Characteristics of and comparisons between US fourth-year veterinary students graduating with and without educational debt from 2001 through 2020

OBJECTIVE To characterize and compare fourth-year students of US veterinary schools graduating with and without related educational debt (ie, DVM debt) from 2001 through 2020. SAMPLE 45,756 fourth-year veterinary students who participated in the annual AVMA Senior Survey from 2001 through 2020. PROCEDURES Survey data were summarized for variables hypothesized to be associated with DVM debt. Multivariable modeling was used to investigate associations between these variables and the likelihood of graduating with DVM debt. RESULTS Mean DVM debt increased fairly steadily from $56,824 in 2001 (n = 1,587) to $157,146 in 2020 (2,859). Of 45,756 students, 6,129 (13.4%) had no DVM debt. Attending Tuskegee University and having children (both men and women) were associated with an increased likelihood of DVM debt. Attending certain other veterinary schools and more recent survey year were associated with a decreased likelihood. For 2020, the likelihood of DVM debt decreased with increasing percentage of tuition paid by family and increased with increasing percentage of tuition paid by educational loans, being a woman with children, and increasing total cost of attendance. No association was found with state cost of living index or per capita income. CLINICAL RELEVANCE Results suggested a growing rift between US veterinary students who cannot afford tuition and fees without accumulating financially concerning levels of debt and those who have the financial ability or family situation to fully fund veterinary school. Efforts should be undertaken to recruit across socioeconomic statuses and provide meaningful scholarships to students with greatest financial needs to support diversity, equity, and inclusion in veterinary medicine.

Use of Antimicrobials in a French Veterinary Teaching Hospital: A Retrospective Study

Antibiotic resistance has become a major concern for not only human health, but also for animal health. To preserve the efficacy of antibiotics, it has become essential to establish measures to regulate the prescription of antibiotics to ensure their prudent use. In France, these measures have been translated into regulations for animal health since 2015, with the publication of three important regulatory texts. The results obtained on a national scale in terms of reducing the use of antibiotics have been satisfactory. The aim of our study was to evaluate the differences related to the prescription of antimicrobials at the veterinary teaching hospital of the Veterinary School of Lyon (CHUV) before and after the implementation of French regulations. Prescriptions and consumption of antimicrobials were examined, along with bacteriological analyses, for the period of 2014–2020, for companion animals and horses. The most frequently prescribed compounds were broad-spectrum antimicrobials, including penicillins with β-lactamase inhibitors, as well as first-generation cephalosporins tetracyclines and sulfamides. The prescription and consumption of critically important antibiotics (CIA) strongly decreased during the study period, with an increase of bacteriological analyses. This study shows the interest of having computerized tools to monitor the use of antimicrobials to implement corrective measures if needed.

Perceptions of Successful Veterinary School Applicants: Assessment Data to Improve Student Success

Admission to colleges of veterinary medicine has become increasingly more competitive through the years. The increased number of applicants require students and the programs they are attending to help students distinguish themselves in the applicant pool. Many students understand the importance of the science related coursework early on in their undergraduate career. The soft skills along with mentoring have been shown to be important for applicant success. Time management skills can be some of the most vital skills for undergraduate students to practice before matriculation to veterinary school. In addition, group skills and conflict resolution are perceived as important among veterinary alumni and students. Mentoring is critical throughout the education process. The personal aspects and professional guidance given by professors make for the most successful advising of undergraduate pre-veterinary students. Results indicated that students could benefit from communication skills being included throughout the curriculum, especially in context of veterinary science courses.

488 Career Awareness of Incoming University of Florida Animal Science Majors

A disproportionate number of Animal Science (ANS) students start their program with the intent of pursuing veterinary school. While some succeed, most change career paths either by personal choice or not gaining admission into veterinary school. Ideally, the sooner a student identifies alternative career path(s), the more opportunities they have to prepare for those careers by pursuing additional classes and extracurriculars. The University of Florida (UF) is unique compared to peer institutions with a 30% freshman acceptance rate, an overwhelming 41% of UF ANS students arrive as transfers. This compresses the time to matriculate through the ANS curriculum and increases the urgency to redirect students into the numerous ANS career paths. The objective of this study is to better understand ANS student’s perceptions of careers. We conducted a career awareness survey at the start and end of the ANS3006 Introduction to Animal Science course over the past two years. Students (n=352) were asked demographic information, and completed an online instrument evaluating their awareness of career options available to them. Over 49% could not list more than two careers. Veterinarian was the most common and appeared on 76% of responses. Students are exposed to careers throughout each lecture module and related career-focused assignments. In the post test evaluation, 57% listed more than two careers, with the average increasing from 2.8 to 3.6 careers per student. Additionally, 18.8% of students indicated their career goals had changed over the course of the semester, with more than 2/3 or those being students who changed from a veterinary path. In conclusion, ANS students arriving at UF have a limited outlook on career options. While introduction to ANS has some success in expanding those options, more efforts need to be made in the current curriculum and through secondary education to increase awareness of ANS careers.

Evaluation of quality of life in dogs with atopic dermatitis and their owners after lokivetmab therapy

Canine atopic dermatitis is an inflammatory and pruritic skin disease, with clinical characteristics associated with IgE antibodies, most commonly directed against environmental allergens which impact the quality of life in affected animals and their owners. Treatment is multifaceted and must be adapted to each patient individually. Currently, a medication based on caninized monoclonal antibody (mAb), called lokivetmab, has shown promise for controlling the signs of the disease, as it neutralizes interleukin IL-31, a cytokine that plays an important role in the pathogenesis of atopy. The impact of dermatological diseases in the life of the dog and its owner has only been studied in recent years through validated questionnaires. This additional measurement tool is important for evaluating the therapeutic success of interventions in atopic dermatitis, as clinical improvement may not correlate with an increased quality of life. This study aimed to evaluate the quality of life in dogs with atopic dermatitis and their owners after lokivetmab therapy. Ten atopic dogs treated at the dermatology service of the Veterinary Hospital of the Veterinary School from UFMG were selected. Quality of life was assessed using a validated questionnaire, before and after lokivetmab therapy. It concludes that treatment with lokivetmab significantly improved the quality of life of dogs with atopic dermatitis and their owners.

Impact of Human–Animal Interactions on Psychological and Physiological Factors Associated With Veterinary School Students and Donkeys

There has been an increased interest in evaluating human–animal interactions and assessing the mutual health and wellbeing. In this study, first-year female and male veterinary school students not paired (n = 58) or paired (n = 25) with immature (≤9 mo) donkeys (n = 13) were engaged in three different types of interactions (1st, hands-off remote learning, 2nd, hands-on passive learning, and 3rd, hands-on active learning) for 30 min each during Week 2 (Time 1), Weeks 5–8 (Time 2), and Week 12 (Time 3) over three, 15-week periods. Student psychological data involved the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) scores collected from the interactive (student-donkey pairs) and non-interactive (no student-donkey pairs) groups and modified Comfort from Companion Animals Scale (CCAS) scores collected from the interactive group during Times 1, 2, and 3. Donkey physiological data involved collection of saliva within 10 min pre- and post-interaction during Times 1, 2, and 3 in association with the different types of interactions for immunoanalysis of cortisol. There were no significant effects of the various times and types of interactions on CCAS scores. While there were no significant effects of group and types of interactions on PSWQ scores, there was an effect (P = 0.01) of time. Overall mean PSWQ scores were significantly lower during Week 12 versus Week 2. Correspondingly, while there were no effects pre- vs. post-interaction within or among times on saliva cortisol concentrations in donkeys, there was an effect (P = 0.02) of the type of interaction. Mean concentrations were significantly lower with the hands-on passive and hands-on active learning versus the hands-off remote learning. In conclusion, while this study provides preliminary evidence surrounding student donkey interactions, future studies are required with more comprehensive designs to clarify these benefits and better understand the advantages and challenges surrounding student-donkey interactions.

Building Veterinarians beyond Veterinary School: Challenges and Opportunities for Continuing Professional Development in Veterinary Medicine

Continuing professional development (CPD) is an important mechanism for veterinarians to acquire, maintain, and enhance their capability to perform competently in their chosen practice area over their career. Although most licensing bodies require veterinarians to complete a minimum number of CPD hours each registration cycle, there are known issues with verifying that these activities are having the desired effects of ensuring professional competence and improving outcomes for patients, owners, and veterinarians. In this review, we summarize the literature across different health care professions to highlight three key challenges for veterinary CPD programs. These are (a) defining what it means to be professionally competent across different career stages from graduation to retirement, (b) delivering CPD activities that are effective in promoting evidence-based medicine and behavioral change in practice, and (c) developing reliable and sustainable systems to formally assess the continued professional competence of veterinarians. A common theme across all challenges was the importance of interacting with colleagues as an opportunity to receive external feedback on their professional strengths and weaknesses and to develop stronger support networks for managing common stressors in clinical practice. There was also a recognized need to develop more transparent outlines of the available and acceptable options for managing different animal health concerns as a first step toward identifying new opportunities for the veterinary profession to elevate the level of care provided. Based on these findings, we propose a new framework for defining, delivering, and evaluating CPD that promotes stronger collaboration between veterinarians to improve professional and personal well-being.

Correlation of Chronotype (Lark Versus Night Owl Status) with Mind-Set and Effect of Chronotype on Examination Performance in Veterinary School

Chronotype describes what time of day people are most productive, with the specific terminology of larks (productive early in the day) and night owls (productive late in the day). Society, including education, schedules work at times that generally favor larks. The goals of this study were to (a) define our student population regarding mind-set and chronotype, (b) examine the relationship between chronotype and mind-set score, and (c) examine the relationship between lark score and examination score with examinations offered at varying times of day. The null hypotheses were that there would be no relationships between these variables. If the hypotheses were not proven, this information would be used to educate students about personal management to optimize academic success and to help the college determine if scheduling or other variations in examination implementation could be altered to permit students to demonstrate best their knowledge and skills. There were 184 participants from the classes of 2020–2022. Overall, there were few definite night owls or larks, with 55% of participants categorized as neither. Overall, 78% of students had either a strong growth mind-set or a growth mind-set with some fixed ideas. No meaningful association between chronotype and mind-set score was observed. There was neither a significant main effect for chronotype nor a significant interaction with start time for examinations. Scheduling of examinations in the early morning did not negatively impact student performance based on chronotype in this study.

Animal abuse and family violence: Reflections from workshopping with veterinary students

The notion of social work teaching in the veterinary science programme may seem novel for our profession. However, the philosophy underlying the context of animal and human welfare in One Health is the result of the collaborative effort of multiple disciplines and professions to attain optimal health for people, animals and the environment. One Health emphasises some of the key domains such as creating an enabling environment and advocating change and communication amongst healthcare professionals (Courtenay et al., 2014). Even when interprofessional education (IPE) and One Health competencies are evident in courses, Courtenay and colleagues (2014) noted that they are mostly at clinical level. In recent years, there has been a call for more collaboration between human and veterinary medicine to learn and practise One Health competencies, and “links” between the abuse of children, vulnerable adults and animals have been identified as a key area for exploration (Arkow, 2015a; Jordan Lem, 2014). In 2015, the second author and the Head of School of Social Work at Massey University had the opportunity to skype with Dr Elizabeth Strand, the Founding Director of Veterinary Social Work (VSW) (Strand et al., 2012), from University of Tennessee-Knoxville to discuss setting up VSW and also to seek adviceon challenges and strategies on engaging and collaborating with the veterinary school. Dr Strand shared her experiences and encouraged us to contact the Head of the Veterinary School at our university to start a conversation. Our Head of School approached the then Head of School of Veterinary Science and within days a meeting was organised. We went into the meeting expecting a first level of exploration with the Head of School to see if he was interested but were surprised when we were joined by another senior lecturer (SG) who had been re-designing the course content of professional practice for veterinarian students. He was very keen of our idea on working with him to develop a module on teaching his students about the link between animal abuse and family violence. It seemed the Veterinary School hadbeen identifying gaps in their curriculum for some time in relation to health and wellbeing, communication skills and conflict resolution, but they had only accessed support from student health services at the university. He also acknowledged the increasing attention in research literature about the link between human and animal violence as a pivotal area that could be integrated within the Veterinary Science Professional Practice curriculum, but did not realise that social work could play a role in supporting their curriculum and knowledge building. The meeting was a success, and within a year, we started our contribution by running the first two-hour workshop with first-year veterinary students discussing animal abuse and family violence, a workshop which then became a regular feature of the veterinary programme between 2016 and 2018. The purpose of this paper is to provide a description of what was included in the educational contexts, reflections from veterinary students’ engagement and future needs to connect between human service and animal service professionals to address the link.