JULY 18, 2023
MEET THE STAFFING NEEDS OF ALL FACETS OF OUR PROFESSION
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We need more veterinarians….35K lawyers, 28K physicians, but only 4K veterinarians graduate annually in this Country. From 1978 to 2013….35 years, we only opened one new veterinary school (WesternU) in the United States and we are paying the price. Canada has roughly one veterinary school for every 6 million in population…we need to move toward that goal at a minimum. This would essentially mean doubling our veterinary school and graduate totals….by tomorrow! As an interim step, we should also explore increased utilization of the existing pool of unemployed/under employed foreign veterinarians by lobbying for visa waivers for foreign veterinarians as essential workers, eg Europe, Pakistan/India, Mexico, Korea/Japan, etc.….all these have veterinary workforces that could be tapped to serve the growing variety of needs in our Country. We need more veterinary technicians, too! We need an increased number of brick and mortar as well as hybrid virtual programs to graduate more veterinary assistants and technicians. We need a broad sustained public marketing campaign emphasizing the good in and opportunities in our profession that reaches earlier and deeper into our communities and schools to broaden the funnel of individuals considering veterinary medical careers. And, as a profession we must maximize the efficient use of veterinary technicians to make sure they are playing at the top of their game….so we can best serve our clients and so future technician candidates and our present technician pool will be motivated to join and to stay on the team longterm!