Second- and third-graders play veterinarian for a day at BluePearl Veterinary Partners in Manhattan where they wear lab coats, perform surgery, and explore real medical equipment used by real-life veterinarians.
On a typical Wednesday night, David Bessler, VMD, can be found at BluePearl Veterinary Partners in Manhattan, performing surgery as several lab-coat-clad helpers look on. This scene may not be so different from any other night at the animal hospital, except that the lab coats are filled by two dozen second- and third-grade students in Dr. Bessler’s Little Vets after-school program.
Kids in the Little Vets program play veterinarian for a day at BluePearl Veterinary partners in Manhattan. |
Through the Little Vets program, which he founded in 2010, “Dr. Dave” teaches young children the basic concepts of veterinary medicine. The kids get the chance to visit BluePearl, a specialty and emergency animal hospital at 410 W. 55th St., where they see a variety of live animals and explore real medical equipment such as a CT scanner, X-ray machine, MRI, and ultrasound.
And while they don’t treat the pets that come in, the students watch the treatment process from a safe learning distance and get to perform “surgery” by learning to place stitches on a banana.
“I think you can’t learn about the world without falling in love with it,” says Bessler, a senior clinician in BluePearl’s emergency service department. “And I think the more these kids learn about animals, the more they’ll come to love them.”
In addition to the Little Vets program, Bessler offers Advanced Little Vets, a course through which children learn the fundamentals of orthopedic surgery, become familiar with the diagnosis and treatment of common and not-so-common animal toxins, learn about diabetes and parasites, explore the brain, and go on field trips.
For more information, visit littlevets.com.
