Top 4 Solutions to the Shortage of Veterinarians to Work Toward During the Campaign
- Increasing economic incentives to go into and stay in their selected field
- Increasing job satisfaction
- Recruiting individuals for these positions
- Educating the public and increasing awareness
Potential Strategies for Each Solution
1. Increasing Economic Incentives
- Increasing the average starting salaries of those areas of veteri- nary medicine to be more in line with companion animal practice and increasing the remuneration for students entering into the workforce across all career paths.
- Development of a Loan Forgiveness Program for Pennsylvania that will guarantee approximately $20,000 per year for four years for students who pursue careers in under served areas of veterinary medicine.
- Subsidizing educational costs through no interest loans provided by industry and the possibility of debt forgiveness if the student stays employed with the company for an agreed upon length of time upon graduation.
- Training for veterinarians in their chosen fields that allows them to market themselves better and makes them more valuable to their clients.
- Expansion of the veterinary team workforce to grow the number of CVTs interested in underserved areas and utilization of these CVTs to do tasks that are permitted under the supervision of a veterinarian.
- Subsidizing education through tax relief incentives.
- Subsidizing educational costs through scholarship opportunities.
2. Increasing Job Satisfaction
- Developing a solution to emergency coverage in production animal medicine through possible cooperative agreements between practices and other avenues.
- Identifying other areas of concern related to overall job satisfaction through surveying of the profession and focus groups.
- Providing mentor opportunities for recent graduates on the job to provide a source of support for questions, challenges, and concerns they have.
- Providing some type of support network for veterinarians in these underserved areas to offer suggestions and input.
- Educating clients about the importance of positive feedback about how the veterinarian impacts their farm, herd, etc.
3. Recruiting Individuals For These Positions
- Promoting opportunities at schools to highlight veterinary careers—partnering veterinarians and veterinary students with schools to help get school-age children (5th grade and older) psyched about careers in veterinary medicine.
- Developing a “one stop shop” veterinary career website.
- Providing mentor opportunities for pre-vet and animal science students at Penn State.
- Increasing the class size at Penn Vet and designating seats for students with interests in underserved areas of veterinary medicine.
- Providing mentoring opportunities for veterinary students with veterinarians in these areas.
4. Educating the Public and Increasing Awareness
- Developing an educational initiative on the role of veterinarians in food safety, public and animal health, and biosecurity including press releases, website areas, educational brochures, white papers, lesson plans, etc.
- Developing a career website that highlights various veterinary careers, the veterinary team, training and education, and links to resources.
- Developing profiles of veterinarians, stories about the shortage areas for the press. Once a month, put on the career website—the profile of the month.
- Coordinating an editorial board tour.
- Pursuing opportunities to have discussions, interviews, etc., on PCN, Comcast Pets on Demand, and other media outlets.
- Promoting opportunities at schools to highlight veterinary careers—partnering veterinarians and veterinary students with schools to help get students psyched about careers in veterinary medicine.