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Website Mission

Mission
The Student Veterinary Emergency Response Team (sVERT) at the University of California, Davis, provides veterinary students the opportunity to supplement their education with hands-on training and experience in disaster medicine.

There is minimal room in the current curriculum at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine to discuss emergency response and disaster preparedness in spite of being an important responsibility of veterinarians worldwide. Our Special Studies Program (SSP) aims to fill this gap in knowledge through a joint effort between the UC Davis Veterinary Emergency Response Team (VERT) and the student chapter (sVERT). This course, which has been offered and refined over the past seven years, is designed for students interested in disaster response, public health, and other safety interests. The goals of SSP are twofold: (1) to provide veterinary students with the knowledge and practical training to engage with and serve the community in the event of a disaster, and (2) to establish a basic skill set that can be utilized by a veterinary student during a disaster response. sVERT offers two year-long SSP courses, SSPI and SSP2, both of which include evening and weekend sessions that incorporate didactic and hands-on learning. Enrolled 1st and 2nd year students can choose one of three specialized tracks: Companion Animal, Large Animal, or Mixed Animal Track.

Upon program completion, students can become Disaster Service Workers and contribute to emergency response efforts when requested by government services.

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