EFR 515 Veterinary Survey Manuscript
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A MODEL OF OUTREACH TO INCREASE STUDENT ENROLLMENT IN DVM
PROGRAMS BY ASSESSING EXPERIENCED VETERINARIANS.
1
A Model of Outreach to Increase Student Enrollment in DVM Programs by Assessing
Experienced Veterinarians
Annette Sandrzyk
The University of North Dakota
A MODEL OF OUTREACH TO INCREASE STUDENT ENROLLMENT IN DVM
PROGRAMS BY ASSESSING EXPERIENCED VETERINARIANS.
2
Abstract
Within this study we assess if there was an association between veterinarians that thought a
career in the veterinary industry as a veterinarian was/is very fulfilling and rewarding based on
their perceived preparedness provided by DVM programs and perceived satisfaction in daily
work life.
We surveyed one session of 8 veterinarians and their experience as a veterinary student as well as
a practicing veterinarian on the factors of: perceived preparedness provided by DVM programs
and perceived satisfaction in daily work life.
The veterinarians reported higher levels of satisfaction in daily work life than perceived
preparedness provided by DVM programs. However, no association was found between
veterinarians that thought that a career in the veterinary industry as a veterinarian was/is very
fulfilling and rewarding based on their perceived preparedness provided by DVM programs and
perceived satisfaction in daily work life.
Keywords: career, veterinarian, DVM, veterinary industry
A MODEL OF OUTREACH TO INCREASE STUDENT ENROLLMENT IN DVM
PROGRAMS BY ASSESSING EXPERIENCED VETERINARIANS.
3
A Model of Outreach to Increase Student Enrollment in DVM Programs by Assessing
Experienced Veterinarians
In an article published by the Chicago Tribune, Emily Klehm stated, “
It took our low-cost
clinic 18 months to find two full-time veterinarians and that was with the help of a headhunter
and (me) cold contacting vets everywhere”(Vickroy 2023)
. This is an issue that is very common
in many animal organizations throughout the nation. They are forced to struggle finding a full
service vet, while others have no choice but to close their facilities due not being able to find a
vet to hire. The veterinary shortage is very real and if more students would consider careers in
the veterinary industry, this opportunity could help reduce our national shortage of qualified
Doctors of Veterinary Medicine.
What is unknown is the best practical way to inform students about the exciting opportunities
and career paths
open to Doctors of Veterinary Medicine.
Having students first consider, then enter a DVM program is important to our nation’s economy
and the wellbeing of both humans and animals.
To address the need to better understand DVM program outreach encouraging students to
consider careers in the veterinary industry, what better way to get insight than to go straight to
the source: experienced veterinarians. We decided to reach out to veterinarians that have
practiced or are currently practicing to answer a survey to help give insight and encourage
prospecting students to decide to move forward with a career as a DVM.
Literature Review
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A MODEL OF OUTREACH TO INCREASE STUDENT ENROLLMENT IN DVM
PROGRAMS BY ASSESSING EXPERIENCED VETERINARIANS.
4
The Veterinary Shortage
The shortage of veterinarians not only affects the US but also around the world. Just
trying to make an appointment for a regular full service vet takes about a week or two, but the
effect it has on our economy and welfare is even greater.
“
Consequences of veterinary shortages are three-fold. First, it may decrease farm
profitability, due to a lack of veterinary supervision of the production process. Second, it
poses animal welfare issues, as animals without adequate veterinary care may suffer or
even die from diseases normally curable
6
. Third, it challenges the ability of the current
veterinary healthcare system to manage endemic and epidemic animal diseases, with
some of the most important being also zoonosis, e.g., Tuberculosis or Avian Influenza.
Overall, an extensive veterinary shortage may affect the whole society, particularly if no
alternative model of veterinary healthcare emerges”(Scientific Reports 2022).
About 78.5% of 28 European countries are experiencing a shortage of veterinarians. In
2009,Andrus et al. mentios a “pattern of significant future shortages in food animal veterinarians
in the U.S. and Canada( Scientific Reports 2023).
Strategies for Recruiting Students to Pursue DVM Programs
Making DVM programs more accessible to students and helping them through the
process will make them more confident in deciding on a career path into the veterinary field. UC
Davis is just one example of a University that actively assists students in providing them ample
information and opportunities to help them decide whether it is the right career for them. UC
Davis offers programs for students in 4th grade all the way to college students. Some of the
programs offer are “Vet Med Youth Camp, Vets of the Future, California State Summer School
for Mathematics & Science (COSMOS), Summer Math & Science Honors Academy (SMASH)
A MODEL OF OUTREACH TO INCREASE STUDENT ENROLLMENT IN DVM
PROGRAMS BY ASSESSING EXPERIENCED VETERINARIANS.
5
andSummer Enrichment Program( SEP)”(UC Davis 2023).
Strategies for Building Better Opportunities for Veterinarians
The goal is to make the veterinary industry a healthier environment for people to thrive
in, not just survive. Satisfaction in a career is very important, burnout has been very prominent in
the field as mentioned before. As more veterinarians are quitting, more companies are offering
healthier environments to potential associate DVMs. For example, Mill Creek Animal Clinic in
Palos park is advertising “No Sunday’s, No On-Calls, Mentorship, Surgery!”(AVMA 2023).
Previously, most veterinary jobs required you to be on call several days of the week, this led to
burnout. With the opportunity of no On-Call on top of advancement in career with Mentorship,
can seem to be quite appealing to a recent grad as well as a seasoned veterinarian!
Purpose of Study
The purpose of this study was to assess if there was an association between veterinarians
that thought a career in the veterinary industry as a veterinarian was/is very fulfilling and
rewarding based on their perceived preparedness provided by DVM programs and perceived
satisfaction in daily work life. All eight veterinarians responded yes, therefore we decided to use
their age range.
Method
Participants
Eight veterinarians participated in this study: 6 female veterinarians(75%) and 2 male
veterinarians (25%). All the veterinarians completed the survey for a response rate of 100%.
Instrument
A MODEL OF OUTREACH TO INCREASE STUDENT ENROLLMENT IN DVM
PROGRAMS BY ASSESSING EXPERIENCED VETERINARIANS.
6
A survey using Qualtrics was developed and sent to veterinarians to complete.
Participants were asked to rate their level of agreement on six questions using a 6-point Likert-
type scale with 6 = strongly agree, 5 = agree, 4 = slightly agree (all some form of agreement), 3 =
slightly disagree, 2 = disagree, and 1 = strongly disagree (all some form of disagreement).
Analysis/Design
The tests used were independent t tests.
The independent variable was supposed to be
either —yes or no—- to the question if they felt that a career in the veterinary industry as a
veterinarian was/is very fulfilling and rewarding. But to our surprise, every single veterinarian
answered yes to the main research question. Therefore, the independent variable in the
t
test that
was provided in this manuscript is the participant’s age range 25-44 years old and 45-64 years
old to the question if they felt that a career in the veterinary industry as a veterinarian was/is very
fulfilling and rewarding. The dependent variables were the constructs of confidence in science
and ability to succeed. To obtain the construct of perceived preparedness provided by DVM
programs Q5_1, Q5_2, and Q5_3 were averaged. To obtain the construct of satisfaction in daily
work life questions Q5_4, Q5_5, and Q5_6 were averaged.
Procedure
For the procedure, each veterinarian was texted/emailed a link to the quick survey when
they had the time to complete it and given instructions to answer the survey questions as honestly
as possible so as to give accurate feedback. They were asked to not answer a question if they did
not understand it or did not know how to answer.
Results
The percentage of some form of agreement is shown in Table 1 for each of the questions.
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A MODEL OF OUTREACH TO INCREASE STUDENT ENROLLMENT IN DVM
PROGRAMS BY ASSESSING EXPERIENCED VETERINARIANS.
7
The highest agreement was for Q5_5, I feel satisfied with the clinic I am working with
currently(If self employed, am satisfied running my own clinic) and Q5_6, I feel satisfied with
the opportunities provided in the veterinary industry to further my education and experience. The
lowest was for Q5_1, I felt prepared and fully informed on the financial aspect of the DVM
program. However, overall the percentage of some form of agreement could be considered
higher for questions in C2 than in C1.
Table 1
The individual items within the constructs were averaged. The reliability and
correlations for each of the constructs are shown in Table 2.
The correlation between confidence
in science and ability to succeed was r = .80.
Table 2
A MODEL OF OUTREACH TO INCREASE STUDENT ENROLLMENT IN DVM
PROGRAMS BY ASSESSING EXPERIENCED VETERINARIANS.
8
*p < .05.
The purpose of this study was to assess if there was an association between veterinarians
that thought a career in the veterinary industry as a veterinarian was/is very fulfilling and
rewarding based on their perceived preparedness provided by DVM programs and perceived
satisfaction in daily work life. To assess these two associations, independent
t
tests were used.
Since all 8 veterinarians that completed the survey answered yes to the question “A career in the
veterinary industry as a veterinarian is/was very fulfilling and rewarding”, a different
t
test was
constructed. We decided to test the perceived preparedness provided by DVM programs and
satisfaction in daily work life based on the age groups of the veterinarians that completed the
survey.
For
perceived preparedness provided by DVM programs, the mean response for the
veterinarians who were in the age group 25-44 years old was M=4.0 and for those that were in
the age group 45-64 the mean was M=3.3. The difference was not statistically significant, t(5) =
0.458, p > .05.
For perceived satisfaction in daily work life, the mean response for the
veterinarians who were in the age group 25-44 years old was M=5.0 and for those that were in
the age group 45-64, the mean was 4.2.
This difference was not statistically significant, t(5) =
1.252, p > .05. We fail to reject the null.
A MODEL OF OUTREACH TO INCREASE STUDENT ENROLLMENT IN DVM
PROGRAMS BY ASSESSING EXPERIENCED VETERINARIANS.
9
Discussion
The purpose of this study was to assess if there was an association between veterinarians
that thought a career in the veterinary industry as a veterinarian was/is very fulfilling and
rewarding based on their perceived preparedness provided by DVM programs and perceived
satisfaction in daily work life. Although the sample showed that veterinarians that thought a
career in the veterinary industry as a veterinarian was/is very fulfilling and rewarding has higher
agreement with satisfaction in daily work life than their perceived preparedness provided by
DVM programs, neither comparison was statistically significant.
There are many schools that are AVMA accredited that offer completion of the DVM
program in less than 4 years. This can be very appealing to a prospective student since the career
path to becoming a veterinarian is at least 8 years in total: a 4 year Bachelor's degree with 4 more
years in the DVM program. Ross university for example allows applicants to apply for January,
May and September admissions! Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine also provides
articles to help prep students for the application process(Ross University 2023). Although this is
all very helpful, research providing that there would be increased satisfaction in work life as well
as perceived preparedness provided by DVM programs could potentially increase students'
interest in DVM programs. In conclusion, we did not find any statistical evidence that providing
this data would make a student more or less likely to choose a career in veterinary medicine.
Implication for Practice
There are limited implications for the practice of this study. It is safe to say that all 8
veterinarians
agreed that
a career in the veterinary industry as a veterinarian was/is very
fulfilling and rewarding. In the sample, veterinarians that agreed that
a career in the veterinary
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A MODEL OF OUTREACH TO INCREASE STUDENT ENROLLMENT IN DVM
PROGRAMS BY ASSESSING EXPERIENCED VETERINARIANS.
10
industry as a veterinarian was/is very fulfilling and rewarding had higher agreement with
satisfaction in daily work life than their perceived preparedness provided by DVM program but
the findings were not statistically significant.
References
American Veterinary Medical Association. (2023).
Veterinary Career Center
. Retrieved from
https://www.avma.org/education/veterinary-career-center
Berrada, M., Ndiaye, Y., Raboisson, D.
et al.
Spatial evaluation of animal health care
accessibility and veterinary shortage in France.
Sci Rep
12, 13022 (2022).
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-15600-0
Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine. (2023). Tips for Preparing a Strong Vet
A MODEL OF OUTREACH TO INCREASE STUDENT ENROLLMENT IN DVM
PROGRAMS BY ASSESSING EXPERIENCED VETERINARIANS.
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School Application.
Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine Blog
. Retrieved from
https://veterinary.rossu.edu/about/blog/tips-for-preparing-a-strong-vet-school-application
University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine. (2023).
Pre-DVM Program
Opportunities
. Retrieved from
https://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/admissions/pre-dvm-
program-opportunities
Vickroy, D. (2023). [Vickroy: Vet shortage causing big problems for animal
rescues and shelters, with one facing closure because of it].
Chicago Tribune
.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/naperville-sun/opinion/ct-nvs-vickroy-column-
st-0628-20230627-pz4rzslm35cy5hfnu4k6lajnpy-story.html