ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Veterinary Humanities and Social Sciences
This article is part of the Research TopicEnhancing Veterinary Access Through One Health and Interprofessional CollaborationsView all 17 articles
Beyond Clinical Skills: Student-Reported Impacts of a Veterinary Public Health Externship in Rural Alaska
Provisionally accepted
- 1Colorado State University, Fort Collins, United States
- 2College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States
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Preventive medicine and public health are critical components of veterinary curricula, requiring students to understand their role in the health of communities and people beyond their animal patients. However, students considering a career in public health often face gaps in the depth of this curriculum. From 2019 to 2024, students from Colorado State University (CSU) and its University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) partner participated in the Hub Outpost Project (HOP) externship's community visits to Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta communities in rural Alaska. The curriculum emphasized veterinary professional concepts, surgical and clinical experience, community engagement and cultural awareness, and self-and team-mindfulness. Through repeated practice and direct exposure to providing care, students improved a variety of clinical and professional skills. Student impacts were assessed through a survey of the participating veterinary students from both institutions. Students primarily reported impacts related to gaining clinical and communication skills, the breadth of human-animal bonds, engaging directly with clients and patients, and realizations and understandings that quality medicine is possible with limited resources. These findings suggest that experiential learning not only greatly improves skills for students but also engages students in areas of veterinary medicine that need an increased workforce, such as rural medicine, while increasing their understanding of diverse community needs.
Keywords: veterinary students, Rural medicine, access to care, Experiential learning, Veterinary skills, Alaska
Received: 17 Apr 2025; Accepted: 20 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Meythaler-Mullins, Lobdell and Frey. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Laurie Meythaler-Mullins, lauriemm@colostate.edu
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