A week-long secondment will give Werribee’s University of Melbourne Veterinary Hospital students hands-on experience in the real world.
The hospital vets and students will head to Gippsland next month to a restricted Aboriginal community, called Bung Yarnda, to desex cats and dogs.
Head of small-animal surgery Stewart Ryan said the project, a joint venture with World Veterinary Services and the RSPCA, would be a test at first-hand for seven students in their final years.
Dr Ryan said the plan was for the hospital’s trainee vets to work with the Bung Yarnda community each year.
“This really gives the students an opportunity to be a little bit creative and deal with some real-world situations,” he said.
“It’s different … when you’re working in a rural community.
“So it helps them be aware of some of those issues and how you have a co-ordinated approach to that particular issue versus a suburban practice, where the majority of dogs get desexed and have a single owner,” Dr Ryan said.
Head of anesthesia Dr Thierry Beths said the experience would also help students learn to interact with pets and their owners.
