Progress 09/01/16 to 08/31/19
Outputs
Target Audience:The primary audiences for the training materials developed by this grant project aresenior veterinary students and veterinary public health residents. Additional audiences include early career or career-transitioning veterinarians seeking additional training in production medicine and public health topics. ThreeDVM/MPH residents were actively involved in the creation of educational materials in dairy food systems and regulatory medicine. Two online course modules, one on regulatory medicine and one on antibiotic stewardship and residue prevention, were incorporated into required Public Health rotations for veterinary students (over 300students between 2016-2019). Between 2016-2019, sixty veterinary students participated in overview and advanced dairy production medicine rotations, including six students from other (non-MN) US or international veterinary colleges. Note that due to the redesign of our curriculum facilitated by this grant, the number of students who participated in these rotations jumped from 8 students in 2017, to over 20 in the 2018 and 2019 rotations. This trend has continued past the funding period of this grant. Beyond the funding period, our audience has also included veterinary students who are able to participate in these rotations via distance learning thanks to the online materials developed during this project. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Three DVM/MPH residents participated in the development of teaching materials in the dairy food systems, residue avoidance and regulatory medicine topics. This allowed a greater depth of training for these residents in food animal production and regulatory issues. Two DVM students were also hired to assist in the development of educational materials, which provided an opportunity to learn about the educational topics in greater depth, as well as learn new skills in educational technology and design. Project staff and faculty received training in website management and use of new e-learning technologies. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Training and continuing education opportunities are advertised through our website, dairyknow.umn.edu (currently in transition), through the listserve of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners, and through our professional network of food animal faculty at other US veterinary colleges. ? What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The overarching goal of this project was to improve retention of veterinarians in food animal practice, by providing education and training that will allow food animal veterinarians to enhance and expand services offered, therefore enhancing the profitability and sustainability of their practice. The materials and curriculum developed during this project have expanded our training capacity in 2 major ways. First, by developing web-deliverable content and by re-configuring our senior rotations, we can now offer training to a larger cohort of senior veterinary students and newly graduated veterinarians, including more students from other US veterinary colleges. Second, by utilizing web-based learning we are more efficient in our DVM teaching, allowing us to delve deeper into advanced topics that expand the knowledge and skill-set of new graduates and support greater practice profitability and sustainability. On a broader level, this improved training capacity will have an impact on our graduate's success and retention in rural food animal practice, and will benefit food animal agriculture through improved services and sustainability of rural veterinary practice. The following describes accomplishments under the specific objectives of this project: 1. To further develop web-deliverable curriculum materials to train veterinary students and practicing veterinarians in Dairy Production Medicine and Food Safety. Topics will include: dairy food systems and food safety; regulatory medicine; calf health and management; lameness and cow comfort; mastitis and milk quality; reproductive management; and transition cow management. During this project, educational materials were developed for use in online courses or modules, in the following topic areas: Dairy Food Systems, Antibiotic Stewardship & Residue Avoidance, Regulatory Medicine, Lameness Management & Cow Comfort, Mastitis & Milk Quality, Youngstock Management, Reproductive Management and Transition Cow Management. The materials include many types of content, including narrated presentations, videos, factsheets, case studies, active learning assignments, resource collections, and e-books. The materials for Antibiotic Stewardship and Regulatory Medicine topics are formatted into comprehensive online modules and are utilized in various course and rotation offerings for both DVM and DVM/MPH students. The materials developed under the other topic areas are utilized in a variety of veterinary course and rotation offerings, described below. 2. Develop and implement a consistent web hosting platform for making educational materials available to multiple users. At the beginning of this project, the ability to offer a variety of online educational experiences to both internal and external audiences through University of MN technology services was limited. Thus, one objective of this project was to develop an externally-hosted website which could expand access to the materials developed. A website was developed and launched in 2018 which included a mechanism for advertising and accessing online educational opportunities: https://dairyknow.umn.edu/. (Note: As the University's web hosting platform has improved, along with additional capabilities to process online enrollments, we are currently in the process of shifting web hosting back under UMN management.) 3. Provide materials as developed to collaborating veterinary colleges for use within their curriculum for veterinary students interested in careers in dairy medicine, food animal medicine, and public health. Faculty at other colleges might also choose to incorporate a mixture of components, modules, or courses into their curriculum for veterinary student use. We had limited success during the award period distributing training materials via faculty at collaborating veterinary colleges. However, we have at least partially met the intent of this objective by making our senior production medicine rotations more accessible to students from other veterinary colleges (by splitting a formerly 8-week rotation into a 2- and 4-week rotation, and by making some offerings available via distance education). In addition, the materials developed during this award have continued to evolve and be incorporated in new e-learning formats that are more easily shared with collaborators. 4. Use the developed materials in the Dairy Production Medicine intensive course offered to senior veterinary students through the NCE-DVE, making use of materials before, during, and after the residency portion of the course. This objective was successfully implemented in the 2018, 2019 and later offerings of the dairy production medicine senior rotations. We have a suite of learning resources utilized as foundational, pre-course knowledge review for both UMN and external students. These resources are instrumental in making our senior rotations more accessible to students from other veterinary colleges who may not have the same depth of food animal-specific training in their pre-clinical years. The 2-week Overview of Dairy Production Medicine curriculum is accessible to external/distance students, as a stand-alone rotation, and as a prerequisite for the 4-week Advanced Dairy Production Medicine rotation which continues to be a residency program. Finally, course materials developed during this project are available to alumni via a shared Google Drive, and in ebook format. 5. Use the developed materials both for distance students in the DVM/MPH program as well as in the Veterinary Public Health and Regulatory Medicine senior veterinary rotation, a required core course for all veterinary students at the University of Minnesota. The educational materials developed in Antibiotic Stewardship and Regulatory Medicine were included in the Veterinary Public Health and Regulatory Medicine senior veterinary rotation starting in 2017, and are also included in course offerings for the dual DVM/MPH degree program. 6. Provide VPHPM residents the opportunity to enhance their competency-based training in food systems, food safety, and regulatory medicine by participating in module development and delivery. Residents in the DVM/MPH program were instrumental in developing the regulatory medicine and dairy food systems and food safety modules. For the duration of this project, participating residents received a greater depth of training in these topic areas, and were able to apply the knowledge and skills gained in this project in the creation of other educational materials targeting practicing veterinarians and food animal producers. 7. Use the materials for continuing education offerings for practicing dairy, food systems, and public health veterinarians, with and without on-site hands on training at the NCE-DVE. For this objective, we collaborated with external partners (such as the MN Board of Animal Health and MN Dept of Agriculture) to develop training modules for veterinarians in career transition and those interested in obtaining greater knowledge of residue avoidance and regulatory medicine. Our veterinary faculty have also utilized the production medicine training materials in some continuing education offerings, and we continue to expand those offerings.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/16 to 08/31/17
Outputs
Target Audience:Two DVM/MPH residents were actively involved in the creation of educational materials in dairy food systems and regulatory medicine. Eight senior DVM students at the University of MN received instruction utilizing some new materials developed for this grant, in the 2017 8-week Dairy Production Medicine rotation. Note, the primary objective for year 1 of this project was development of educational materials for use in future online offerings. Changes/Problems:No major changes were made affecting the overall project goals or objectives. However, as a result of work on this grant, the UMN bovine faculty completed a major curriculum redesign that will make the intensive dairy production medicine senior rotations more accessible to students from other US veterinary colleges. Rather than offering an 8-week rotation, in the future we will offer a 2-week "Overview of Dairy Production Medicine" and a 4-week "Advanced Dairy Production Medicine". Offering shorter rotations will make it much easier for external students to fit the rotations into their 4th year schedules, and also reduces the financial and logistical burdens of traveling out-of-state for the duration of the rotations. For these external students, we will offer flexible online modules as pre-requisites for both the 2- and 4-week rotations, and students may choose to enroll in either or both rotations, as space allows. These and other online modules can also be made available to students at other colleges who are not able to attend the on-site rotations at the University of MN Dairy Education Center. We are slightly behind schedule on developing and implementing the web portal, as disbursement of funds for personnel was delayed by several months (due to staffing changes in the USDA, as we understand it). What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?To date, DVM/MPH residents participated in the development of teaching materials in the dairy food systems and regulatory medicine topics. This allowed a greater depth of training for these residents in food animal production and regulatory issues, and will be continued with more residents in the next year. Further training and professional development opportunities for veterinary students and veterinarians will be offered in 2018. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Further development of educational materials is needed to flesh out some of the topic areas proposed in the grant, particulary the calf health management and reproductive management topics. From the materials developed, we will design discrete offerings for veterinary students at collaborating universities, and also to students from other US veterinary colleges who will be participating in the UMN Dairy Production Medicine rotations. The web portal will be finished and beta tested in early spring 2018, and made available in late spring to external DVM students who will participate in the UMN Dairy Production Medicine rotations in the summer months. We will also offer some online Continuing Educaiton (CE) opportunities to practicing veterinarians, planned for spring/summer 2018 and beyond. We will continue to utilize the materials in the UMN DVM/MPH program and the veterinary public health rotations for senior DVM students.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Veterinarians serve the needs of food animal producers through disease control, clinical services, and herd management consultation. They also provide routine regulatory services, oversee the prudent use of drugs in food animal production, enhance biosecurity and protect food safety, promote and oversee programs in animal welfare, and are present if a major disease or food safety related outbreak should occur. However, retention of highly trained veterinarians in rural food animal practice is an important challenge facing food animal agriculture in the US. The overarching goal of this project is to improve retention of veterinarians in food animal practice, by providing education and training that will allow food animal veterinarians to enhance and expand services offered, therefore enhancing the profitability and sustainability of their practice. The following are specific objectives to achieve this goal, and progress on these objectives. 1. To further develop web-deliverable curriculum materials to train veterinary students and practicing veterinarians in Dairy Production Medicine and Food Safety. Topics will include: dairy food systems and food safety; regulatory medicine; calf health and management; lameness and cow comfort; mastitis and milk quality; reproductive management; and, transition cow management. During this reporting period, educational materials were developed for use in online courses or modules, in the following topic areas: Dairy Food Systems, Regulatory Medicine, Lameness Management & Cow Comfort, Mastitis & Milk Quality, Reproductive Management and Transition Cow Management. The materials include many types of content, including narrated presentations, videos, factsheets, case studies and resource collections. The materials for the first 2 topics listed above are formatted into comprehensive online modules and are currently being utilized in the veterinary public health rotation at the University of MN CVM. Many of the materials developed in other topic areas were "beta tested" in the 2017 8-week Dairy Production Medicine senior veterinary rotation, and will be offered as online courses or modules in 2018. 2. Develop and implement a consistent web hosting platform for making educational materials available to multiple users. The web portal for accessing online educational opportunities is currently in development, and expected to be ready for use in spring of 2018. 3. Provide materials as developed to collaborating veterinary colleges for use within their curriculum for veterinary students interested in careers in dairy medicine, food animal medicine, and public health. Faculty at other colleges might also choose to incorporate a mixture of components, modules, or courses into their curriculum for veterinary student use. To be implemented in the 2018-2019 school year. 4. Use the developed materials in the Dairy Production Medicine intensive course offered to senior veterinary students through the NCE-DVE, making use of materials before, during, and after the residency portion of the course. Some educational materials developed during this reporting period were utilized during the 2017 Dairy Production Medicine rotation as we beta-tested a curriculum redesign and new teaching approaches that will enhance our ability to accomodate more students from other US veterinary colleges in this program. (See Changes, Problems for further description.) 5. Use the developed materials both for distance students in the DVM/MPH program as well as in the Veterinary Public Health and Regulatory Medicine senior veterinary rotation, a required core course for all veterinary students at the University of Minnesota. The education materials developed in regulatory medicine and dairy food systems topics are currently being utilized in the Veterinary Public Health and Regulatory Medicine senior veterinary rotation. 6. Provide VPHPM residents the opportunity to enhance their competency-based training in food systems, food safety, and regulatory medicine by participating in module development and delivery. Residents in the DVM/MPH program were instrumental in developing the regulatory medicine and dairy food systems modules, and we will continue to utilize and train more residents in this way during the duration of this project. Thus far, this has been a very successful objective, allowing a greater depth of training for these residents in food animal production and regulatory issues, and resulting in very high quality educational materials. 7. Use the materials for continuing education offerings for practicing dairy, food systems, and public health veterinarians, with and without on-site hands on training at the NCE-DVE. To be accomplished during 2018.
Publications
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