Fourth-year student Sonja Lapinski brought the veterinary perspective to the School of Medicine at Oregon Health Sciences University with her presentation entitled “One health, one world, in action: The evolution of a student-led veterinary service trip to Nicaragua.” The presentation was given as part of Conversations in Global Medicine, an elective course for medical students. At her presentation on December 8th, there were about 45 people in attendance, including faculty and staff.
Sonja began by describing the goals of the International Veterinary Student Association, both in terms of the positive impact on the animal and human populations of underdeveloped areas, and in terms of the benefits derived by veterinary students who participate in the planning and implementation of a service trip. She presented statistics showing how the numbers of those participating and the numbers and types of animals seen have increased over the last five years. She described the clinic and field service set-up and presented some typical cases.
The enthusiastic audience had questions that ranged from medical, to public health-related, to “how many years is vet school and what is your curriculum like?” In discussions following the presentation, faculty and students expressed interest in collaborating on investigations of zoonotic diseases and other issues of public health.
