What do you think? A veterinarian shortage or no shortage? A need for new veterinary schools or no need — or at least no need for so many all of them at once?
Dominating conversations today within veterinary medicine are the workforce and new schools. Academic institutions from New York to Arkansas and Utah to Puerto Rico are stepping up to address the veterinarian shortage as soon as possible and well into the future. Recently, 12 initiated plans to establish accredited veterinary medicine schools, although two (Chamberlain University and Murray State University) have since withdrawn their proposals. The 10 remaining schools plan to join 33 U.S. veterinary programs that either received full AVMA Council on Education accreditation or have gained reasonable assurance of accreditation. All these proposed schools have prompted vibrant discussions among advocates and opponents alike.
History Repeats Itself
One concern conveyed is that 10 new programs would represent a 30% increase in U.S. veterinary schools. That might sound like a big jump, but not so much when put into perspective. The American novelist Pearl S. Buck said, “If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.” Doing just that — searching yesterday — provides a valuable perspective as we enter a new future in veterinary education.
From 1968 to 1979, nine veterinary schools were established, joining 18 other accredited programs — a 50% increase. The conversations then were similar, if not identical, to today’s. Lively discussions prevailed about:
- Whether a veterinarian shortage existed.
- Whether the new schools would flood the market with graduates unable to find jobs.
- Whether new graduates would impede the ability of practicing veterinarians to make a living.
- Whether clients wanted or needed more veterinarians and their services.
Sound familiar? That was my experience in 1976 when I became a founding faculty member of the Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine. I arrived so early in the process that the state legislature had not approved the program, nor had MSU submitted a request for COE accreditation. If memory serves me well, Mississippi had about 200 veterinarians, with numerous counties and smaller communities having no one.
Today, MSU graduates continue to find viable veterinary positions, and many of those communities boast a local veterinarian. The state and the profession are better served as a result. The state veterinary association and the veterinary college work together to advance the profession, as they should.
If we look in the rearview mirror today, how many of us can imagine no colleges of veterinary medicine in Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oregon, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Florida, Virginia-Maryland and Wisconsin? Yet all those colleges received pushback at their inception. All those successful veterinary programs are graduating capable veterinarians, benefiting their respective states, serving the profession, advancing veterinary education and moving the knowledge edge forward. Notably, all have maintained their COE accreditation, assuring educational quality.
From Horses to Pets
As the proposed schools face the rigor of achieving accreditation, a brief look at the COE’s historical impact is relevant. According to the American Veterinary Medical Historical Society, most individuals practicing veterinary medicine in the early 1800s were not formally educated. They were trained through hands-on experience or apprenticeships. In fact, animal owners provided most of the care themselves.
Beginning in the 1850s, however, many veterinary schools were created, and they focused mainly on caring for working horses. Almost all of them closed by the 1920s. We can largely attribute their demise to a lack of consistency in educational quality, increased pressure for educational standards and stricter licensing requirements.
Fortunately, the Council on Education was created in 1946 to assure the public that accredited programs provide quality education. The COE continues that critical mission today.
The 41 schools that ceased to exist did so during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Only four schools established in the late 1800s remain in existence today. An additional 14 opened from 1905 to 1957.
Recent Studies
The debate over a veterinarian shortage will continue as well-designed studies report conflicting results, such as one by Dr. James W. Lloyd and another by John Volk. Dr. Lloyd is a veterinarian, Ph.D. economist and former dean of the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine. Volk is a senior consultant, analyst and project manager for Brakke Consulting.
Dr. Lloyd’s research concluded that there is and will continue to be a shortage of veterinarians, with a projected need for up to 55,000 additional practitioners by 2030. Volk found no immediate threat of a U.S. veterinarian shortage, and his analysis did not justify a conclusion of overall excess capacity or capacity shortage by 2030 or 2035.
Practicing veterinarians have their own vantage point as they struggle to recruit associates, as do the pet owners who cannot obtain appointments. These veterinarians and clients speak loudly to the presence of a shortage.
The Not-Too-Distant Future
I share my views not as a trained economist or analyst but as an individual forever interested in the future of veterinary and human health care, the future of veterinary education, and the societal trends that influence both.
I have observed that almost all, if not all, previous reports analyzing the veterinary workforce — at least all that I can remember — concluded we have too many veterinarians, whether expressed as oversupply, excess output or another description. In retrospect, each study was shown to be erroneous.
Why did the reports find overproduction or at least no shortage? One possible explanation is that the ever-changing world was not fully considered. Unquestionably, veterinary medicine and client expectations look very different today. Contemporary and future reports addressing the veterinary workforce must consider the exponentially changing world in which the veterinary profession aspires to thrive.
Regardless of your viewpoint, here is good news for the veterinary profession. Veterinarians receive a solid education spanning biomedical sciences, clinical medicine, livestock agriculture, animal welfare, One Health and much more. Veterinary education is beginning to incorporate more advanced technologies, digital health and artificial intelligence. Veterinarian graduates are prepared to pursue a plethora of career paths, including traditional and nontraditional, and some not yet imagined.
The demand for veterinary education by aspiring students and the demand for what veterinarians are trained to offer remain exceptionally high. We need more veterinarians, and new programs will help existing schools address the needs now and into the future.
U.S. SCHOOLS OF VETERINARY MEDICINE
PROPOSED
- Ana G. Mendez University School of Veterinary Medicine (Gurabo, Puerto Rico)
- Arkansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine (Jonesboro, Arkansas)
- Clemson University College of Veterinary Medicine (Clemson, South Carolina)
- Hanover College School of Veterinary Medicine (Hanover, Indiana)
- Lincoln Memorial University College of Veterinary Medicine-Orange Park (Orange Park, Florida)
- Lyon College School of Veterinary Medicine (Cabot, Arkansas)
- Midwestern University College of Veterinary Medicine-Illinois (Downers Grove, Illinois)
- Rocky Vista University College of Veterinary Medicine (Billings, Montana)
- Rowan University School of Veterinary Medicine (Glassboro, N.J.)
- University of Maryland Eastern Shore College of Veterinary Medicine (Princess Anne, Maryland)
- Utah State University College of Veterinary Medicine (Logan, Utah)
ESTABLISHED: LATE 1800s
- Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine (1894)
- Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine (1879)
- University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine (1884)
- Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine (1899)
ESTABLISHED: 1905-1957
- Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine (1907)
- Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (1907)
- Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine (1905)
- Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine (1910)
- Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine (1913)
- Oklahoma State University College of Veterinary Medicine (1948)
- Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine (1957)
- Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (1916)
- Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine (1945)
- University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine (1948)
- University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine (1946)
- University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine (1944)
- University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine (1947)
- University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine (1946)
ESTABLISHED: 1968-1979
- Louisiana State University College of Veterinary Medicine (1968; first class in 1973)
- Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine (1974; first class in 1977)
- North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine (1978; first class in 1981)
- Oregon State University College of Veterinary Medicine (1975; first class in 1979)
- Tufts University College of Veterinary Medicine (1978; first class in 1979)
- University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine (1975; first class in 1976)
- University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine (1974: first class in 1976)
- University of Wisconsin College of Veterinary Medicine (1979; first class in 1983)
- Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine (1978; first class in 1980)
ESTABLISHED: 1998-2018
- Western University of Health Sciences College of Veterinary Medicine (1998; first class in 2003)
- Lincoln Memorial University College of Veterinary Medicine (2011; first class in 2014)
- Midwestern University College of Veterinary Medicine (2012; first class in 2014)
- University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine (2013; first class in 2020)
- Long Island University College of Veterinary Medicine (2017; first class in 2020)
- Texas Tech University College of Veterinary Medicine (2018; first class in 2021)