Master of Public Health / Department of Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology / Justin J. Kastner / David G. Renter / The history of veterinary medicine is intimately intertwined with duties to public health. This has remained true over centuries, and is becoming even more important with recent significant threats to public health. Despite this, the veterinary profession is failing to meet increasing needs for veterinarians trained in population medicine and public health, nationally and internationally. Current accreditation requirements for veterinary schools and colleges are vague with regard to public health education, leaving each college or school of veterinary medicine to implement its own perception of veterinary public health education. Is the public health education in veterinary curricula adequate among U.S. veterinary colleges and schools? Our inventory of the veterinary curricula in the 28 U.S. veterinary schools and colleges revealed inadequacies in veterinary public health education delivery. We found that most colleges and schools are lacking in the major veterinary public health subjects as recommended by the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine and the World Health Organization. The issue of inadequacies, even deficiencies, within health professional curricula is not unique to the veterinary profession. What have other health professions proposed to correct their own perceived deficiencies within their educational curricula? We identified deficiencies and proposed solutions from three health professions and discussed their solutions as potential approaches to remedy the inconsistency in public health delivery in veterinary curricula. The dental profession addressed lack of faculty effectiveness with faculty development programs. The medical profession identified an outdated and irrelevant pre-medical curriculum and is currently considering reforming it. The chiropractic profession identified a lack of public health education in its curriculum and organized a standardized public health course. Health professions are similar in content of curricula and length of professional program. In addition, the health professions have similar pre-requisites. They also share similar challenges: faculty shortages, high student debt loads, and rising educational costs. Because of these similarities, solutions to perceived curricular deficiencies proposed in one health profession can be used to address deficiencies in other health professions. Therefore, the dental, medical, and chiropractic professions have proposed solutions that should be considered in addressing the veterinary profession's curricular deficiency of inadequacy in public health education.

Traditional models for public health professional education tend to be didactic, with brief, discrete practica appended. National reports of both practitioners and academicians have called for more competency-driven, interdisciplinary-focused, community-based, service-oriented, and experientially-guided learning for students across the curriculum. East Tennessee State University began its own curricular revisioning in health professions education nearly 2 decades ago with a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, emphasizing competencies development through community-based learning in community-academic partnerships. This article describes 3 examples that grew from that initiative. In the first example, students in multiple classes delivered a longitudinal community-based employee wellness intervention for a rural county school district. BS public health students conducted needs assessments and prepared health education materials; MPH students conducted health assessments and worked with school wellness councils to deliver client-centered interventions; DrPH students supervised the project and provided feedback to the schools using participatory methods. In the second example, MPH students in a social-behavioral foundations course used experiential learning to investigate the region's elevated cancer mortality ranking. Following meetings with multiple community groups, students employed theoretical constructs to frame regional beliefs about cancer and presented findings to community leaders. One outcome was a 5-year community-based participatory research study of cancer in rural Appalachia. In the third example, MPH students in a health-consulting course assessed local African Americans' awareness of the university's health and education programs and perceptions of their community health issues. Students learned consultation methods by assisting at multiple regional African American community meetings to discover issues and interest that resulted in the organization of a regional African American health coalition, multiple community health interventions, and the region's first health disparities summit. Lessons learned are presented which identify key elements of success and factors that influence adoption of community-based teaching and learning in public health.