News
New report is helping Indiana combat the nationwide rural veterinary shortage
A new report from the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine, the Indiana State Board of Animal Health, and the Farm Journal Foundation is helping the industry identify the factors contributing to a nationwide shortage of rural veterinarians.
Dr. Bret Marsh, dean of Purdue University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, says limited access to resources has made it more difficult for the industry to retain veterinarians.
“Farms have become fewer and larger,” he says. “The need for veterinary services has changed. We also had consolidation in the ag sector. For those that have smaller holdings of animals in rural areas, it’s often more difficult for them to be seen.”
He tells Brownfield Indiana ag leaders are looking to adopt a state-based loan repayment program to help attract new graduates to rural areas.
“It would be more of a community-based initiative,” he says. “We’re hopeful the bill gets traction in the next legislative session because it will provide opportunities for veterinarians and veterinary technicians that work in these underserved areas to get debt relief.”
Indiana is one of the three pilot states involved in the State and Community Readiness Program, designed to identify the root causes of the rural veterinary shortage and recommend solutions to help address the issue.
AUDIO: Bret Marsh, Purdue University’s College of Veterinary Medicine
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On top of that, most young veterinarians do not want to live in an area that has absolutely nothing to offer them outside of work. I don’t foresee things getting better in this sector. But I’m just a NYC based vet originally raised in a very rural area.
Also, like you said, miserable pay when loans are so high.
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I was a mixed practice rural practitioner for 40 years. We skied, surfed, skateboarded, hiked, hung out and still had time for local theater, cinema, and grounding education for our 2 sons who both got BAs, have good jobs in rural settings
and appreciate the natural world.
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I want to start by saying I currently do mixed animal practice in a rural area. The largest obstacle (other than debt:income ratio) is the lack of routine care by large animal clients. A lot of them want to do everything themselves and only use a veterinarian in emergency situations or when they already tried everything they know to do. Unfortunately there isn’t a way for a veterinarian to make a living doing that while having a life outside of work. Clients expect you should be available 24/7 which isn’t practical for just one person. Small animal clinics can just refer to small animal emergency clinics. I believe regardless of class size the problem will continue because lack of routine care by large animal clients which in turn gives rural veterinarians a stable income.
While I believe if a facility was built for large animal clients (potentially like emergency clinic for large animal) would help some you would still have the problem of staffing them. Unless some new vet students were obligated to do rural medicine before acceptance to the vet school then will still have a lack of large animal veterinarians. I had classmates that grew up rural and said they would do large animal but never treated one after vet school. If a facility was built it would allow younger veterinarians to have an experienced mentor as well which I think would help. Unfortunately I have learned some hard lessons because I didn’t have anyone to be a mentor.
Instead of continue to spend money on research when numerous have already been done, they could spend the money to reduce student loan debt if working in a rural area. I know that is already occurring at the federal level but when I looked into it I wasn’t considered rural enough when there wasn’t another large animal veterinarian in the 3 surrounding counties.
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We already know the answer to this! Quality of life too low (hours too long, on call, moral injury, etc). Debt service too high. Pay too low. Duh.
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Over the years I have seen so many changes which have affected our profession economically, demographically, and educationally which I believe are all interrelated and begs the question, what came first? The chicken or the egg. First, economically the cost of education has far out paced inflation. Since 1979 the average annual inflation rate has been 3.31%, meaning that the cumulative inflation rate today is roughly 361.6%. In other words what a $1.00 bill purchased in 1979 should now cost $4.62 today. My veterinary school tuition between 1980 and 1984 was around $3000 per year. Why is tuition now $50,000 per year or more? That fact alone and the student debt load that by necessity follows with such high tuition costs has many negative consequences. It changes which students can afford to even aspire to become potential candidates to a veterinary school education. Also, it influences what types of jobs graduates look for after graduation. It puts upward pressure on salaries and therefore upward pressure on veterinary fees for service. Additionally, corporate ownership has a substantial influence in veterinary costs. After all, a corporation’s duty is to its share-holders to increase profits, not to benefit our clients or patients. It is no wonder why client attitudes about our profession have been changing. You hear the refrain frequently, you’re a veterinarian, you’re supposed to love animals, you’re just doing it for the money. I believe I now understand why we have burnout and suicide; it didn’t use to be that way.
Demographically, the veterinary profession has made a dramatic change over the years. It is now a female dominated profession. I believe currently about 80% of new graduates are female. This is a very touchy topic and I don’t want to paint either sex with broad strokes but, I believe it has an economic baring upon the hours worked per week and the years spent in practice which likely contributes to the relative shortage of equine/large animal practitioners and scarcity of service in the rural community.
Educationally, I believe our profession has made a change towards the human medicine model with over specialization. Years ago, I noticed many ABVS certified veterinarians unable to find jobs as equine surgeons and leaving equine practice to do small animal practice due to economics. There are many excellent general practitioners that can work up difficult lameness cases or perform field surgeries without needing to refer patients for castrations and other field surgeries such as enucleations, splint removals, hernia repairs, caslicks, tenotomies, LDA’s, C-sections, etc. I hear so often from small animal practitioners they can’t find associates or even relief veterinarians that can or will perform surgery. Are veterinary schools no longer requiring operative practice? I also question how some of the newer veterinary schools without clinics or hospitals are able to adequately prepare their graduates to practice and do anything more than wellness exams and vaccinations. Sure, they can get a job at Petsmart or some other wellness practice to help pay off their student debt, but ask yourself are they actually helping or hurting the profession and the pet owning public. For two years prior to this year, I participated in reviewing and scoring applications to veterinary school. I must say that although many of the candidates seem to be motivated and academically qualified, there very few that I felt had a realistic understanding of the profession or were interested in equine/large animal practice.
I believe this profession and those we serve will continue to have troubles until state legislatures adequately fund higher education to reduce tuition and student debt, university admissions committees change both their student selection criteria and the educational model that used to produce graduate veterinarians with real world hands-on experience and the old business model of veterinarian owned and managed practices replaces large corporate ventures.
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Many rural communities have become health care deserts, not just for veterinary medicine, but for human healthcare, dentistry, pharmacy, long-term care, etc. Many also lack access to childcare services, educational opportunities, and social activities.
I wish I had solution to this issue, but it will probably take a major, coordinated effort across several state agencies and a significant expenditure by state government to affect a change.
The financial discrepancy noted in a previous comment is certainly a factor. The physical demands of the job, the long hours, and emergency calls can impact a young veterinarian’s family life.
I believe that loan repayment assistance should be a component of a recruitment plan. I would suggest that tax-incentives from both state and local governments could be very helpful. The state could waive sales tax for certain veterinary equipment purchased for a rural practice. Local government could give property tax break to the practice. This type of tax-incentive perk is a common tactic used in large cities to lure major corporations. This could be done on a small scale for rural veterinary practices.
Loan repayment is a major incentive. But many small drops fill a bucket.
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A large issue is that the pay tends to be low compared to small animal clinical medicine, with emergency work and on-call necessary. This is a big mismatch for what young veterinarians with $300K++ student loans need and want in a career.