Progress 09/01/20 to 03/22/23
Outputs
Target Audience:
Nothing Reported
Changes/Problems:The major problems for this grant started before I ever became an employee of Food Armor one year ago. The grant was based on travel stipends for 180 people to attend the training in Madison, WI for 6 1 1/2 day trainings. Covid interrupted the grant and several trainings had to be canceled. Therefore, we trained only 25 people over this entire grant in-person. The grant was modified to include reaching as many veterinary students with free online access through AABP since we knew those students are food animal oriented. We reached out to around 200 recent veterinarian graduates with free online access. However, the Food Armor website had an old learning management system and there were multiple glitches in accessing the courses. It was going to require over $20,000 to get this improved. We were trying to build an online database to simplify the farm certification process that would allow veterinarians and their clients to put the Food Armor HACCP program for Proper Drug Use into practice. This would have helped tremendously in bringing in an income for Food Armor. We were just weeks away from having the first part of the database usable. Unfortunately, the funds Food Armor has been working with have been depleted without us being able to complete the grant obligations and other debts resulting in the dissolving of the Food Armor Foundation, Inc. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?There have been many oppoortunites for training and professional development but due to Covid and people not traveling as much, not many of the opportunities were utilized which was very frustrating. 1. Three training opportunities were offered (November, January & March) to all veterinary students and veterinarians who had graduated within the last 15 years. 2. Free access was given to the online education platform to all participants who completed the training previously with a coupon code sent via a survey link and an email. As a modification to the grant, we also offered it to all veterinary student members of the AABP which was done through an email with a coupon code and included about 900 veterinary students. All veterinarians attending the 2023 Recent Grad Conference which was around 200 received a flyer in their welcome bags and I promoted it at a booth during the Conference which was well attended. Many students were interested in the database that was in development. For the online access to the 1500 dairy producers, flyers were given out at the World Dairy Expo in Madison, WI at the NMPF Booth and advertised in the Food Armor monthly newsletter for six months. These courses were offered in both English and Spanish. It seems like Covid contributed to antimicrobial stewardship not being a buzzword on farms and it has become forgotten or much less important even though it should not be. The veterinary students and veterinarians who attended the trainings have utilized the information and this seemed to have a more lasting influence on them as they took advantage of the free online module access and continued to take more courses. It is all about being able to assist trainees with understanding the situations that Food Armor influences through professional experiences. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?One veterinary student who received free access through the AABP opportunity found the material very useful and was going to propose to her veterinary curriculum board to add the online courses as credit at Oregon State. I created a syllabus for the 12 courses, however, it was going to be brought before the board in April, 2023. We reached out to WVMA, AABP, Professional Dairy Producers (PDPW) and NMPF to collaborate and share the information we found out from this grant and to brainstorm additional ideas for reaching veterinary students, veterinarians, and dairy producers. With Covid, the change in landscape of continuing education due to the lasting effect on in-person meetings, not near as many people seem were reached with the in-person trainings. With Food Armor, online sessions are good but they are not as valuable as instilling situation awareness of the Food Armor principles as in the in-person trainings. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1. Three training opportunities were offered (November, January & March) to all veterinary students and veterinarians who had graduated within the last 15 years. This was promoted through AABP newsletter, WVMA newsletter, DVM Moms and Vet Truck facebook groups, the monthly Food Armor newsletter and an invite sent to AABP Educators Group and many veterinary college food animal professors. However, the number of students who attended those three was 10 total. Many of those who attended were from states that hadn't attended any Food Armor Training previously which broadened our overall reach. The training included ways for all veterinarians, including those in shortage areas, to develop unique antimicrobial stewardship plans for each client which is a tool that can be added to their sustainable business model. 2. We provided free access to the online education platform to all participants who completed the training. As a modification to the grant, we also offered it to all veterinary student members of the AABP which is about 900. In addition, we offered it to all veterinarians attending the 2023 AABP Recent Grad Conference which was around 200 people. We worked with the National Milk Producers Federation to provide free access to 1500 dairy producers in both English and Spanish hoping they would use the modules for themselves and to train their employees. While all of this was offered and advertised and promoted, it was very disappointing in the number of people who enrolled in the online modules. Despite being offered free module access, the people involved chose not to utilize these free opportunities. We did have about 60 people take advantage of the opportunity. 3. We were working with AABP to develop a database that would simplify the third section of Food Armor which includes creating an individual Food Armor HACCP program for every farm. This had been a paper hard copy that was a time-consuming process that veterinarians and farmers found useful and saved them money with reduced antibiotic use. Food Armor had stopped providing this in 2017 because of that. Several dairy producers had requested it so Food Armor was in the process of developing this online databases. We have halted this database development because of insufficient funding.
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Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:This grant served a similar audience to the other Foundation's grant but included veterinarians up to 15 years out of vet school. The main audience is veterinary students from schools other than the 8 served by the other grant (UMN, UW, MSU, OSU, NCSU, ISU, UPenn, LMU). It offers an opportunity to students attending schools for which Food Armor doesn't travel to for training. A secondary audience is students of any veterinary school that haven't had the opportunity to attend a Food Armor training in the past including the above schools. Changes/Problems:One major problem was not having an employee from the end August 2021until February 2022. This meant no one was available to provide the Food Armor training during what we hope will be the ideal months. Then it took time to get the meetings scheduled so that it became necessary to schedule in August even though we knew this hadn't been an ideal time the year before. It will be a major challenge to come close to the 180 students. Hopefully with increased publicity on the Food Armor website for both veterinarians and producers there will be moreinterest in attending in person meetings. It may be necessary to switch to offering some trainings online or another alternative, but will wait to see how the attendance is for the November meeting. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Phase 1 training was open to all veterinarians less than 15 years out of collegeand veterinary students and advertised through AABP to bovine practioners, extension people who work with veterinarians and the veterinary colleges across the country.The Food Armor website is set up for people to takethe twelve basic courses (available in English or Spanish) and an additional eight courses that include small ruminants, backyard poultry, beef cattle metaphylaxis and current antimicrobial stewardship aspects in dairy cattle such as dry cow therapy, mastitis, metritis and rainsing the young dairy calf.Courses are available to all veterinarians and veterinary students. Those attending the training will be given free access to these for 24 months following the training. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results have been disseminated to the Food Armor Board of Directors and the Food Armor Committee as well as the individual veterinary colleges that are interested in Food Armor HACCP Proper Drug Use program. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next reporting period, Food Armor aims to offer 4 more of these training workshops to similiar audiences from around the country. Getting interested veterinarians seems to be a challenge. 1) Expand marketing of the training opportunities through various outlets in the food animalindustries, not only through agriculture industries affiliated with veterinarians as well as social mediasites that veterinary students and veterinarias might utilize. 2) Strive for higher attendance. The timing of these trainings will have to be evaluated to see when it is best to get veterinarians and vet students to attend. It seems to be difficult to get vet students to attend during theirbusy college years, but it will be important to see which timing seems to work best. By shifting dates to fall and spring Food Armor hopes to increase the opportunites so interested parties will attend. 3) Follow up on online training results from past participants. Measure the level of engagement, participation and training results through the online platform analytics. 4) Work to improve producer interest and employee training through free accessso there is a demand for the veterinarians to work with their producers on Food Armor HACCP Proper Drug Use program. We are working with the National Milk Producers Federation for funding for producers and with Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin to promote the concept of antimicrobial stewardship through Food Armor.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Food Safety and Antimicrobial Stewardship training for veterinarians continues to be vitally important as the judicious use of antimicrobials and preventing antimicrobial resistance is a significant problem in the world. This should be considered a core component to veterinary education. One training session was held in the last 12 months because Food Armor had no employee from August 27, 2021 until February 21, 2022. The first scheduled training was on August 10 because this was the only time that corresponded with the WVMA Mastermind program that worked. Unfortunately, the WVMA Mastermind program was canceled for the August training. There were originally had 5 people signed up, but two had emergencies and were unable to attend at the last minute. Three veterinarians attended and they did represent Colorado, Virginia, and Arizonia which are three states that our other training doesn't connect with. A second training is scheduled for November 10 and 11, 2022. Hopefullythere will be more attendance at this meeting including veterinary students. The plan is to schedule four more of these next year.
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Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:This grant served a similar audience to the other Foundation's grant. The main audience is veterinary students from schools other than the 8 served by the other grant (UMN, UW, MSU, OSU, NCSU, ISU, UPenn, LMU). It offers an opportunity to students attending schools for which Food Armor doesn't travel to for training. A secondary audience is students of any veterinary school that haven't had the opportunity to attend a Food Armor training in the past. This includes veterinarians up to 15 years out of vet school. Changes/Problems:One problem Food Armor ran into was lower attendance levels. It is believed that this was a combination of the COVID pandemic and the dates on which the workshops were scheduled. The training was held at the beginning of August which turned out to be a tough time to recruite individuals to travel and attend training. There was a lot of expressed interest but many individuals stated the timing of the workshops didn't work with other summer plans or vacations. By adjusting the scheduling of the workshops. the aim is to increase availability of interested parties in attending. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Food Armor Antimicrobial Stewardship training provides high quality education focused on the topics of food safety, residue avoidance and proper stewardship practices. This training is aimed to be practical and relevant to every day veterinary practice and can be utilized immediately after the training. Additionally, through a collaborative effort with the Wisconsin Veterinary Medical Association (WVMA), participants had the option of participating in a Veterinary Medical Mastermind program aimed at personal professional development. 5 of the 12 participants attended this training which offered insight into developing professional goals and networks for each individual. The results of this workshop is explained in the WVMA's grant reporting. 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?In the next two reporting periods, Food Armor aims to offer 5 more of these training workshops to similar audiences from around the country. 1) Expand marketing of the training opportunities through various outlets in food animal industries 2) Strive for higher attendance. The timing of these trainings will be adjusted to avoid busy summer schedules. There was a high level of interest shown but many individuals stated they were unavailable the dates the training was being hosted. By shifting the dates to spring and/or fall Food Armor hopes to increase the availability of interested parties to attend. 3) Follow up on online training results from past participants. Measure level of engagement, participation and training results through the online platform analytics.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Specific Aim #1 and #2::Food Safety and Antimicrobial Stewardship training is vitally important for veterinarians to know and understand. This shouldbe included as a core component to veterinary education. To help achieve this Food Armor held onetraining workshop during the 2020-2021 grant period. A total of 12 individuals participated in this training workshop held in Madison, WI. The workshops included active lecture, discussion and exercises to help train participants with specific skills sets for implementing antimicrobial stewardship practices on farm. This allows each veterinarian the skills and framework to make continuous improvement in the areas of stewardship with all their clients, both current and future. 1) 1.5 days of training in stewardship implementation plans. Participants actively designed, discussed, and comparedpieces of the plan to allow them to imagine how to implement these plans with farms. Many of these exercises can be directly taken and used on client farms immediately after the training. 2) A follow up survey was conducted of all training attendees to determine knowledge gained, overall experience and intentions of implement plans following the workshops. 3) All of the participants reported a gain of knowledge in the area of antimicrobial stewardship, food safety and residue avoidance. They also reported a high level of satisfaction with the training and stated they would recommend it to their colleagues and other students. These results align with past results of this type of training workshop. 4) These workshops help provide additional knowledge and skill sets to these veterinarians and veterinary students. The participants all reported high likelihood of implementing these types of stewardship plans with their clients, either right away, or after graduation. Follow up surveys can help measure the amount of action created as a direct result of the trainings. Additionally, all participants receive free access to online educational platform for additional education to help support their new skills attained through this training.
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