Career attitudes of first-year veterinary students before and after a required course on veterinary careers

How do veterinary students perceive and prepare for compulsory slaughterhouse visits?

BACKGROUND

Veterinary students in the UK must visit a slaughterhouse as part of their studies. There is currently limited evidence exploring how students perceive these visits or which activities have been implemented to support learning during a visit that may be emotionally challenging.

METHODS

Veterinary students at the Royal Veterinary College and the University of Glasgow were invited to complete an online survey and participate in follow-up focus groups.

RESULTS

Participants appreciated the important role that veterinarians play in the slaughterhouse. Most (69%) agreed that in-person visits are important and would choose to visit, with around half (49%) thinking it should be optional. Previous slaughterhouse experience improved students' views towards compulsory in-person visits. Teaching events covering the slaughter process, videos and discussion sessions were perceived as useful preparatory activities. Anxiety was the most common emotion associated with visits.

LIMITATIONS

The response rate was low, at 15.6%, and a small number of students participated in focus groups. Data on diets and gender were not collected.

CONCLUSION

Slaughterhouse visits are valued by students, although they can cause negative emotions. Managing expectations and increasing awareness of visitation requirements during the application process and subsequent studies may improve the educational and emotional experience of visits.

Veterinary medical student perceptions of companion animal primary care as a career choice over an academic year

Despite companion animal primary care being the most common career choice for veterinarians, relatively little is known about students' perception of this career choice. In this study, the authors examined students' (233 at Time 1 and 119 at Time 2) perceptions of careers in companion animal primary care and whether perceptions changed over the course of an academic year or differed by year in veterinary school. The study was conducted by an online questionnaire sent to the student email listserv and the results analyzed by Mixed ANOVAs for each perception outcome. The study concluded that a majority of veterinary students have companion animal primary care as their preferred career choice and have a positive perception of it as a career choice. This positive perception increased over the course of an academic year, but did not differ significantly by year in school. First year students had a decrease in perception of level of training over time. This study sets a baseline for students' perceptions of companion animal primary care as a career choice at one college of veterinary medicine.

Relationship between anticipatory socialization experiences and first-year veterinary students' career interests

The purpose of this project was to explore first-year veterinary students' anticipatory socialization-life, education, and social experiences that assist in preparation for professional occupations-and determine what relationship exists between those experiences and career interests. Seventy-three first-year veterinary students enrolled in the Careers in Veterinary Medicine course completed the Veterinary Careers survey. Results show that students' anticipatory vocational socialization experiences are significantly related to their stated career interests. The career interests with the highest percentage of students expressing "a great deal of interest" included specialty private practice (37%), research and teaching in an academic setting (33%), and international veterinary medicine (31%). The career interests with the highest percentage of students expressing "no interest at all" included the military (50%), equine private practice (42%), and the pharmaceutical industry (41%). Less than half of the students (42%) stated that they reconsidered their career path after the first semester of veterinary school, but the majority (87%) developed a better understanding of how to pursue a nontraditional career path should they choose to do so.