Veterinary Student Trends
by Jenny Alonge
Veterinary workforce shortages are rampant and, hopefully, current veterinary students will soon help fill these positions. What can we expect from these shiny new veterinarians, and how does their veterinary school experience differ from our time in lecture halls and teaching hospital rotations? The American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) publishes an annual report that summarizes data on student applicants, enrollment, and other information about veterinary medicine academia. Let’s take a look at this information and the new educational models that some veterinary schools are offering to improve student learning experiences.
Increased enrollment
Total U.S. veterinary school enrollment rose 4.7% from 2021 to 2022, according to the AAVMC’s Annual Data Report (ADR). And, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) estimates that the number of companion veterinarians will increase by 20% from 2022 to 2030, based on historical class size increases and that three new veterinary schools will graduate their first classes in 2023. The AVMA also suggests that increases may be higher, since 10 new veterinary schools are in various development stages.
However, more veterinarians won’t necessarily relieve the current workforce shortages. Other factors include:
- A maldistribution of available veterinarians
- Most in need of veterinary manpower, but hardest to fill, are rural areas, and fields such as food animal, equine, academia, shelters, emergency practices, specialties, and public health
- More veterinarians choosing to improve their work-life balance by decreasing their weekly work hours
- More veterinarians moving away from clinical practice to explore other veterinary medicine areas
So, while increasing veterinary school enrollment is a great starting point, this alone likely won’t fix the industry’s workforce shortage problem.
Increased diversity
Veterinary medicine in the United States is one of the least racially and ethnically diverse fields, despite the country’s increased diversity. According to the 2021 Bureau of Labor Statistics, 93.3% of U.S. veterinarians are white, 5.6% Asian, 4.7% Hispanic/LatinX, and 1.2% black. However, the AAVMC’s ADR suggests the profession is slowly improving, because veterinary students from underrepresented backgrounds accounted for 23.2% of the veterinary student population, which is the highest ever. Over the last two years, Hispanic/LatinX veterinary student populations especially have grown impressively, which correlates with U.S. Census data demonstrating that this population is one of the fastest growing in the country.
However, diversity may not continue to increase. Spring 2022 undergraduate enrollment declined by 9.4% from pre-pandemic numbers, and the populations that enrollment decreases typically affect the most include those underrepresented in veterinary medicine. This means that these numbers could affect veterinary student diversity.
Decreased male representation
The report also showed that male representation in the veterinary student population continues to decline, dropping a full percentage point from the previous year to 17.3%, despite the fact that men represented about 12% of the applicant pool, indicating a male bias in veterinary school applications. The numerous factors behind this trend include:
- Lack of role models — Many boys and young men don’t see college-educated men in their community, and only about 40% of U.S. men are educated beyond high school.
- Competition — When men do enter college to pursue a STEM (i.e., science, technology, engineering, and math) degree, they typically choose technology or math majors that tend to offer higher starting salaries.
- Lack of experience — Data from the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges shows that young men typically develop an interest in veterinary medicine as much as three years later than females, so they do not have enough time to gain the needed experience for the veterinary field and acceptance into a veterinary school.
- Profession feminization — Men may be dissuaded from joining a female dominated profession.
New veterinary education models
To help increase enrollment numbers and to improve the student experience, veterinary schools are implementing new education models, such as:
- Distributive model — Western University College of Veterinary Medicine, Lincoln Memorial University (LMU), Midwestern University, and University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine offer a distributive curriculum, which provides immersive practice at clinical affiliates during the final one or two years. Benefits include:
- Students working with veterinarians, nurses, residents, and interns in diverse private practice settings learn teamwork.
- Students in busy practices who see many cases a day get more real-life work experience.
- According to the AVMA’s 2018 new graduate survey data, LMU students received more job offers per person than the national average, likely because of the immersive distributive model.
- Students gain experience communicating with clients and dealing with issues such as financial constraints that influence a client’s ability to treat their pet.
- Working in a private practice helps students gain confidence in their knowledge and skills.
- Competency-based veterinary education (CBVE) — Some veterinary schools are implementing CBVE, which prepares graduates by focusing on outcomes-based and learner-centered education and assessment. The CBVE framework consists of nine competency domains, with each representing related abilities for veterinary graduates. The core components include:
- Clearly articulated competencies based on required workplace activities intended to meet client, patient, and community needs
- Competency developmental indicators sequenced to support the learner’s progress through the educational program
- Learning that occurs in an environment that accurately reflects the work setting and accommodates the learner’s individual pace and style
- Teaching strategies that depend on the learner’s expertise, experience, and preferred learning approach
- Learner assessment that involves documenting progress against defined standards and feedback that promotes self-directed learning through an assessment program
The future of our profession depends in part on our new veterinary peers, and we should give new graduates all the support they need as they navigate their freshly minted career.
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