Source: MICHIGAN STATE UNIV submitted to
IMPROVING FOOD-ANIMAL VETERINARY SERVICE SHORTAGE SITUATIONS IN RURAL BOVINE PRACTICE THROUGH RECRUITMENT AND CONTINUING EDUCATION OF EARLY-CAREER VETERINARIANS
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
EXTENDED
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1017155
Grant No.
2018-70024-28817
Project No.
MICL12053
Proposal No.
2018-05117
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
VSGPE
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2018
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2023
Grant Year
2018
Project Director
Abuelo, A.
Recipient Organization
MICHIGAN STATE UNIV
(N/A)
EAST LANSING,MI 48824
Performing Department
LG ANML CLIN SCI
Non Technical Summary
The North American veterinary profession faces a shortage of food-animal veterinarians in the public, private, industrial, and academic sectors. This negatively impacts US food safety and supply, public health, and animal welfare. Recruitment and long-term retention of food-animal veterinarians in rural areas are critical issues for the sustainability of the livestock industries located in regions with veterinary service shortfalls. The majority of underserved regions identified in the USDA Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program indicate shortages of veterinarians in bovine (dairy and/or beef) practice. Thus, indicating that bovine practice is currently the area within food-animal veterinary medicine with the greatest lack of service to veterinary underserved regions. This proposal aims to increase recruitment and long-term retention of food-animal veterinarians in rural areas through (1) increasing awareness and exposure to rural practice during veterinary training, and (2) providing access to readily available bovine continuing education (CE) opportunities tailored for recent veterinary graduates working in rural areas. We used the information collected through a survey among recent graduates working in rural areas to design a targeted 24-month distance CE program supplemented with two 1.5-day hands-on workshops. Two editions of this program will be offered at no cost to a total of 40 early-career rural veterinarians. Participants' formal and informal feedback will be used to improve the program to the needs of young rural veterinarians for future offerings. At the same time, activities to increase awareness of veterinary rural practice and lifestyle among DVM students will be organized at Michigan State and Cornell University, and a total of 80 students from both institutions will be supported to undertake rural practice externships. In the short- to mid-term, the project outcomes will improve veterinary shortages in rural bovine practice through increasing recruitment of new rural veterinarians and supporting established rural early-career practitioners. In the long-term, increasing the skills of veterinarians in bovine preventive medicine aspects will likely shift the role of the veterinarians to a herd advisor, resulting in a greater number of regular farm visits, increased income, and fewer emergency services, while also enhancing the health and well-being of the animals served.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
9033410101010%
9033410109010%
9033410117010%
9033410310010%
9033410118010%
9033310101010%
9033310109010%
9033310117010%
9033310310010%
9033310118010%
Knowledge Area
903 - Communication, Education, and Information Delivery;

Subject Of Investigation
3310 - Beef cattle, live animal; 3410 - Dairy cattle, live animal;

Field Of Science
1090 - Immunology; 1180 - Pharmacology; 1010 - Nutrition and metabolism; 1170 - Epidemiology; 3100 - Management;
Goals / Objectives
Recruiting future veterinarians with rural practice experience and supporting recently graduated veterinarians will increase and maintain the stable veterinary workforce needed in rural, underserved areas to ensure the health and well-being of food-producing animals and safeguard a wholesome food supply. Therefore, the goal of this proposal is to increase the number of DVM graduates that choose and maintain a rural career in bovine medicine. This will be accomplished by (1) promoting and increasing the exposure to rural career opportunities among DVM students of Michigan State and Cornell Universities; and (2) creating, developing, and evaluating an online bovine medicine continue education program that supports recent DVM graduates working in shortage areas.
Project Methods
During the 4 years of this project, different activities will be organized on an annual basis at the Colleges of Veterinary Medicine of Michigan State and Cornell University that promote rural practice and lifestyle among veterinary students. These activities will include roundtables with early-career rural practitioners and presentations from senior DVM students that completed externships in rural areas summarizing their experiences. Additionally, a total of 40 students from each institution (10/institution/year; 80 in total) will be supported to undertake externships at practices that work in areas designated as Veterinary Shortage Situations by the USDA.Also, two cohorts of 20 early-career veterinarians each will be enrolled in a 24-month non-degree bovine medicine continue education program that combines online education and practical workshops. The program has been designed based on preliminary survey data. Early-career rural veterinarians identified the areas of greatest need for large animal continue education and the best way for its delivery. To assess the relevance of the identified topics to rural practice in the US, a second survey was conducted among experienced veterinarians in rural practice in the states of MI and NY. Finally, a program comprised of a total of 16 modules with an overall load of 180h (1-2 h/wk., 45 wk./yr.) that emphasizes preventive medicine aspects (epidemiology and data analysis, immunology and vaccines, nutrition and metabolic disorders, regulatory medicine, etc.) was developed. The online component will be delivered through various Michigan State University teaching technologies. Each year, an annual hands-on workshop will be organized at each institution. These workshops will focus on developing and practicing the clinical skills associated with the content presented in the online course. For this, the Michigan State and Cornell dairy and beef teaching farms will provide opportunities for the participants to practice these skills under direct supervision.

Progress 09/01/18 to 07/13/23

Outputs
Target Audience:Our efforts continued to focus on reaching DVM students from Michigan State and Cornell University, as well as early-career veterinarians (within 5 years of graduation) working in food animal practice in the United States. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A total of 62 DVM students completed an externship of at least 3 weeks in some aspect of food-supply veterinary medicine as part of this project during the reporting period. This included exposure to different food-animal production systems (dairy, beef, poultry, swine, aquaculture, cervids etc.). A total of 40 early-career rural veterinarians were enrolled to complete a 180 h course composed of online continuing education and two 1.5-day hands-on workshops. The feedback received was overall very positive. We received an overwhelming number of applications from outstanding candidates. Both cohorts are composed by early-career veterinarians working in rural practice in 15 different US states, have graduated from 16 different Colleges of Veterinary Medicine, and have different degrees of work experience (all graduating classes from 2016 to 2021 were represented). How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Through presentations at scientific and veterinary meetings as well as a peer-reviewed publication in the Journal of Dairy Science. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Through this project, we have increased the exposure to rural opportunities among DVM students of Michigan State and Cornell Universities. A total of 62 DVM students completed an externship in a food-animal related field. Our analysis from students' surveys indicate that these have been very efficient in recruiting food animal veterinarians upon graduation. In addition, some activities were organized to promote rural careers opportunities among DVM students, including talks by recent DVM graduates working in these areas. Also, the PD presented and discussed the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP) with DVM students. Two cohorts of 20 participants each completed a continuing education program designed to support food animal veterinarians in their first years in practice.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Abuelo, A. and S. Mann. 2023. Development of a bovine continuing education program for early-career veterinarians to address clinical service shortage. J. Dairy Sci. 106(4):3043-3050. http://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2022-22800
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Abuelo, A. and S. Mann. Continue Education in Food Animal Medicine: Does One Size Fit All?. 31st World Buiatrics Conference. Madrid, Spain. September 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Abuelo, A. and S. Mann. Development of a bovine continuing education program for early-career veterinarians to address clinical service shortage. Annual Meeting of the American Dairy Science Association. Ottawa, Canada. June 2023


Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22

Outputs
Target Audience:During this reporting period, our efforts continued to focus on reaching DVM students from Michigan State and Cornell University, as well as early-career veterinarians (within 5 years of graduation) working in food animal practice in the United States. Changes/Problems:The COVID-19 pandemic made us postpone the hands-on workshop for the first cohort. Similarly, students were not allowed to complete externships for part of the reporting period due to the pandemic, which reduced the number of students supported to complete food-animal externships. As a consequence, we have requested a non-cost extension to be able to complete the postponed workshop. Also, we will roll over the remainder of the funds budgeted to support externships to the next periods to support more students per year, so that the final number of students benefited from the program is not impacted. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A total of 13 DVM students completed an externship of at least 3 weeks in some aspect of food-supply veterinary medicine as part of this project during the reporting period. This included exposure to different food-animal production systems (dairy, beef, poultry, swine, aquaculture, cervids etc.). Both cohorts of 20 early-career rural veterinarians completed >80 h of online continuing education and a 1.5 day hands-on workshop each during this period. The feedback received was overall very positive. We received an overwhelming number of applications from outstanding candidates. Both cohorts are composed by early-career veterinarians working in rural practice in 15 different US states, have graduated from 16 different Colleges of Veterinary Medicine, and have different degrees of work experience (all graduating classes from 2016 to 2021 are represented). 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?We plan to host the second hands-on workshop for both cohorts at Cornell University. Cohort 1 will finalize the online education course in September 2022 and the we will continue to make improvements to the course based on the feedback received by both cohorts of participants. Also, we will start analyzing the impact of the continuing education course on retention of rural veterinarians and presenting these outcomes to stakeholders.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We have made progress in executing this project as outlined. During this reporting period, we have increased the exposure to rural opportunities among DVM students of Michigan State and Cornell Universities. A total of 13 DVM students completed an externship in a food-animal related field. This number is lower than expected due to COVID disruption on student externships during 2021. Nevertheless, our preliminary data analysis from students' surveys indicate that these have been very efficient in recruiting food animal veterinarians upon graduation. In addition, some activities were organized to promote rural careers opportunities among DVM students, including talks by recent DVM graduates working in these areas. Also, the PD presented and discussed the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP) with DVM students. Both cohorts of participants continued working towards completing the online continuing education course and participated in the first hands-on workshop.

Publications


    Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21

    Outputs
    Target Audience:During this reporting period, our efforts focused on reaching DVM students from Michigan State and Cornell University, as well as early-career veterinarians (within 5 years of graduation) working in food animal practice in the United States. Changes/Problems:The COVID-19 pandemic made us postpone the hands-on workshop for the first cohort from March to November 2021. Similarly, students were not allowed to complete externships for part of the reporting period due to the pandemic, which reduced the number of students supported to complete food-animal externships this year. We will roll over the remainder of the funds budgeted to support externships in this reporting period to the next periods to support more students per year, so that the final number of students benefited from the program is not impacted. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A total of 11 DVM students completed an externship of at least 3 weeks in some aspect of food-supply veterinary medicine as part of this project. This included exposure to different food-animal production systems (dairy, beef, poultry, swine, aquaculture, cervids etc.). Also, the first cohort of 20 early-career rural veterinarians completed 80 h of online continuing education. The feedback received was overall very positive. We received an overwhelming number of applications from outstanding candidates. A faculty committee finally selected 20 participants that are currently working in rural practice in 10 different US states, have graduated from 12 different Colleges of Veterinary Medicine, and have different degrees of work experience (all graduating classes from 2018 to 2021 are represented). 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?During this reporting period we plan to host the first hands-on workshop at Michigan State University for the first cohort (November 2021; postponed due to COVID-19) and for the second cohort (March, 2022). We will also continue developing online materials for the first cohort and make improvements to the course based on the feedback received by both cohorts of participants.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? We have made progress in executing this project as outlined. During this reporting period, we have increased the exposure to rural opportunities among DVM students of Michigan State and Cornell Universities. A total of 11 DVM students completed an externship in a food-animal related field. This number is lower than expected due to COVID disruption on student externships. Nevertheless, our preliminary data analysis from students' surveys indicate that these have been very efficient in recruiting food animal veterinarians upon graduation. In addition, some activities were organized to promote rural careers opportunities among DVM students, including talks by recent DVM graduates working in these areas. Also, the PD presented and discussed the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP) with DVM students. The first cohort of participants (n=20) for the online continuing education course completed the first year of online training and the second cohort (n=20) started the course on September 1, 2021.

    Publications


      Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20

      Outputs
      Target Audience:During this reporting period, our efforts focused on reaching DVM students from Michigan State and Cornell University, as well as recent (2016 to 2020) veterinary graduates working in food animal practice in the United States. Changes/Problems:The COVID-19 has impacted the progress of this project during this reporting period. Five out of the 11 students selected for externship support had to postpone their externships due to restrictions on travel and access to workplace learning opportunities. Similarly, we have postponed the Fall call for externship stipends until there are clear guidelines from the Universities and State health officials regarding travel and externship opportunities. The funds budgeted to support externships during this reporting period that have not been able to been adjudicated will be rolled over to the next periods to support more students per year, so that the final number of students benefited from the program is not impacted. Also, the closedown of university campus forced us to cancel some of the student dissemination activities initially planned. These are being re-scheduled now that the campuses are starting to re-open and will be organized virtually if required. Similarly, due to continuous changes in teaching and clinical service responsibilities of the instructors to manage the COVID-19 at their respective institutions, we had been forced to postpone a few months the start of the online continuing education course. Nevertheless, we are now set for a start date of September 1st, 2020 and this delay will not impact the first hands-on workshop (scheduled for March 12-13, 2021 at Michigan State) or our ability to enroll a second cohort of participants within the grant period. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A total of 11 DVM students were selected to receive support to complete an externship of at least 3 weeks in some aspect of food-supply veterinary medicine as part of this project. This included exposure to different food-animal production systems (dairy,beef, small ruminants, poultry, swine, aquaculture, cervids etc.) as well as public health veterinary services. Due to COVID-19 disruptions on workplace learning, 5 out of these 11 students have had to delay their externships and will complete them in the next reporting period. Also, we have selected the first cohort of 20 early-career rural veterinarians that will start the online continuing education course in September 2020. We received an overwhelming number of applications from outstanding candidates. A faculty committee finally selected 20 participants that are currently working in rural practice in 12 different states, have graduated from 13 different Colleges of Veterinary Medicine, and have different degrees of work experience (all graduating classes from 2016 to 2020 are represented). 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?We are starting the online continuing education program for early-career bovine practitioners in September 2020 and the first hands-on workshop is scheduled for March 12-13, 2021 at Michigan State. We will also recruit the second cohort of 20 participants for this course to start in September 2021. In addition, we will continue to promote and increase the exposure to rural career opportunities among DVM students of Michigan State and Cornell Universities through the provision of stipends for externships and organizing presentations by students and rural veterinarians.

      Impacts
      What was accomplished under these goals? We have made progress in executing this project according to the proposed timeline. During this reporting period, we have increased the exposure to rural opportunities among DVM students of Michigan State and Cornell Universities. A total of 11 DVM students were selected to receive support to complete an externship in a food-animal related field (see COVID disruption on project below), and our preliminary data analysis from students' surveys indicate that these have been very efficient in recruiting food animal veterinarians upon graduation. In addition, some activities were organized to promote rural careers opportunities among DVM students, including talks by recent DVM graduates working in these areas. Also, a presentation and discussion about the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP) was presented to DVM students. In addition, we have recruited the first cohort of participants for the online continuining education course on bovine health management that will start on September 1st, 2020.

      Publications


        Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/19

        Outputs
        Target Audience:During this reporting period, our efforts focused on reaching DVM students from Michigan State and Cornell University. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During this reporting period, a total of 19 DVM students completed an externship of at least 3 weeks in some aspect of food-supply veterinary medicine as part of this project. This included exposure to different food-animal production systems (dairy, beef, small ruminants, poultry, swine, aquaculture, etc.) as well as public health veterinary services. 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?The next reporting period will focus on launching the online continue education program for early-career bovine practitioners and completing the first hands-on workshop. In addition, we will continue to promote and increase the exposure to rural career opportunities among DVM students of Michigan State and Cornell Universities through the provision of stipends for externships and organizing presentations by students and rural veterinarians.

        Impacts
        What was accomplished under these goals? We have made great progress in executing this project according to the proposed timeline. The first year of the project focused on developing the materials of the online bovine medicine continue education program for recent DVM graduates that will be launched next year. We have already successfully achieved approval of this program by the American Association of Veterinary State Boards Registry of Approved Continuing Education (RACE). During this year we also increased the exposure to rural opportunities among DVM students of Michigan State and Cornell Universities. A total of 19 DVM students completed an externship in a food-animal related field. In addition, activities were organized to promote rural careers opportunities among DVM students, including talks by recent DVM graduates working in these areas. Also, a presentation about the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP) delivered by USDA-NIFA staff was organized and presented to DVM students. The presentation was recorded and is freely available to any DVM student/graduate: https://mediaspace.msu.edu/media/USDA+Veterinary+Medicine+Loan+Repayment+Program+Webinar/1_jax9vhya. This link was also shared more broadly through the American Association of Bovine Practitioners listserv and Facebook page.

        Publications