An essential need: creating opportunities for veterinary students and graduates to gain an appreciation of responsibilities and opportunities in global veterinary issues

Globalisation trends and biorterrorism issues have led to new concerns relating to public health, animal health, international trade and food security. There is an imperative to internationalise and strengthen global public health capacity by renewed emphasis on veterinary public health in veterinary education and increasing opportunities for elective experiential learning in public practice programmes for veterinary students. Recent experience with a US-Brazil Higher Education Consortia Program is used as an example of potential ways in which veterinary students can gain an appreciation for global veterinary issues.

Inequalities in access to education and healthcare

The burden of disease is borne by those who suffer as patients but also by society at large, including health service providers. That burden is felt most severely in parts of the world where there is no infrastructure, or foreseeable prospects of any, to change the status quo without external support. Poverty, disease and inequality pervade all the activities of daily living in low-income regions and are inextricably linked. External interventions may not be the most appropriate way to impact on this positively in all circumstances, but targeted programmes to build social capital, within and by countries, are more likely to be sustainable. By these means, basic oral healthcare, underpinned by the primary healthcare approach, can be delivered to more equitably address needs and demands. Education is fundamental to building knowledge-based economies but is often lacking in such regions even at primary and secondary level. Provision of private education at tertiary level may also introduce its own inequities. Access to distance learning and community-based practice opens opportunities and is more likely to encourage graduates to work in similar areas. Recruitment of faculty from minority groups provides role models for students from similar backgrounds but all faculty staff must be involved in supporting and mentoring students from marginalized groups to ensure their retention. The developed world has to act responsibly in two crucial areas: first, not to exacerbate the shortage of skilled educators and healthcare workers in emerging economies by recruiting their staff; second, they must offer educational opportunities at an economic rate. Governments need to lead on developing initiatives to attract, support and retain a competent workforce.

Reflexão sobre o ensino farmacêutico

This paper aims to discuss the directions of pharmaceutical education based on the new curriculum guidelines from MEC (Ministry of Education - Brazil). In the recent past, Brazilian pharmaceutical faculties prioritized the formation of professional resources in specific modalities in detriment of pharmacist's private field: the prescription filling and delivery at the drugstore. In order to avoid repeating the same mistake it is necessary to develop new competence, allowing the graduates to develop skills to connect the scientific and technological knowledge to Brazilian social context. The new curriculum guidelines are about to finish a time when the undergraduate studies seemed to split the pharmacist into two different professionals: one for the clinical analysis and other for the pharmaceutical industry. The previous educational model, which supposedly allows for pharmaceutical care without providing a broad integral knowledge of health sciences, cannot be repeated in the new curriculum. However, teaching subjects in a superficial and segmented manner, replete of predictable and repetitive technical practices and without a skilled teaching staff, will give no improvement in pharmacists education care. It is clear that the return of the formation of specific human resources in the field won't happen in short time.