Bridging borders: The benefits of studying abroad for vet tech students

By Jennifer Serling, CVT, RVT, VTES, FVTE, BVSc, MVEd

When I started teaching veterinary technology almost two decades ago, I always dreamed of offering my students the opportunity to study abroad. This dream became a reality when I started at my current university position. For the last two years, I have led a group of vet tech students and faculty to Zimbabwe, Africa, to experience veterinary medicine in a whole new light.

While study experiences abroad are not unusual in many majors, providing these trips in veterinary technology programs is more difficult due to their fast-paced nature, intensive curriculum, and year-round classes. I advocate for programs to try to instill these opportunities, if possible, due to their benefits. The personal growth that occurs when immersed in another country is unequivocal, and students become better technicians with a deeper understanding of One Health and the human-animal bond.

Zimbabwe is a beautiful country that has struggled with economic instability due to currency devaluation and political battles. This has resulted in a large income disparity. The primary sources of income are agriculture and mining.

Zimbabwe provides an excellent opportunity for students to experience many of the situations they are taught in school, including conservation, zoonotic disease transmission, and access to care.

Preparing for the trip

Before the trip, students are required to attend a one-hour Zoom session, where they will be informed about the accommodations, hours spent on activities, possible agenda, and health requirements. Participants must be vaccinated for rabies (which is also required for their clinical hours, so it knocks both out in one swoop). I warn them the trip is not a two-week vacation at the Ritz. After all, we are staying in tents for a good portion of the time, where hot water is not always plentiful, cell phone and Wi-Fi services are questionable, and there are bugs … lots of bugs.

I also let them know we are staying in areas where wild animals roam through camps. They typically do not understand this fully until they hear lions roaring in the middle of the night or find dozens of elephant tracks right outside their tents in the morning.

What to expect

The trip starts with a focus on companion animals. Students are given the opportunity to work with Veterinarians for Animal Welfare Zimbabwe (VAWZ) and help in a village outside of Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. They assist in administering rabies vaccines and performing spays and neuters on dogs. Students also receive a tour of the Harare SPCA, which is a shelter servicing the city and one that can rival many municipal shelters seen in the United States.

From Harare, the group travels to Gweru, where they tour a cattle production farm and see how important this species is to the country's economy. Students also learn about local preventive care and how it differs from U.S. practices. Tick-borne diseases are extremely prevalent and significantly impact livestock. Rabies, transmitted mostly from jackals, is also a concern.

The students also work with a local veterinarian at the SPCA, helping with feline castrations and rabies vaccines. We also visit another village and help castrate and examine goats and cows. Students can see firsthand life outside the city in a third-world country.

The remainder of the trip is focused on wildlife conservation in Africa, including learning about the human-animal conflict faced in the country. Most surprising to students are the lectures on poaching and realizing that, while the activity is still a huge concern, many poachers are locals trying to obtain food or money to support their families.

Another project we participate in is marking trees with essential oils to see what scents would potentially deter lions. This information can help villages ward off lion attacks on their livestock.

We also spend significant time in Victoria Falls to tour one of the natural wonders of the world. We visit Community Animals Research & Education (CARE), a group that provides free veterinary services for the surrounding communities.

Seeing the bigger picture

While seeing incredible African wildlife in their natural habitat is a huge draw, the students learn about conservation and why protection for many of the species seen is necessary prior to venturing on a game drive. It's a great photo opportunity and a lot of fun, but there is learning and transformation involved, too.

I open this trip to students of all levels of experience. My only academic requirement is they must have completed or received credit for our two introductory veterinary technology courses. This ensures they have some basic understanding of the veterinary healthcare team, restraint and behavior, and terminology. This year, I had two credentialed technicians, as well as an assortment of students in various stages of their education.
In my program, we use team-based learning, or TBL, to get students used to working in a team setting and to provide opportunities for them to interact with other students, which can be a challenge in an online program. One of the bonuses of studying abroad is they get to see team-based learning in action. Students who have a lot of experience will naturally coach and instruct less confident students, and instructors who have never been able to meet in person are suddenly working as a team within days of just meeting for the first time. It is truly a phenomenal thing to witness.

Other benefits to a study program abroad, such as this, are seeing the One Health perspective in action. Seeing how veterinary medicine can impact human lives and vice versa. Students interact in shelters and villages and participate in the education of pet owners in a completely different scenario than what they would experience in the U.S., but also being able to see the similarities. They can learn about diseases that are less commonly seen or eradicated in our country but are extremely prevalent in Africa. They can have insight into veterinary medicine in resource-limited environments

Our facilitators with EDU Africa also provide language lessons throughout the trip and students are able to communicate with simple common phrases by the end. The two main languages spoken in the areas we visit are Shona and Ndebele. It is important they develop and apply intercultural communication skills and attitudes by speaking in our hosts' native languages and respecting their cultures and traditions.

I see significant changes in my students from the beginning of the trip to the end. They are more confident having traveled thousands of miles away with complete strangers. Some participants have never even flown before! They feel a sense of pride and accomplishment for having taken a leap of faith and completed a trip like this. They gain new skills. Some students who have never given injections before are now comfortable administering subcutaneous injections, which gives them confidence going into their clinical externships.

Probably the biggest transformation I have seen is falling in love with a country, its citizens, and its animals, and that is life changing. My students have engaged in so many new experiences and overcome cultural biases. I cannot recommend providing study abroad opportunities not just to students, but to anyone in veterinary medicine. There are many programs outside of academia that offer trips like this. Getting out of our comfort zone and becoming a global agent for change is truly life-altering.

Jennifer Serling, CVT, RVT, VTES, FVTE, BVSc, MVEd, is a credentialed technician with more than 30 years of experience in the profession. Serling has a vast array of experience in both large and small animal medicine, as well as academia. She is currently the director at Appalachian State University Veterinary Technology Program and serves on multiple boards and committees working to enhance the veterinary profession.