Workforce Needs in Veterinary Medicine (2013) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 5-21
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From page 5... ...
Because some of those positions require additional education beyond the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) 1 degree, the colleges and schools of veterinary medicine have to engage employers and public and private funders in their efforts to target and strengthen some fields of veterinary expertise and research, while also pursuing less costly approaches to delivering veterinary education and veterinary services.
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From page 6... ...
Major Trends in Veterinary Medicine More than half of AVMA members in 2010 practiced companion-animal medicine. They now dominate a profession once defined by its service to agriculture and food animals -- the original reason for establishing and supporting veterinary schools at Land Grant colleges and state universities.
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From page 7... ...
Because of cuts in public support for veterinary schools, student tuition is increasing. Figure S-1 shows the average starting salary of new DVMs accepting positions in private veterinary practice at the time of graduation, and increases in student debt over time.
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From page 8... ...
Trends in Companion-Animal Practice The largest sector of the veterinary medical profession is comprised of private practitioners who treat companion animals exclusively. The companionanimal sector has experienced an increasing degree of specialization, including the development of emergency clinics in urban and suburban settings that have reduced practitioners' after-hours obligations, and opened up opportunities in emergency medicine.
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From page 9... ...
the expertise needed in those positions is no less critical; it requires knowledge of a broader spectrum of veterinary subject matter than that focused on companion animals. Moreover, the pursuit of specialties is competing for resources, thus skewing educational priorities in veterinary schools.
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From page 10... ...
Trends in Public Sector Practice Public sector veterinarians are employed by states and the federal government to fulfill a wide array of public responsibilities, including regulatory oversight and enforcement (food safety, animal welfare, and animal health) , research (laboratory animal science, toxicology, risk assessment, disease control, antimicrobial resistance, drug-reactions, and disease-outbreak investigations)
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From page 11... ...
Numerous veterinary schools have established centers and educational programs that address wildlife, but there is no single career track pursued by DVMs with these interests, and students are advised to be entrepreneurial in defining veterinary roles in these fields. Many aspects of veterinary medicine in wildlife and ecosystem health epitomize the multi-disciplinary field of One Health -- a holistic concept of health that recognizes and addresses the complex linkages between humans, wild and domestic animals, and their ecosystems.
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From page 12... ...
The facilitation of broader interactions with those involved in global food security outside of veterinary colleges could bring additional resources to the wide range of activities related to this important field. Trends in Veterinary Medicine in Private Industry The highest paying jobs for veterinarians are those in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, diagnostics, contract research, animal health, animal feeds, and agrochemical companies, which in 2009 paid an average annual salary of $167,415.
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From page 13... ...
A major trend affecting veterinary academe is the precipitous decline in state support for faculty positions and tuition support, resulting in reduced hiring, layoffs, and the elimination of whole programs from veterinary schools. As noted earlier, veterinary schools cannot easily support the needs for advanced specialty training.
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From page 14... ...
The establishment of student clubs for pathology and laboratory-animal science at veterinary colleges, as recently initiated by the American College of Laboratory Medicine, the American Society of Laboratory Animal Practitioners,
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From page 15... ...
To accommodate more students, some veterinary colleges have increased enrollment, and the AVMA has accredited additional veterinary schools. However, better data on the demand for companion-animal services and the capacity of the economy to support companion-animal practitioners would help to inform decisions about increasing the number of DVM graduates.
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From page 16... ...
Agricultural industries have effectively promoted state government support for veterinary education, but there is little support from the federal government. Although an American veterinary education is widely regarded as the world's gold standard for veterinary education, low salaries, heavy workloads, and inconsistent policies for federal funding of research on animals have made it extremely difficult to attract research leaders to academic veterinary medicine.
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From page 17... ...
In 2011, the North American Veterinary Medical Education Consortium report Roadmap for Veterinary Medical Education in the 21st Century: Responsive, Collaborative, Flexible provided a wide array of options. An ongoing consortium of key veterinary organizations, deans, industry, government, and economists is needed to put into place those solutions that improve the sustainability of the profession.
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From page 18... ...
Sharing responsibility for specialty training though interschool collaborations; relying on talent in private veterinary practices, specialty practices, industry, and public agencies; and by enlisting the support of government, nongovernmental organizations, and other stakeholders. Reducing the length of pre-veterinary education to permit students with strong academic records to apply to veterinary school after 1 or 2 years of undergraduate study.
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From page 19... ...
There are models of successful centers in which advanced practical training and research is available, such as the Agricultural Research Service Meat Animal Research Center at Clay Center, Nebraska; the Swine Center of Excellence at Iowa State University in conjunction with the Audubon-Manning Veterinary Clinic; the University of California at Davis Dairy Center at the Veterinary Medical Teaching and Research Center at Tulare, California; and the recently formed National Center of Excellence in Dairy Production Medicine Education for Veterinarians funded by USDA that is a collaboration among the veterinary schools of the Universities of Georgia, Minnesota, Illinois, and Kansas State University. Forming centers of emphasis is not a new idea, but it needs to be revisited and nurtured by veterinary leaders and affected stakeholders.
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From page 20... ...
To meet the demand for animal protein by a growing world population, animal production in the developing world has expanded, and with it has come increased environmental pollution, food-safety concerns, and the potential for infectious diseases to spread. Antibiotic resistance, greenhouse-gas emissions, and feed- and foodbased toxins are the issues the veterinary medical profession is poised to address, but ultimately, defining and implementing the priorities for a One Health
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From page 21... ...
The greatest challenge facing the profession is how its educational system and the research enterprise at its foundation will survive economic constraints, at a time when the private and public sector are looking for increasingly sophisticated veterinary expertise. With a serious examination of their collective purpose and a national perspective on the future of the veterinary workforce, the schools and colleges of veterinary medicine can meet those expectations.
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