Arkansas's first school of veterinary medicine is gearing up to welcome its inaugural class of students. The school, on the Arkansas State University campus in Jonesboro, will welcome its first class of 120 students in the fall.
Speaking at a meeting of the Rotary Club of Little Rock on Tuesday, the school's dean, Dr. Heidi Banse, said the school's physical space will be geared toward lab research and helping students build clinical skills.
"We also have an existing farm that currently is run by our College of Agriculture. We've got a number of animal herds there — a horse herd, a cattle herd, small ruminant herds, both goats and sheep. And all of those animals can then be used for hands-on training experiences for our students, which are critical in order to make them well trained and prepared to be veterinarians and go out and serve practice."
Banse says the eventual goal is to increase the number of veterinarians in Arkansas, where roughly a third of all counties are considered underserved by vet care. She says the school is also putting together so-called hubs of partner clinics for students to get hands-on experience.
"These hubs are areas where you see we've got multiple clusters of practices, so a student can move there for two to three months and take six or seven rotations rather than moving every two weeks. That's one of the challenges with community-centered programs — there is a lot of movement that has to happen with the students as they rotate through different practices. So setting them up in these population centers gives them opportunities to kind of move and get situated for a couple of months before they come back."
Four of the hubs will be located in Arkansas, with out-of-state hubs based in the St. Louis and Dallas areas. Of Arkansas's 75 counties, 12 have only one veterinarian, while nine have none at all.
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