Veterinary student and veterinarian attitudes toward veterinary public health and epidemiology

Brief Research Report: Veterinary Student Perspective on COVID-19 and Veterinary Medicine

COVID-19 has had significant effects on the field of veterinary medicine. Adaptation to pandemic-related and post-pandemic challenges requires engagement from all levels of the professional pipeline, including veterinary college students. Insights gained from this group may inform curriculum design, help the veterinary profession innovate, maximize opportunities for positive change, and avoid negative outcomes. The current study aimed to understand the potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on veterinary medicine, as foreseen by second-year veterinary students in an online discussion during a public health course in the spring of 2020. Twenty-one percent of the 113 students agreed to participate in this qualitative research study. We used an inductive coding process and distilled the student responses into descriptive themes to capture diverse perspectives and understand possible post-pandemic pathways for the veterinary profession. Four themes emerged from the student discussion posts, describing how veterinarians might be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic: (1) economic and social impacts, (2) adapting to challenges, (3) collaborations to improve public health, and (4) disparities and diversity. These themes are a starting point for discussion and innovation as veterinarians plan for the post-pandemic world; further investigation will provide additional guidance for veterinary leaders.

Veterinarian barriers to knowledge translation (KT) within the context of swine infectious disease research: an international survey of swine veterinarians

Background

Food animal veterinarians face commodity specific and urgent global challenges yet conditions preventing use of best available knowledge have been sparsely studied. The American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV) membership (N = 1289) was surveyed online to benchmark their information priorities and their motivations and sources for keeping current with infectious disease research, and to describe their reported time, skill, access, and process as barriers to knowledge translation (KT).

Results

Respondents (n = 80) were mostly from Canada (n = 40) and the U.S.A (n = 31) and demographics approximated the AASV’s. Colleagues are the first choice for information on difficult cases (49%, 95%CI: 38–61). Half of respondents (53%, 95%CI: 41–64) spend an hour or less per week keeping up with infectious disease research. The majority reported moderate or less than moderate efficiency (62%, 95%CI: 51–72), and moderate or greater stress (59%, 95%CI: 48–70) with their process for keeping up. Journal article methods sections are commonly not read, almost a third (32%, 95% CI: 22–43) reported either they do not evaluate statistical methods or that they had poor confidence to do so, and half (52, 95%CI: 41–63) could not explain ‘confounding bias’. Approximately half (55%, 95%CI: 41-69) with direct oversight of swine herds had full access to 2 or fewer academic journals. Approximately a third of respondents (34%, 95%CI: 24–46) selected only formats involving single research studies (either full text or summaries) as preferred reading materials for keeping current over expert summaries of the body of evidence.

Conclusion

KT barriers are considerable and a source of stress for many swine veterinarians. Sub-optimal efficiency with keeping up and low confidence to appraise aspects of research are concerns. Results are consistent with previous literature and illustrate need for improved KT infrastructure and for additional training in statistical methods and interpretation of primary research. Further evaluation is warranted of why approximately a third of veterinarians in this study, for the purpose of keeping up, preferentially choose to review individual research studies over choices that would include an expert summary of the body of evidence. Consideration of reasons for this preference will be important in the planning of KT infrastructure improvements.

Supplementary information

Supplementary information accompanies this paper at 10.1186/s12917-020-02617-8.

Perceptions of the Veterinary Profession among Human Health Care Students before an Inter-Professional Education Course at Midwestern University

Conflicts among health care professionals often stem from misperceptions about each profession's role in the health care industry. These divisive tendencies impede progress in multidisciplinary collaborations to improve human, animal, and environmental health. Inter-professional education (IPE) may repair rifts between health care professions by encouraging students to share their professional identities with colleagues in unrelated health care disciplines. An online survey was conducted at Midwestern University (MWU) to identify baseline perceptions about veterinary medicine among entry-level human health care students before their enrollment in an inter-professional course. Participation was anonymous and voluntary. The survey included Likert-type scales and free-text questions. Survey participants expressed their interest in and respect for the discipline of veterinary medicine, but indicated that their unfamiliarity with the profession hindered their ability to collaborate. Twenty percent of human health care students did not know the length of a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) program and 27.6% were unaware that veterinarians could specialize. Although 83.2% of participants agreed that maintaining the human-animal bond is a central role of the veterinary profession, veterinary contributions to stem cell research, food and water safety, public health, environmental conservation, and the military were infrequently recognized. If IPE is to successfully pave the way for multidisciplinary collaboration, it needs to address these gaps in knowledge and broaden the definition of veterinary practice for future human health care providers.

[Public health competencies and contents in Spanish university degree programmes of Veterinary Medicine]

OBJECTIVE

To reach a consensus among public health faculty from various Spanish universities about the core public health competencies that should be integrated into the Veterinary Medicine degree training.

METHODS

The 3rd Forum of University Professors of Public Health was held at the School of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Cordoba (12-13 January 2016). Forty-two university professors and lecturers from nine Spanish universities with veterinary degrees participated in the forum. They were divided into five working groups during three working sessions to identify and classify core public health competencies for the Veterinary Medicine degree, propose public health contents for the identified competencies and organize such contents in thematic blocks. The results were discussed in different plenary sessions.

RESULTS

The highest number of core competencies was identified in the activities related to the following public health functions: «Assessment of the population's health needs» and «Developing health policies». The final programme included basic contents organized into five units: 1) Fundamentals of public health; 2) Study and research in public health; 3) Production, animal health and environment; 4) Food security; and 5) Health education.

CONCLUSIONS

The public health core competencies and contents identified in this Forum may be considered as a starting point to update public health training programmes for future veterinary professionals.

Teaching biostatistics and epidemiology in the veterinary curriculum: what do our fellow lecturers expect?

Given veterinary students' varying mathematical knowledge and interest in statistics, teaching statistical concepts to them is often seen as a challenge. Consequently, there is an ongoing debate among lecturers about the best time to introduce the material into the curriculum, and the best thematic content and conceptual approach to teaching in basic biostatistics classes. During a workshop meeting of epidemiology and biostatistics lecturers of Austrian, German, and Swiss veterinary schools, the question was raised as to whether the topics taught in epidemiology and statistics classes are of sufficient relevance to our lecturing colleagues in other fields of veterinary education (i.e., whether our colleagues have certain expectations as to what the students should know about biostatistics before taking their classes). In 2012, an online survey was compiled and carried out at all eight German-speaking veterinary schools to address this issue. There were 266 respondents out of approximately 800 contacted lecturers from all schools and disciplines. Almost 50% responded that the basic biostatistics class should be taught early on (in the second or third year), while only 26% indicated that basic epidemiology should commence before the third year of the veterinary curriculum. There were clear differences in perceived relevance of the 44 epidemiological and biostatistical topics presented in the survey, assessed on a Likert scale from 0 (no relevance) to 4 (very high relevance). The results provide important information about how to revise the content of epidemiology and biostatistics classes, and the approach could also be used for other courses within the veterinary curriculum with a natural science focus.

Undergraduate veterinary students' perceptions of the usefulness, focus, and application of epidemiology before and after epidemiology courses

Student perception of the relevance of a topic is known to influence learning outcomes. To determine student perceptions of the usefulness, focus, and application of epidemiology, we conducted a study at two Australian veterinary schools in 2005. Veterinary students in year 3 at the University of Sydney and in year 5 at the University of Queensland completed a self-administered questionnaire at the commencement and conclusion of an epidemiology course. At both universities, while over 95% of students considered epidemiology to be "essential" or "quite useful" in cattle and sheep practice and in government practice, at the course end between 10% and 30% of students still did not consider epidemiology to be "essential" or "quite useful" in small-animal or equine practice. However, the percentage of students who considered that all veterinary work involved the application of epidemiological principles increased from 7% at course start to 15% at course end at the University of Sydney (p=0.188), and from 3% to 25% at the University of Queensland (p<0.001). The results indicate that, although some veterinary students, even at completion of an epidemiology course, still do not link epidemiology with an evidence-based medicine approach to patient care, undergraduate courses can positively change student perception of the usefulness, focus, and application of epidemiology. These findings will be used to refine the epidemiology courses analyzed to improve the learning outcomes of our students.