A Growing Problem: Too Many Veterinarians

Winner, Forum
Shira Rubin, Cornell University 

Forum: "There are proposals/plans for new veterinary education programs in several places including Utah, Arizona, and New York.  There is still controversy over whether there is a shortage or excess of veterinarians to fill the workplace demands.  Weigh in with your opinions, comments, or suggested solutions."

There is ample evidence that there are going to be more veterinarians than jobs for veterinarians in the U.S. in the near future.  With plans for four new veterinary schools in the United States underway or in existence and class sizes increasing at many exisiting US veterinary schools, the number of graduating veterinarians is set to rise, perhaps dramatically.  Combined with the recent American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) accreditation of several overseas veterinary schools and expanding class sizes at Caribbean veterinary schools, this could quickly become a crisis for the American veterinary profession.

 

Although the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) contends that there will be a shortage of 15,000 veterinarians by 2025, there is little evidence to support such a claim.  In fact, there may be too many veterinarians already, especially in small animal practice.  One indication that the supply for veterinarians has outpaced demand are the results of  the annual survey of employment, starting salaries and educational indebtedness of new graduates from U.S. veterinary medical colleges published by the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA).  Their reports show that since 2010 new graduates have been receiving significantly fewer job offers and the starting salaries of new graduates have gone down.  Even the oft-touted claim that there is a shortage of large animal veterinarians has recently been challenged.  The Association of American Bovine Practitioners (AABP) released a statement in 2011 that, "Continuing to increase the number of veterinarians interested in serving rural areas will not solve this problem. In fact, creating an ‘over supply’ of food-supply veterinarians will lead to widespread unemployment or underemployment of food-supply private practitioners and will have a significant detrimental effect on salaries for all veterinarians."

 

So what are the motivations behind the founding of these new veterinary schools?  And who stands to profit from them?  

 

1.  The developers for the proposed veterinary school in Buffalo, NY won a contest to renovate an abandoned human hospital.   If all goes according to plan, as many as 600 students may be enrolled at the campus within 3-5 years.  The real estate company Chason Affinity will be responsible for construction, but it is unclear who will run the school.  Mark Chason, the company's president, offered the rationale that the school's creation would benefit the larger Buffalo community by attracting "rich talent and diversity" and "spin-offs."  He also made an unsubstantiated link between the number of pets receiving care and the number of veterinarians, stating, "Over 50 percent of America's pets receive no regular veterinary care, so there continues to be a need for veterinarians. As baby boomer veterinarians retire, this need will only grow."  Based on my personal experiences at low-income veterinary clinics, the fact that a large number of pets receive no veterinary care often reflects pet owners' inability (and sometimes unwillingness) to pay for veterinary care more than a shortage of veterinarians.  And although baby boomers are retiring, many have continued to work due to the 2008 stock market crash.

  

2.  Midwestern University, a not-for-profit private corporation offering a variety of health science degrees, plans to open a veterinary school near Phoenix, Arizona in 2014 with seats for 100 students in its first class.  It is unclear whether the school will build a teaching hospital or follow the precedent set by Western University of Health Sciences' veterinary school of establishing a school that only has the facilities to offer classroom instruction.  Midwestern's President and CEO Kathleen Goeppinger cited a shortage of rural veterinarians in Arizona as a driving force for creating the school; however, she has no new strategies for ensuring that students go into practice in underserved areas except to "recruit students from rural areas who want to go back home."

 

3.  Lincoln Memorial University, a private liberal arts school in Tennessee, plans to start the first six year veterinary program in the U.S with a target of 100 students in the first class.  The curriculum would allow students to combine earning a bachelor's and veterinary degree in an accelerated six year program similar to the European educational system.  The school will not open a veterinary hospital, but instead will rely on local private practices to shoulder the burden of clinical training.  The program will be geared towards large animal medicine and hopes graduates will serve rural areas.  Critics of the plan argue that it is impossible to condense an eight year curriculum into six years.  Dr. Peter Eyre, dean of the new LMU veterinary school and former dean of Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, believes that the advantage of offering a less expensive route to a veterinary degree outweighs the disadvantage of cutting out some humanities courses to make a six year program.  Estimates that tuition would be around $40,000 a year do not make the program a bargain, even with two less years of training.

 

4.  Students at the School of Veterinary Medicine at Utah State University, which opened its doors this fall, spend their first two years of classes in Utah and then transfer to the veterinary school at Washington State University to do their final two years of study.  The same model is used at the University of Nebraska, where since 2007 students have spent their first two years of study in classes before completing their last two years at Iowa State's veterinary school.   These two public universities offer a small number of students (around 20-30) in-state tuition in the hope that graduates will return to their home communities to practice large animal medicine in underserved areas. However, the programs are too new to gauge the results and rural vets in Utah and Nebraska face the same problem of earning enough income to support themselves as  rural vets elsewhere in the country.  

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At the same time as new veterinary schools are being created, class sizes are being increased at many veterinary schools.  As a result of dwindling state contributions, schools have been faced with the choice of increasing tuition or class size or both to meet financial obligations.  Dean Neil Olson at the University of Missouri was quoted in a recent article in "Inside Higher Ed" as candidly admitting that the main drive for increasing class size from 80 to 120 over the past four years was to generate income for the college, not to produce more large animal veterinarians.  Cornell, likewise, is expanding its class size from 84  to 120 by 2017 to meet financial needs.  As part of this plan, they hope to increase the number of food animal track veterinary students from 20 to 30 per class.  None of the schools increasing their class size have revealed any new strategies for keeping large animal veterinarians in their chosen career post-graduation.

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What are the answers to these problems?  

 

Not surprisingly, no one has come up with an answer for solving the problem of an oversupply of veterinarians and a lack of veterinarians in rural areas (or a way for veterinary schools to make ends meet when funding is slashed without increasing either class size or tuition, for that matter).

Dr. Christine Navarre, president of the AABP, Dr. Chris Ross, associate dean for academic affairs at Oklahoma State University’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences and Charlie Powell, a spokesman for Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine, all agree that there has been an increase in the number of students interested in practicing large animal medicine in rural areas but there is not enough money being spent on veterinary care in such communities to support a veterinarian at a reasonable standard of living.  This much is clear: any approach to solving the dearth of rural veterinarians needs to examine the economics of operating a veterinary business in impoverished, rural communities.  

 

Dr. Dean Christianson, president of the Academy of Rural Veterinarians, echoes their concerns with his observation that, "It doesn't seem like getting students interested in it is a problem.  But if there's a problem, it's more with retention."  If that is the case, no matter how many new graduates U.S. veterinary schools churn out, there won't be enough rural area veterinarians.  Unless we address the fundamental economic problems facing rural veterinarians, increasing the number of veterinarians will only compound, not alleviate the problem.

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So what can the concerned student do about this situation?

 

Get involved!  Offer your input and opinions to your SAVMA representative and/or contact the AVMA and AAVMC.  It's our future.

 

References:

 

Cima, G. "Is the rural food practice shortage alleviated? Group warns oversupply could hurt practitioners."  JAVMA News. July 15, 2011.  Accessed October 7, 2012.  https://www.avma.org/News/JAVMANews/Pages/110715a.aspx

 

Fiala, J. "Economist's talk rouses debate among veterinarians in academia." VIN News Service.  March 16, 2012.  Accessed October 7, 2012. http://news.vin.com/vinnews.aspx?articleId=21857

 

Fiala, J. "Private university in Arizona plans new veterinary school." VIN News Service.  March 8, 2012.  Accessed October 7, 2012. http://news.vin.com/vinnews.aspx?articleId=21801

 

Hewitt, A.  "New Veterinary School Envisioned for Buffalo, N.Y."  DVM360.  October 1, 2012.  Accessed October 7, 2012. http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/dvm/Veterinary+news/New-veterinary-school-envisioned-for-Buffalo-NY/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/789877?contextCategoryId=204&ref=25

 

Lau, E. "Tight job market squeezes large-animal veterinarians." VIN News Service.  June 27, 2011.  Accessed October 7, 2012. http://news.vin.com/VINNews.aspx?articleId=18992

 

"Lincoln Memorial University to Open Veterinary College in 2012." Veterinary Practice News. July 11, 2011.  Accessed October 7, 2012. http://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/vet-breaking-news/2011/07/11/lincoln-memorial-university-to-open-veterinary-college-in-2012.aspx

 

McCurnin, DM.  "Are We Our Own Worst Enemy?"  Veterinary Practice News.  July 2012.  Accessed October 7, 2012.  http://mydigitalpublication.com/display_article.php?id=1095393

 

Shepherd, AJ and Pikel, L.  "Employment, starting salaries, and educational indebtedness of year-2012 graduates of US veterinary medical colleges." JAVMA. October 1, 2012.  Accessed October 7, 2012. 

 

Shepherd, AJ and Pikel, L.  "Employment, starting salaries, and educational indebtedness of year-2011 graduates of US veterinary medical colleges." JAVMA. October 1, 2011.  Accessed October 7, 2012. 

 

Shepherd, AJ.  "Employment, starting salaries, and educational indebtedness of year-2010 graduates of US veterinary medical colleges." JAVMA. October 1, 2010.  Accessed October 7, 2012. 

 

Smith, M. "Vet School Surge." Inside Higher Ed.  February 8, 2012.  Accessed October 7, 2012.  http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/02/08/veterinary-schools-expand-focus-large-animals

 

Quizon, D. "New Breed of Vet School?" Inside Higher Ed.  July 6, 2011. Accessed October 7, 2012.  www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/07/06/lincolm_memorial_university_opens_a_veterinary_school

 

Verdon, DR. "There's no shortage of veterinarians in most areas of rural practice, a veterinary committee reports." DVM360. May 24, 2011.  Accessed October 7, 2012. http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/dvm/Theres-no-shortage-of-vets-in-most-rural-areas-rep/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/724093

 

Whitcomb, R. "Jobs report: Veterinary schools increase enrollment, but can the job market take it?" DVM360. May 23, 2011.  Accessed October 7, 2012.  http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/dvm/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=723552&pageID=4

 

Whitcomb, R. "More than 2,600 new veterinarians to enter tight job market." DVM360. May 19, 2011.  Accessed October 7, 2012. http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/dvm/Veterinary+news/More-than-2600-new-DVMs-hit-job-market/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/723555