Summer/Fall 2013 PDF - University of Minnesota College of ...

COMMUNITY SERVICE
deworming, and animal care education,
in reservation communities in Minnesota.
Their first clinic in 2009 served 74 patients
on the Leech Lake Reservation in northern
Minnesota. Now, the organization’s
100 student members—approximately
one-third of the veterinary student
population—team up with volunteer
veterinarians and veterinary technicians
to host three clinics each year on the
Leech Lake and White Earth reservations.
Because the reservations are so large, they
visit different communities each time,
trying to reach the more remote areas that
have fewer services.
Assisted by a student, right, Dr. Arlo Frost volunteers his time to conduct surgery at a SIRVS clinic in a
gym on the White Earth Indian Reservation. Frost is a CVM alumnus who practices at Silver Lake Animal
Hospital in Oakdale, Minnesota. His son, veterinary student Brendan Frost, is the incoming president of
SIRVS.
Expanding veterinary
medicine’s reach with
SIRVS
Spring break: It invokes colorful
images of students partying in
bikinis on sunny beaches, without a
care in the world.
But this year, veterinary student
Elizabeth Parks and fellow members of
the Student Initiative for Reservation
Veterinary Services (SIRVS) had other
plans. Bundled in parkas, boots, hats, and
mittens, they set off in a van on a 245-mile
drive north through a Minnesota blizzard.
They journeyed past Little Falls and
Detroit Lakes to the White Earth Indian
Reservation and out County Road 4 to the
Naytahwaush Sports Facility. Along with
about 24 other students, four veterinarians,
and two veterinary technicians, they set up
a makeshift clinic on the basketball court,
where they would work, eat, and sleep for
four days.
And they loved every minute of it.
Bringing veterinary care to
underserved communities
SIRVS is a group of veterinary
students with a mission: to train future
veterinarians by serving communities in
need, offering clinics to provide veterinary
services, including surgery, vaccinations,
Clinics generally last four days and offer
physical exams, vaccinations, internal
and external parasite treatment, testing for
heartworm, anaplasmosis, ehrlichiosis, and
Lyme disesase, spay and neuter surgeries,
and client education. Spay and neuter
surgeries and emergency procedures are
limited to the first three days to ensure that
the veterinary team will be around for at
least another day to monitor the patients.
Because some locations especially need
rabies vaccines, SIRVS sometimes offers a
rabies vaccine-only station. The fourth day
is mostly devoted to wellness exams and
follow-up care.
Clients are usually waiting outside the
door with their pets by 6 a.m., and the
clinic runs from about 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.,
sometimes longer. At the end of each day,
the group meets as a team to talk about
what went well and what they can improve
on the next day.
STUDENT PROFILE
Elizabeth Parks
CLASS: 2014
HOMETOWN: Pasadena, California
STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS:
president, Student Initiative for
Reservation Veterinary Service
PROFESSIONAL GOALS: a one- to
two-year mentorship in small
animal practice; a career in
small animal public health and
preventive medicine
10 Profiles Summer/Fall 2013