Farm animal careers and perception of 'fit' in undergraduate veterinary students: A mixed methods study

BACKGROUND

Recruitment and retention of farm veterinarians have been the focus of recent research. Previous work suggests that a feeling of 'fit' is important for students to consider a farm career. The aim of this study was to identify whether students feel that they 'fit' in farm practice and reasons for their answer.

METHODS

An online survey was distributed to students at all British and Irish veterinary schools. A mixed methods approach was considered, with thematic analysis on free text answers and regression analysis on demographic variables.

RESULTS

Thematic analysis identified six themes: career opportunities, nature of farm veterinary work, relationships and interactions, individual experiences, expectations and perceptions, and no perceived barriers. Females, marginalised ethnic groups and those from an urban/suburban background were all identified as having significantly (p < 0.05) less agreement with the statement 'I feel able to pursue a career in farm practice'.

LIMITATIONS

Survey limitations include those with a clear bias being likely to respond. However, alignment of the qualitative and quantitative results increased confidence in the findings of this mixed methods approach.

CONCLUSION

This study confirms that biases that exist within wider society do have an influence on veterinary undergraduates' intentions to pursue a farm animal career. This is vital to consider both at a university level and when considering students' experiences on placements. Urgent action is required to improve inclusivity in the farm animal veterinary sector.

Factors influencing aspirations for practice ownership by veterinary professional students at the University of Sydney

Understanding the factors that influence the aspirations of future veterinary practitioners is critical to assist succession planning. The aim of this study was to discover factors that currently influence veterinary students' desire to own a veterinary practice in the future, including whether these aspirations were influenced by a student's experience throughout their years of veterinary studies. The study surveyed University of Sydney students enrolled in the postgraduate Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree in 2020. A response rate of 29% was obtained (142/508). Of those 142 respondents, 50 (35%) indicated that they wished to own a practice in the future, 40 (28%) indicated that they did not wish to own a practice in the future and 52 (37%) were unsure. The results demonstrate that practice ownership is currently only influenced by factors that are external to a student's experience at university, given that there was no significant difference between practice ownership aspirations between DVM years. After excluding those who were unsure, veterinary students whose parents or guardians own, or have owned, a business are three times more likely (OR = 3.19; 95% CI = 1.35-7.73; P < 0.01) to aspire to practice ownership than those students whose parents have not. Asian students showed significantly less interest in practice ownership than Caucasian students (OR = 0.41; 95% CI = 0.16-0.99, P < 0.05). Further qualitative research is required to better understand these findings so that tailored advice can be provided to students and veterinary schools to positively support graduating veterinary professionals towards future practice ownership.

Farmers' and veterinary surgeons' knowledge, perceptions and attitudes towards cattle abortion investigations in the UK

BACKGROUND

Cattle abortion can significantly affect farm productivity and be an important cause of economic loss on beef and dairy farms.

METHOD

A questionnaire-based survey, completed by 379 farmers and 134 veterinary surgeons from the UK and Ireland, investigated motivators and barriers towards abortion investigations and perceptions of cattle abortion. Participants were recruited using convenience sampling.

RESULTS

Veterinary surgeons underestimated farmers' willingness to pay for an abortion investigation; 54 per cent of veterinary surgeons expected farmers to pay under 100£/€, compared with 46 per cent of farmers. Most farmers (27 per cent) were willing to pay 101-250£/€ and 12 per cent above 500£/€. The incidence threshold warranting abortion investigation was 4 per cent for veterinary surgeons and lower for farmers at 2 per cent, especially beef farmers, where 48 per cent indicated a 1 per cent incidence required attention. Seventy-five per cent of dairy farmers used more than 2 per cent as their threshold. Eighty-four per cent of veterinary surgeons and 95 per cent of farmers agreed on the same abortion definition.

CONCLUSION

Veterinary surgeons and farmers agree on the definition of abortion; however, veterinary surgeons underestimate the willingness of farmers to engage with and pay for abortion investigations. A more proactive approach from veterinary surgeons, including improved communication and transparency around costs, expectations and clients' goals can improve abortion investigation outcomes.

Discipline-Based Education Research for Animal Welfare Science

Animal welfare science features interdisciplinary and collaborative working across fields, spanning behavioural ecology, psychology, veterinary sciences, economics, and fundamental biology. However, education research is not yet prevalent within the animal welfare literature. In a Web of Science topic search there were 188 papers which specifically discussed or explored how to teach animal welfare from 1978 to 2017. Of these, only 34% (n = 61) specifically focused on instructional design or pedagogical research, and these were predominantly within veterinary education (57%). Despite this, the literature is in broad agreement that animal welfare education is an important topic that should be done well. Within the UK, there were a possible 586 animal-related courses within Universities College Admissions Service database for potential students to choose from, highlighting the significance of robust and considered educational practice. The current gaps identified in the literature were discussion of hidden curriculums outside of veterinary degrees, animal-centered education, the blueprinting of assessment, and authentic assessment. Therefore, this review proposes that animal welfare scientists interested in education consider discipline based educational research (DBER) practices, and engage more fully with the educational research literature. A key component of DBER is the recognition that specialist knowledge needs to be taught by specialists, and so it is important that animal welfare scientists begin to access educational research too.

Challenging identity: development of a measure of veterinary career motivations

BACKGROUND

While little is known about the motivations underpinning veterinary work, previous literature has suggested that the main influences on veterinary career choice are early/formative exposure to animals or veterinary role models. The aim of this study was to develop and provisionally validate a veterinary career motivations questionnaire to assess the strength of various types of career motivations in graduating and experienced veterinarians.

METHODS

A cross-sectional sample of experienced veterinarians (n=305) and a smaller cohort of newly graduated veterinarians (n=53) were surveyed online using a long-form questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to iteratively derive a final, short-form questionnaire for survey of a second cross-sectional sample of experienced veterinarians (n=751).

RESULTS

EFA derived a final questionnaire with 22 items loading onto six factors (social purpose, animal orientation, vocational identity, challenge and learning, career affordances, and people orientation). While motivations based on animal orientation were predictably strong, those based on vocational identity were not universal and were weaker in younger and graduate veterinarians; both of these motivations were rated lower by male veterinarians. Motivations based on challenge and learning emerged as some of the strongest, most universal and most influential; people orientation and social purpose were also important, particularly for older veterinarians.

CONCLUSION

The major motivations for pursuing a veterinary career may best be represented as an intrinsic passion for animal care and for learning through solving varied challenges. These motivations are largely intrinsically oriented and autonomously regulated, thus likely to be supportive of work satisfaction and wellbeing.

Second Life and Classroom Environments: Comparing Small Group Teaching and Learning in Developing Clinical Reasoning Process Skills

Medical education and clinical practice support the development of clinical reasoning competency. Traditionally, the process of clinical reasoning is taught through small group discussions in pre-clinical and clinical medical training, and the need exists to explore further teaching and learning approaches that develop clinical reasoning. This study compared teaching and learning the clinical reasoning process through the virtual platform of Second Life (SL) with the traditional classroom setting. Participants were first semester veterinary students; 34 participated virtually through SL, and 41 experienced traditional classroom interactions. Students and one facilitator engaged in three small group meetings to process a clinical case. A seven-item clinical reasoning rubric guided the teaching, learning, and assessment. Clinical reasoning assignments were scored on a grading scale from 0 to 4 with a maximum result of 28. Descriptive statistics for clinical reasoning assignment scores were (m = 14.0; SD = 2.6) and (m = 12.2; SD = 2.6) in SL and classroom interaction, respectively. Results indicated positive associations for all participants between the rubric item score of gathering historical information with (1) gathering physical examination information (p < 0.01) and (2) prioritizing patient's problems (p = 0.003). Additionally, the rubric item score of gathering physical examination information was positively associated with the rubric item score for prioritizing patient's problems (p = 0.02). Specifically for the SL cohort, results demonstrated that rubric item scores were significantly higher for gathering historical information (p = 0.03), gathering physical examination information (p < 0.01), and prioritizing patient's problems (p = 0.02). Small group interaction using SL and traditional classroom environments offers a comparable educational platform for developing clinical reasoning process skills.

Gender Imbalance in Authorship of Veterinary Literature: 1995 versus 2015

Despite increasing representation of women in veterinary medicine, gender differences persist in pay and attainment of senior and leadership positions. In academia, scholarly publication is a measure of productivity and is emphasized in the promotion process. This study aimed to analyze gender differences in the authorship of veterinary research articles to understand factors that could influence women's advancement and standing in academic medicine. We hypothesized that the proportion of women authors would increase between 1995 and 2015 and be similar to employment rates of women in academia, and that gender differences would exist in authorship by species, veterinary specialty area, and role (junior versus senior author). We examined 2,086 articles published in eight prominent veterinary journals in 1995 and 2015, determined the gender of first authors, corresponding authors, and senior authors, and collected article information including study design, species, and veterinary specialty area. The proportion of women as first and corresponding author increased significantly between 1995 and 2015, and in both years studied, women authored a larger percentage of articles than the reported percentage of women working in academia. In 2015, women were first authors of 60.0% (95% CI 56.9-63.0) of articles but accounted for only 38.3% of senior authors (95% CI 33.4-43.3). Female first authors were concentrated in articles pertaining to small animal, equine, and internal medicine disciplines and under-represented among articles pertaining to livestock or surgical specialties. The gender gap in the authorship of veterinary clinical research articles has improved dramatically over the past 20 years, although gender disparities persist.

Predicting career sector intent and the theory of planned behaviour: survey findings from Australian veterinary science students

Background

Producing graduates for a breadth of sectors is a priority for veterinary science programs. Undergraduate career intentions represent de-facto ‘outcome’ measures of admissions policy and curricula design, as intentions are strong predictors of eventual behaviour. Informed by Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behaviour, this study aimed to identify if contextually relevant attitudes and self-ratings affect student intentions for veterinary career sectors.

Results

Survey responses from 844 students enrolled in five Australian veterinary programs in 2014 were analysed. Intention was measured for biomedical research/academia, industry, laboratory animal medicine, public health/government/diagnostic laboratory services, mixed practice, intensive animal production, companion animal practice, not work in the veterinary profession, and business/entrepreneurship. Hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis enabled comparison of explanation of variance in intent by demographics, animal handling experience, species preference, and attitudes to aspects of veterinary work. Career sector intentions were highest for mixed or companion animal clinical practice, then business/entrepreneurship, then non-clinical sectors. Overall, intent was explained to a greater extent by species preferences than by animal experience, attitudes to aspects of veterinary work and demographics (with the exception of mixed practice intent) with gender having no significant effect. Several variables exerted negative effects on career intent for less popular career sectors.

Conclusion

Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) provides a framework to increase understanding of and predict career sector intentions. Incorporation of attitude and self-efficacy measures in our study revealed preference for species types contributes greatly to career sector intentions for veterinary students, particularly for the more popular practice based sectors. Importantly, specific species preferences and other attitudes can have a negative effect on intent for non-aligned veterinary sectors. Further research is required to identify additional attitudes and/or beliefs to better explain variance in intent for less popular career sectors. Veterinary admissions processes may benefit from utilising the TPB framework. Identified effects revealed by this study may stimulate innovation in marketing, recruitment, admissions and curricular design, such as timing and role modelling, to utilise positive effects and mitigate against negative effects identified for sectors requiring greater representation of career intent in the student body.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12917-018-1725-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

An Exploration of the Career Motivations Stated by Early-Career Veterinarians in Australia

Despite the critical influence of motivation on education and work outcomes, little is known about the motivations driving people to become and remain veterinarians. This qualitative study explored the career motivations stated by Australian veterinary graduates (n = 43) using a free-response Ten Statements Test (TST) at graduation, with follow-up interviews 6-8 months later (n = 10). TST responses were coded using an alternate inductive-deductive approach that tested their fit against existing theories of motivation. Results showed that the stated motivations were predominantly oriented to perceived value, rather than self-beliefs such as expectancy of success. About a quarter of the statements were animal-related, principally themed around intrinsic animal orientation (e.g., I like animals) or extrinsic animal-related purpose (e.g., I want to help animals). However, many non-animal themes also emerged, including both intrinsic (e.g., love of learning, challenge/problem solving, variety, social relatedness) and extrinsic (e.g., helping people, social contribution, career opportunity) motivations. Interview data revealed a motivational narrative of early formative influences, with some interviewees describing a later transition toward more people- or goal-oriented motivations. This exploratory study, outlining a broad taxonomy of veterinary career motivations and their alignment to self-determination theory in particular, may provide a useful framework for exploring career motivations in veterinary education.

Career aspiration in UK veterinary students: the influences of gender, self-esteem and year of study

It is widely reported that the veterinary profession is becoming increasingly female-dominated, but there are concerns that this is not represented in positions of leadership. Although there are well-documented data describing the under-representation of women in various senior veterinary positions (academic deans, practice owners, positions on professional councils and corporate boards), it is less clear why this occurs. Although likely multifactorial, the relative contributions from a gender divide in intent to pursue leadership positions, women being dissuaded from considering senior roles, or differences in success rate (e.g. in leadership appointments), are unknown. This study was performed to investigate whether there is a gender divide among veterinary students in intent to pursue a leadership role and also to explore other influencing factors in career aspiration in veterinary students. Students from five UK veterinary schools were surveyed using an electronically distributed questionnaire. Career aspiration and leadership ambition were identified as being influenced by gender, with a greater proportion of male students (83 per cent) than female students (73 per cent) indicating they aspired to owning a practice. Career aspiration was also positively influenced by self-esteem, confidence and previously holding a position in the students' union or other club or society; however, all of these were also more apparent in male students than female students. Career aspiration also appeared to be influenced by year of study, with a decline seen at each increasing student year group, and this was unrelated to gender or self-esteem.

Validation of a psychometric instrument to assess motivation in veterinary bachelor students

There are indications that motivation correlates with better performance for those studying veterinary medicine. To assess objectively whether motivation profiles influence both veterinary students' attitudes towards educational interventions and their academic success and whether changes in curriculum can affect students' motivation, there is need for an instrument that can provide a valid measurement of the strength of motivation for the study of veterinary medicine. Our objectives were to design and validate a questionnaire that can be used as a psychometric scale to capture the motivation profiles of veterinary students. Question items were obtained from semi-structured interviews with students and from a review of the relevant literature. Each item was scored on a 5-point scale. The preliminary instrument was trialed on a cohort of 450 students. Responses were subjected to reliability and principal component analysis. A 14-item scale was designed, within which two factors explained 53.4% of the variance among the items. The scale had good face, content, and construct validities as well as a good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha=.88).