As students alot of out veterinary education is coming from a textbook especially with regard to surgery. Often new graduates out of school find themselves having to perform a procedure they have never done and there source of information is nothing more than a book with a description on how to perform. Some of us get lucky with a great mentor who will help in those situations so there is some kind of indication of how the procedure should go. I think alot of people become afraid when they think of students performing medicine or surgery but the plus side is that there is someone experienced watching over them. I would be more worried by a new grad, who now has a license but has no one watching them and is performing something for the first time ever! Its ridiculous to say only 4th year students are competant to be supervised in surgery. If the supervising veterinarian is confident in that student and this information has been relayed to the owner and they are ok with it why is that not acceptable. There are other industries in which it is not a veterinarian performing surgery but a technician who has been taught to do the procedure as in ferrets. Dont deny years 1-3 an opportunity to become more familiar and mre comfortable with surgery, this way they can really feel confident upon graduation with doing the more common procedures. Of course unless you are going into a residency it is going to be hard getting experience with all surgeries but to gain knowledge in the more common general practice scenarios is certainly doable.