There is a substantial difference between being taught how to do something and being put in the position of doing it. This is particularly important when your career involves medicine of any sort, and especially when your patients range in size and physiology from chihuahuas to Holstein cows. There is no one blueprint for the entire animal kingdom, and so veterinary students have the challenging pleasure of learning how to work medicine based on landmarks. Many of these landmarks include structures that may be visible in some patients, but many of which are strictly palpable. That alone requires significant hands-on time- time that, due to the many, many demands placed on a veterinary student during the school year - is often sought extracurricularly. Not to mention, there are a vast number of other basic, clinical techniques that require practice to perfect. Virginia-Maryland is a fantastic location teeming with incredible opportunities, don't get me wrong, but if state regulation continues to disallow us experiential learning in the off-months, we're missing out on valuable knowledge - not just about what a normal patient feels like, but also fundamental skills like catheter placement, blood draws, nerve blocks, pregnancy checks, physical exams, lameness examns, and so on.
Further, nothing - absolutely nothing - is better for truer learning than hands-on experience. In-class work and book reading is necessary, but untl this knowledge is put to practice, it exists strictly in the abstract. It's no surprise that so many vet students have animals of their own - because we love them, but also because nothing teaches you how to listen to a heart or complete a physical exam or pill a dog better than doing those things on your own (perhaps exasperated) animals! Scheduled lab times and extracurricular wetlabs certainly help transform this abstract knowledge to practical knowledge - but the amount of time spent in a lab with our hands on an animal is far, far less than the amount of time spent in a classroom. The opportunity to make-up some of this difference in winter break and summer work and/or learning experiences would lend to a greater understanding of our patients, more confident students (and thus, more confident veterinarians), and a better foundation for future learning.
Virginia-Maryland promises Day 1 veterinarians by virtue of the required graduation competencies as outlined by the AAVMC and AAVM, but we could be even better. Allow experiential work and you allow us to accelerate our on-the-job training; allow us to accelerate our on-the-job training and you've got more competent veterinarians in your workforce faster. Competency lends itself to a healthier food supply, a bolstered public health system, and increased production - and all of these contribute to the health and well-being of Virginia, its economy, and - most importantly - its residents.