3 foreign graduates, 1 American dream

Dr. Victoria Kartashova received a veterinary degree in her native Russia, then came to San Francisco looking for adventure.

After working several odd jobs, she decided she wanted to become a full-time veterinarian. The AVMA Educational Commission for Foreign Veterinary Graduates helped make that happen.

Today, Dr. Kartashova, like fellow California veterinarians Dr. Anukirat Nanda and Dr. Allan Drusys, is living the American dream. All three took separate paths, and all used the ECFVG in different ways while pursuing licensure in the United States. All of them faced challenges, but all say the ECFVG was instrumental in helping them get to where they are today.

Since the inception of the current certification program in 1973, the ECFVG has certified nearly 6,500 graduates of foreign veterinary colleges as having met the educational prerequisites for licensure. The program has evolved over the decades, but it continues to provide a way for foreign and American participants to practice veterinary medicine in the United States as their adopted or home country.

ECFVG

"This is part of the bridge for them to be able to do that," said Dr. Judy Coman, an assistant director of the AVMA Education and Research Division and staff consultant to the ECFVG program at the AVMA. "That is a wonderful thing."

Dr. Coman is an immigrant herself. She came to the United States from Taiwan at age 21 and saw how hard it was for her father to be recognized as a chemical engineer.

She attended veterinary college at Purdue University, graduating in 1993. While there, she worked with two ECFVG candidates, one from Poland and one from India, who were completing an evaluated clinical year. After graduation, she went into small animal practice, then laboratory animal medicine, where she met colleagues who also had gone through the ECFVG program.

At the AVMA, Dr. Coman is one of 3.5 full-time–equivalent employees working on the ECFVG. The commission itself consists of 12 voting members representing various groups (see sidebar).

To achieve ECFVG certification, candidates must complete the following four steps:

• Submit a diploma and transcripts from a veterinary college recognized by the AVMA.
• Provide proof of English language ability.
• Pass the Basic and Clinical Sciences Examination.
• Pass the Clinical Proficiency Examination.

Dr. Coman said candidates must prove they meet the same standards as a new graduate of a veterinary college accredited by the AVMA Council on Education, which accredits all U.S. and some foreign veterinary colleges. All 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia recognize ECFVG certification as meeting the educational prerequisite for licensure.

Most states as well as New Zealand and Australia also recognize certificates from the American Association of Veterinary State Boards' Program for the Assessment of Veterinary Education Equivalence, begun in 2002. That program requires an evaluated clinical experience rather than an examination in clinical proficiency. The ECFVG discontinued the evaluated clinical year in 2007, partly because it was hard to standardize.

Now that the AVMA Council on Education has accredited two Caribbean veterinary colleges that have mostly American students, Dr. Coman said, most participants in the ECFVG program are immigrants who want to practice in the United States. Others still include Americans who attended veterinary college abroad.

Dr. Drusys

Dr. Drusys, a native of the state of New York, is chief veterinarian for the County of Riverside Department of Animal Services in Riverside County, California.

After finishing his undergraduate degree at Florida State University, Dr. Drusys couldn't get into veterinary school in the United States. A friend was attending medical school in Belgium, which inspired him to move to Germany with his wife. He attended language school in Cologne before applying to the veterinary program at the Free University of Berlin.

"It seems like it was just one more obstacle, doing it in a different language," he said. "The technical terms are all Latin- and Greek-based anyway. They're just pronounced a little differently."

His education was free. The veterinary program had a requirement that 7 percent of the entering class be foreign. Most other fellow foreign students were Scandinavian, with Dr. Drusys being the only American. The program was approximately six years long, with most students coming straight from the equivalent of high school.

"There's nobody really that holds your hand," Dr. Drusys said. "A lot of it is self-learning from the standpoint that you are told what the requirements are and that there are tests at certain points, but nobody says at the end of this semester, you have to take these tests. Now, they have since changed that."

He completed the program in 1980 after six and a half years, taking off one semester to study for preclinical examinations. Then he engaged with the ECFVG program, doing an evaluated clinical year at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine to earn his ECFVG certificate.

He went on to a large animal internship, then he and his wife moved to California, her home state. He worked in an equine practice in Southern California for many years and also investigated animal cruelty cases on occasion for Riverside County. He made a midcareer shift to the latter area and shelter medicine, working for Orange County and then Riverside County.

Dr. Drusys said the ECFVG "was a valuable and valued program for me." To give back, he recently served a six-year term on the commission, serving as chair for two years.

Dr. Kartashova

Dr. Kartashova, a native of Russia, practices at Ocean Avenue Veterinary Hospital in San Francisco.

After graduating from high school in Russia, Dr. Kartashova went straight to Voronezh State Agricultural University in Voronezh, Russia. She volunteered at a local small animal clinic to get hands-on experience and earned her veterinary degree in 2006 after a five-year course. Then she moved to San Francisco.

"I was young, and I had a chance to come to America, and I was basically looking for adventure," she said. "I never knew I would stay here."

She studied English and worked for security services, at coffee shops, and as a babysitter. She wanted to be a veterinarian, though. She eventually found a job as a veterinary assistant at Ocean Avenue Veterinary Hospital, a small animal hospital in San Francisco. The veterinarians who own the practice are immigrants from India, and they were an example for her.

Dr. Kartashova began studying for the ECFVG examinations. She read books and articles, and she used test preparation programs for the North American Veterinary Licensing Examination. She shadowed local large animal practitioners to learn more about bovine and equine medicine.

The biggest challenge was passing the English test. Another was preparing for the surgical section of the Clinical Proficiency Examination. She returned to Russia and asked her fellow veterinarians for help. They gave her a dog cadaver to practice on and allowed her to spay a few live animals under their supervision.

A huge help came from her employers, who lent her money to cover the cost of the Clinical Proficiency Examination.

It took a long time, but she earned her ECFVG certificate in 2016, a decade after earning her veterinary degree. She took a week off to prepare mentally for the transition from veterinary assistant to veterinarian at the same hospital.

Dr. Kartashova said the ECFVG program was challenging, "but, in general, I do really think it was a good program."

She said it has been an interesting but difficult adventure. She does miss home and tries to visit once a year. At Ocean Avenue Veterinary Hospital, she sees clients from all over the world, including some from Russia.

Dr. Nanda

Dr. Anukirat Nanda, a native of India, practices at Kingsburg Veterinary Clinic in Kingsburg, California.

Dr. Nanda's father is a bovine practitioner in Punjab, India, and she grew up accompanying him when he worked. She has always had dogs, too. After 12th grade, she attended Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University in Punjab, earning her bachelor's in veterinary sciences in 2011 after five years and master's in veterinary sciences in two years.

She also worked with nongovernmental organizations doing spay-and-neuter programs to practice surgery, and she worked as a research fellow for the university for about six months.

"I actually like working with dogs and cats, so my primary focus was small animal practice," Dr. Nanda said. She said people in India do not spend a lot of money on pets, but she would have opportunities in the United States to grow professionally. Her brother is an engineer in California, so she also could be close to him.

While still living in India, she traveled to the U.S. to take the ECFVG examinations and NAVLE. She passed the Basic and Clinical Sciences Examination in 2011 right after finishing her bachelor's, then passed the NAVLE in 2012 while working on her master's. She passed the Clinical Proficiency Examination in 2013 except for the anesthesia section, which she passed in 2014.

Dr. Nanda said she had to learn the ways of U.S. veterinary medicine to pass the ECFVG examinations. India has different diseases, for example, and Indian veterinarians have a different way of working. She got tips from people who had taken the examinations.

After earning her ECFVG certificate, Dr. Nanda started looking for a job in California. The owners of Kingsburg Veterinary Clinic, both from India, applied for an H1 visa on her behalf, but she didn't win one via the lottery system. She and her husband, Dr. Bachint Bir Singh, also a veterinarian from India, became permanent residents instead.

Dr. Nanda finally started working at the clinic last year.

She said, "I've learned a lot of new things. It's been amazing."

The ECFVG consists of 12 voting members as follows:

• One member representing the AVMA Council on Education.
• Two members representing state veterinary licensing boards.
• One member representing the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges.
• One member representing government service.
• One member representing the Canadian National Examining Board.
• Two members representing clinical practitioners holding an ECFVG certificate, with at least one being a non-native English speaker.
• One member representing public health or food safety.
• One member representing medical or health educators with expertise in clinical assessment methods.
• One member representing veterinary surgery or anesthesia.
• One member representing the public.

Related JAVMA content:

Board approves changes to ECFVG program (Jan. 15, 2006)