There is talk of a recruitment and retention crisis in the UK farm animal veterinary sector. Practices and employers struggle to recruit new graduate and experienced vets into farm animal jobs, and then can struggle to retain people in this work. I was fortunate to be able to travel to discuss this issue with vets and farmers overseas as part of a 2019 Nuffield Farming Scholarship funded by the Trehane Trust. I set off on my travels looking for solutions but found that the challenges we face here are not unique to the UK. Vets, farmers, and vet schools across North America and in both New Zealand and Australia reported similar problems. The full report is available here https://www.nuffieldscholar.org/reports/gb/2019/ensuring-veterinary-profession-meets-needs-livestock-agriculture-now-and-future.
Recruitment and retention of farm vets is a complex issue. The farm vet ‘pipeline’ should be examined in its entirety. The point of graduation is not the time to persuade people to consider a farm animal veterinary career. Interventions should take place from before vet school (outreach and admissions processes), during vet school (training and inspiring), and after vet school (recruitment and retention). Results from a survey of veterinary students in the UK and Ireland published online in the Veterinary Record (included in Cattle Review p194, https://doi.org/10.1002/vetr.455) highlights veterinary student attitudes towards careers in farm animal practice. While many factors that appeal to students were identified, such as working outside and working in agriculture, there was also a perception that working conditions were not appealing.
Farm work is considered likely to involve longer hours, have more out-of-hours working and lower salaries alongside less support, and be less inclusive and welcoming. Many of us working in the sector will be disappointed to hear this, and there are many examples where none of these things are true. However, anyone that has spent time listening to vet students speak about their animal husbandry and clinical extra mural studies experiences, will know that there are plenty of examples where many of these challenges do exist. Students experience or witness discrimination based on gender, race, or sexuality to name a few. Students see lapses in professionalism, with anecdotes about the use of out-of-date medicines or the misrepresentation of medicines use in clinical records. Students see a disregard for animal welfare, such as a lack of analgesia and anaesthesia, when carrying out calf husbandry procedures. None of this is very inspiring.
So, what can we do? We can start by making sure that students are inspired. Seeing people doing a good job, with good working conditions, where everyone is professional. This helps people see how the work of a farm vet aligns with their values. We can also do more to make people feel welcome in the sector. Discrimination and microaggressions should not go unchallenged. I often hear talk of prioritising ‘farm-keen’ students. While we all want to invest our time and energy in those most likely to pursue a career in farm practice, we should be mindful that this approach could be counterproductive. I often recall the Young Farmers' Club slogan ‘you don’t have to be one, to be one’ in this context. You do not need to have grown up on a farm to become a farm vet; as a sector if we limit our recruitment to people that grew up on farms, we are left with a very small pool to draw from. We also need to accept that most veterinary students will pursue a career in small animal practice. This does not mean time spent with these students is wasted, good experiences in farm practice are likely to be shared positively with more vet students in the future. They may even consider moving to a farm job if small animal practice is not what they imagined. We must also enable more flexible and part time working in farm practice. While not always easy, these working patterns are appealing and available in most other sectors. We need to keep up.
Next time you spend time with a veterinary student or work experience student, ask yourself ‘how inspiring am I being?’.