Veterinary Shortage?

Honorable Mention, Forum
Arielle Breite, Cornell

Having recently had the opportunity to talk with some veterinarians who are “out in the trenches”, I feel as though I have some insight into the supposed veterinarian shortage. According to a large majority of these individuals there is indeed NO shortage of veterinarians at all. Not only are they not worried about a shortage, but instead are worried about the job outlook for our upcoming graduates. From what I gather, most veterinarians feel as though a shortage exists only in places where there is not enough business to support a practice. In the existing practices on the other hand, there are simply no openings for qualified applicants. In light of this, I am strongly against the opening of these new veterinary colleges in such places as Utah, Arizona and, our very own, New York.

Although, with my own graduation looming, I myself am worried about competing with the ever growing number of graduates for the few available jobs, I am also concerned about the quality of education these new institutions will provide and the cost at which they will provide it. With their seeming disregard of the current veterinary climate I worry that their only concern will be their own financial gain and not the education and wellbeing of the students they educate or profession they contribute to. My suggestion is that the AVMA take a stance on this issue and inform these new institutions that they will not accredit them. After all, if the AVMA will not look out for the future of our profession, who will?

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.

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