When Veterinary Students Need Supervision

For those already familiar with Change.org, it won't be much of a surprise that I often sign petitions that a school or company change a policy that's obviously not working for somebody.

The system then leads to petitions that I suspect were started by members of the current administration, pleading for more support for some of the controversial federal policies this web site tends to oppose if we have an opinion about them at all...I find it interesting to frustrate the system designers by supporting only the petitions that make sense.

Like this one from Lee Henkel of Riner, Virginia:

http://www.change.org/petitions/virginia-tech-stop-letting-vet-school-residents-practice-without-faculty-supervision-2

I've taken the same cat to two different fully certified vets and received wildly different diagnoses, so I understand that if Lee Henkel's cat had been treated by a licensed veterinarian he might have been incorrectly diagnosed anyway. And all the diagnoses sound serious; even if correctly diagnosed, the cat might have died. Veterinary care involves, at best, a lot of guesswork.

That's why it's important that veterinarians at least have done their best to help--that they show due respect to the person paying the bill. That's where Virginia Tech let Lee Henkel down. No fully qualified veterinarian saw the cat Bertram. Is that the kind of customer relations skills veterinary students need to be learning at Virginia Tech?

Fellow Virginians, if you believe your tax dollars should be used to provide a decent quality of education and assure a reasonable level of competence for the people who will be working for you in another year or two, please sign this petition. One signature per person but you're encouraged to circulate the petition to everyone you know.