Recipient Organization
UNIV OF PENNSYLVANIA
(N/A)
PHILADELPHIA,PA 19104
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Food animal veterinary service providers are fundamentally dependent on the economic success of producer animal production systems. Recent graduate feedback and previous published work have identified ways that academic institutions can help, leading to the development of this project. Inextricably linked, the success of producers and veterinarians directly affect the survivability of one another. Over time, a negative feedback loop is developed. Producer failure and farm exit ultimately dilutes available livestock, leaving remaining livestock dispersed over a greater geographical area, which makes providing veterinary services more time consuming and expensive. This in turn affects the survivability of rural veterinary practices and contributes to veterinary shortage situations by limiting opportunities to generate supporting income. Lack of income ultimately limits the ability of veterinary practices to retain or hire additional veterinary staff thus exacerbating shortage situations. This situation is common, unfortunately leading to veterinarian burn out, and discourages students interested in rural veterinary medicine from pursuing veterinary education and returning to their home area. Changing the direction of this feedback loop from negative to positive is achievable, and veterinary medicine is the uniquely positioned discipline that can address these challenges.In an attempt to address these issues, more recent training efforts for food animal veterinarians have included "herd health" and "production medicine". Recent graduates surveyed revealed that their ability to provide more advanced production medicine services is limited. Offering expanded services is constrained by immediately needing to provide traditional veterinary services, and the resulting lack of time and opportunity utilizing production medicine techniques soon after graduation allows the skillset to expire. This project will address these challenges through three main objectives. Objective 1 willequip veterinarians who have graduated in the past five-years with advanced production medicine skills. This will be accomplished through monthly virtual training sessions and twice yearly in person workshops at local dairy farms to solidify key concepts presented during virtual sessions. Enrolled veterinarians will also collaborate with a dairy producerin their practice, using the farms financial and production data to identify opportunities and immediately returna deliverable to the dairy producer. Objective 2 will match preclinical year veterinary students in the PennVet food animal club with recent graduate veterinarians from objective 1 for two-week externships. Food animal club members are interested in, but not committed, to rural food animal medicine. The aim of the externship program is to expose veterinary students to the nuances of rural food animal medicine and establish longer-term mentorship possibilities. Objective 3 is a partnership with the PA Center for Dairy Excellence and the Walter B. Saul High School (Philadelphia, PA). This partnership will provide twice-yearly on-farm experiences for high school students on local dairy farms in conjunction with their hometown recent graduate veterinarians. The goalof on-farm experiences is to offer hands-on formal training in real world settings displaying all facets of veterinary medicine, including veterinary technician and animal care related roles. On-farm experiences willengage, expose, and encouragehigh school students to consider careers in veterinary medicine using familiar, local farms as an example.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Major goal of project is to improve dairy producer economic viability. When dairy producers fail to overcome economic challenges, communitites and industry partners suffer, and veterinarians struggle to remain viable and sustainable.Objectives to meet the major goal are as follows:Equip recent graduate dairy veterinarians with advanced production medicine skills to improve both producer and veterinarian viability. This will be accomplishedutilizing monthly virtual training sessions and two-yearlyin-person workshops for veterinarians who have graduated in the past five-years.Participating veterinarians willpartner with a local dairy producer to evaluate production and financial data, providing rapid feedback to theproducer to identify oppotunties for improvement.Connect current veterinary students with recent graduate veterinarians through an externship match program to expose students to all attributes of rural veterinary practice. Members of the Penn Vet food animal club are preclinical students who are interested, but not committed to food animal medicine. This experience will match food animal club members with recent graduate veterinarians to provide rural clinical exposure for students and potential longer term mentorship.Engage rising high school students to inspire interest in rural veterinary medicine. In partnership with the PA Center for Dairy Excellence and the Walter B. Saul High School (Philadelphia, PA), we will provide twoon-farm experiences per year for rural high school students in combination with their hometown veterinarians from objective 1. The purpose of these experiences is to offer high school students formal educational skills in a hands-on environment exposing students to all aspects of veterinary medicine, including technician and animal care related roles.
Project Methods
Objective 1: Equip recent graduate dairy veterinarians with advanced production medicine skills to improve both client and veterinarian viability through a Veterinary Training Program (VTP) Training content: Drawing on extensive field experience and internship programs described previously, topic themes and curriculum content have been established (Figure 2) by Penn Vet faculty with expertise in dairy production medicine. While we will encourage participants to provide input on topics that are of individual interest, initially having a set curriculum framework will allow participants to engage immediately and not have to conceive their own topics. Web based training: Web based training will be employed to develop and reinforce key production medicine topics during years one through three. As we intend to incorporate veterinarians from various regions and distance, training content will be delivered twice monthly via an online platform (e.g., Zoom) and recorded and archived for potential future use. In-person workshops: Two, 1.5-day in-person workshops will be held each year. One of these workshops will coincide with the Penn Vet student dairy medicine rotation, allowing for the interaction of recent graduate veterinarians and senior veterinary students. In-person workshops will include a classroom portion and "on-farm" component. One meeting per year will be held at a dairy farm near the Penn Vet New Bolton Center campus to coincide with the senior dairy production medicine rotation. The other visit will be on a dairy affiliated with one of the participant recent graduate veterinarians. Partnering Veterinarians & Producers: In the first month of the project, veterinarians will be asked to identify a partner dairy farm (producer one) that routinely utilizes their veterinary services. The dairy producer must have computer records and be willing to allow the veterinarian to access them. Each veterinarian will be provided with access to PcDART, a computer dairy records analysis program used to capture, store, and export production data from each farm.Objective 2: Connect current veterinary students with recent graduate veterinarians through an Externship Match Program (EMP) to expose students to all attributes of rural veterinary practice Externship matching: Preclinical year veterinary students are eager for "real-world" experiences that can be challenging to provide in an academic hospital setting. The purpose of the EMP is to pair veterinary students interested in rural dairy practice with recent graduate veterinarians. The match program will be a competitive process as a limited number of mentor veterinarians will be available. Pre-clinical year FAC students will have to fill out an application and clearly articulate why they are interested in this program. A goal of the match program is to include students of varying interest and skill levels. The externship duration will be two weeks. A travel stipend for students will be provided to defray costs. A stipend will also be provided to host recent graduate veterinarians to help cover any unanticipated costs and to also encourage participation.Objective 3: Engage rising high school students via on-farm experiences (OFE) to stimulate interest in rural veterinary medicine Engagement: 1.) PA CDE/CDEF: In year two and three of the project, we will join with the PA CDE and CDEF to promote, recruit, and manage two yearly OFE's. This activity will bring together rural high school students with their hometown veterinarians on a local dairy farm to provide an in-depth look at what rural dairy veterinary medicine entails. The CDE/CDEF will use their prior experience and expertise to assist with planning OFE's to include all aspects of veterinary medicine, including technician and animal care related roles. The CDE/CDEF will assist in contacting high schools in close proximity to the recent graduate veterinarians practice area. Working with high school Ag teachers, approximately 15-20 students will be selected to participate in each OFE. Staff from the CDE/CDEF will handle logistics, registration, and meal planning for the event. Penn Vet faculty will plan the on-farm portion to include multiple stations highlighting different facets of rural veterinary medicine. After conclusion of on-farm activities and if applicable, students will plan to visit the recent graduate veterinarian's clinic/hospital to observe the full breadth of rural veterinary medicine. 2.) Using a similar format to CDE/CDEF, one OFE will be offered during year two and three of the project specifically tailored towards students from the Walter B. Saul High School. With the close proximity of the school to Penn Vet New Bolton Center, this is a unique opportunity to connect with a diverse student population to share opportunities for high school students interested in rural dairy medicine as both future veterinarians and veterinary technicians.Project Evaluation Plan Objective 1: (VTP):Recent Graduate Information: Demographic and employment-related data will be collected from each veterinarian participating in the VTP.Training content surveys: A survey will be distributed to recent graduate veterinarians who have agreed to be part of this project at the end of year one and two. The survey will serve as a "check-in" anonymously providing feedback to the project PI (Dr. Joe Bender) to help improve delivery and content if needed. Web-based training: Live attendance is encouraged but not mandatory. Attendance will be recorded during live training sessions to help assess impact. The total number of hours and total number of hours per veterinarian will be recorded to assess progress as the project advances. In-person workshops: Prior to in-person workshops, veterinarians will be surveyed as to which topic areas would be of greatest interest to examine during an in-person, on-farm evaluation. The number of on-farm evaluations, number of farms visited, and number of cows impacted will all be recorded to assess project progress. At the conclusion of each in-person workshop, veterinarians again will be surveyed to make sure the in-person and web-based training sessions are coordinated and applicable.Partnering Veterinarians and Dairy Producers: Each participating veterinarian will partner with one dairy producer in their practice area during year one, and then an additional dairy producer in year two as previously described. Data on farm productivity and animal populations will be collected electronically from the farm, including number of cows, production, reproduction, culling, and heifer raising metrics.Objective 2: EMPInitial baseline information: Information collected from current Food Animal Club members interested in participating in the EMP includes previous experience in food animal medicine, professional interests, and career goals upon graduating. The number of participating students, veterinarians, and total hours of externship training will be recorded to monitor interest and participation.Externship assessment: Veterinary students will be required to submit a daily case log, a formal case presentation, and will complete and exit interview.Objective 3: OFEInitial baseline information: The number of participating high schools and students, geographical location, and total hours contributed to on-farm experiences will be recorded to monitor breadth of impact.Experience feedback: Following the on-farm experience, a survey will be distributed to students to indicate its impact on their interest in pursuing a career in veterinary medicine.Career impact: Contact information for agricultural teachers will be collected. A follow-up survey will be sent within two years after the on-farm experience to determine the number of students who attended with initial interest in a career in veterinary medicine and ultimately pursued further training aligning with this career goal.