Descriptive study of specific Veterinary Medicine Science disciplines offered in undergraduate programs in Brazil

Abstract

The areas of activity of a professional trained in a bachelor’s degree in Veterinary Medicine are quite broad. Its activities go beyond clinical and surgical practice, in favor of animal health, they are related to the creation of domestic animals, as well as the production and inspection of their respective products and derivatives, including involvement with animal health protection actions, that interconnect public health actions. To be able to act in such a plural way, the veterinarian needs to be trained, in order to interact in an egalitarian and balanced way with all areas of activity, through the disciplines of the undergraduate courses. In this way, the objective of the present work was to know how the distribution of specific training contents of undergraduate courses in Veterinary Medicine in Brazil has been made. An exploratory, descriptive and quantitative study was used, using the document analysis technique. In which the objects of study were curricular matrices of undergraduate courses in Veterinary Medicine registered in the information system of the Ministry of Education. It was found that the areas of Veterinary Medicine Sciences present a lot of difference in the number of hours available, with no balance between the contents. The Veterinary Clinic has 52.4% of the workload, followed by 23.8% for Animal Science and Production, 13.4% for Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Public Health, 9.3% for Inspection and Technology of Products of Animal Origin, and 1.1% for other subjects. This influx of one area of ​​professional activity to the detriment of the others becomes harmful to the formation of the student, as it loses the initial purpose of the profession, which is the maintenance of human well-being, through animal health care.