs from the certificate to the doctoral level for over 109,000 students and Liberty University's mission statement is to develop Christ-centered men and women to get a degree and train champions for Christ. At Liberty University, the Bachelor of Science in Zoology Degree, a pre-veterinary medicine degree is offered for students that wish to pursue a career in the veterinary field. According to the Liberty University Degrees Programs webpage, the courses in the program cover biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics, which are required for veterinary school

2 admission. However, for some individuals, this may seem a bit lacking to be a veterinary. The reason for that is the fact that Veterinary program is designed to provide knowledge, information, and the skills necessary to become a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM). According to American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), there are 32 veterinary schools in the USA. However, the schools that are available do not have any religious affiliation. For this exact reason there are fewer options for a student who would like to choose a faith-based university. Now looking deeper at the proposal, it should be known that integrating Christian faith in a medical and educational environment would lead students to better mental health and success and bring job opportunities for professors. After all, due to the stress and other variables the students may be exposed to constantly they may feel under pressure and they may need something that will ease their minds. That is why Liberty University, the largest Christian university in the USA, should adopt the veterinary program. After all, veterinary studies include a challenging curriculum with long hours of research and a high level of empathy which will be a great strain on the students. As a proof to this, according to a survey by Brscic, vet students are struggling with mental illness, making them at a higher risk of suicide, burnout, and depression than other occupational groups. These problems become exceptionally high for students in their second and third years of veterinary school. Another study by Shamsi and his collogues shows how integrating spiritual care positively affects medical staff and patients’ mental health which will show the positive results of such an endeavor. That’s why there should be an integration between those two departments. The lessons and the weight of many different elements can be a burden after a certain point as it was mentioned before and it can lead to burnout. In order to avoid burnout the students should something different in their school lives that will keep them grounded and religion can prove to be a great anchor that can do it.

3 Focusing on the outcomes, the first outcome Liberty University will get by adopting the veterinarian program will be institutional learning. As an example to this, the ability to apply the learned material for treating animals. Job-related abilities such as surgery, medicine, and problem-solving skills and the program's learning outcomes will make graduates of Liberty University be able to practice veterinary medicine and call themselves veterinarians. Another aspect they will improve themselves on will be demonstrating empathy and concern for animals and people. While focusing on the student learning outcomes, this education will help students to safely conduct medical and surgical procedures for animal health treatment, care, and maintenance. They will be able to act quickly to emergencies and address them proficiently. They will be specially quick regarding the issue involving biosecurity and infectious illnesses, in order to protect the environment, animals, and people. Also it should not be forgotten that zoology does not exactly focus of the medicine aspect and to work as a veterinarian, zoology degree may be a bit lacking. Therefore, getting the veterinarian degree will be beneficial for the students that are dreaming of being one. They will get more knowledge on medicinal and surgical knowledge as well and they will be able to become full-fledged veterinarians. However, the minor risk that should be taken into consideration while focusing on this topic would be a change in unemployment. In Smither's article “Do We Need More Veterinary Schools?“ a veterinarian Dr. McCurnin said that “For the first time, we are hearing about an unemployment rate for veterinarians of 3.2%,” while “debt is climbing 6%–8% a year” (McCurnin 49) and focusing this aspect would make this decision a worrisome one but there is a different variable that will counter this aspect. According to AAVMC, the job market for veterinarians is predicted to grow 16 percent from 2019 to 2029 which is 4% higher than the growth rate for all occupations (VMCAS, 5). For this exact reason, it can be said that there are

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help

4 always new career opportunities for veterinarians and the veterinary program will open new job opportunities for veterinarian professors and zoology /biology professors. Therefore, job opportunities should not be one of the worries of students. Also looking at this from the viewpoint of an academic and a religious individual it should not be forgotten that to be successful in class is necessary to have a proper instructor “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” ( Holy Bible , Corinthians 2:16). Success in any aspect of the Christian life is becoming what God requires of us. If God requires that we be Christian doctors, then we must know what that is. A person that follows the road of the God is bound to be a great doctor and those individuals should be given the chance to be one. Shortly it can be clearly seen that the Veterinary program fits with the Liberty University mission of educating its students while learning about the God at the same time. Considering the religious nature of this institution, combining the Veterinary program with a religious point of view will benefit many people. Another important point is that Zoology degree may prove to be lacking for some individuals if they want to be veterinarians so enlarging the scope of the education by adding Veterinary education will be very beneficial. Some may feel worried about the job as well but as it was proven in the paper, there are many opportunities for veterinarians to shine. Also, most importantly the fact that a person with compassion towards God will make a great doctor that will feel compassionate towards the lives of animals as well.

5 Works Cited “Bachelor's Degree in Zoology (Pre-Vet).” Liberty University Residential, Liberty University . www.liberty.edu/residential/health-sciences/bachelors/zoology/ Brscic, Marta et al. “Challenging suicide, burnout, and depression among veterinary practitioners and students: text mining and topics modeling analysis of the scientific literature.” BMC veterinary research, vol. 17, no. 294, 2021, pp. 1–10 . PubMed Centra . https://doi.org/10.1186/s12917-021-03000-x “History of Liberty.” About Liberty, Liberty University . www.liberty.edu/about/history-of- liberty/ “Purpose & Mission Statement” About Liberty , 2014. Liberty University . www.liberty.edu/about/purpose-and-mission-statement/ Shamsi, Mahbobeh et al. “Improving psychiatric nurses' competencies in spiritual care and integration of clients' religion/spirituality into mental healthcare: outcomes of an online spiritual care training program.” BMC psychiatry , vol. 22, no.645, 2022, pp. 1–12, PubMed Central . https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04280-9 Smither, Suzanne. “Do We Need More Veterinary Schools?” Veterinary Team Brief , 2015, pp. 49–48, Think About This . files.brief.vet/migration/article/22261/tat_do-we-need-more- veterinary-schools-22261-article.pdf Holy Bible . King James Version, Christian Art Publishers, 2016. Print “VMCAS 2023 Applicant Guide” American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges , pp. 1- 36, 2022. AAVMC . www.aavmc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/AAVMC-VMCAS2023- Applicant-Guide.pdf

Veterinarian Program Proposal

Related Documents