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Club program promotes dialogue with practitioners

A popular forum focusing on the business concerns of veterinary students and practitioners will take place May 4 for its third consecutive year at the 83rd annual meeting of the Florida Veterinary Medical Association, to be held at the Tampa Marriott Hotel.

The event, called “Closing the Gap,” encourages dialogue between veterinary students, practitioners and industry representatives across a range of topics and is aimed at helping all groups better understand each other’s expectations in the work environment.

The program will be held from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and includes roundtable discussions and lunch. Sponsored by the UF College of Veterinary Medicine’s student chapter of the Veterinary Business Management Association, the event was conceived in 2009 after UF VBMA members attended a national meeting in Orlando focused on veterinary student debt.

“We thought those debt-related discussions were helpful, but wanted to take some of the concepts in a different direction,” said Laura Seheult, then-VBMA president and a member of the college’s Class of 2012

A committee was formed within UF’s VBMA chapter to further pursue what might be done. The result was the “Closing the Gap” seminar, and attendance is now mandatory for junior veterinary students.

Topics will include what makes a successful practice, practice partnership and ownership, and internship vs. mentoring.

“We are hoping to have as many practitioners pre-registered as possible, so we can work out the many logistics,” said Danielle Marks, a sophomore student and the group’s marketing chairman.

Although registration for the FVMA conference is not required to participate in the VBMA program, registration for the program is required. Practitioners are strongly encouraged to pre-register, although walk-up registration will be allowed the day of the event. For more information about the event or to register, email ufvbma@gmail.com.