Assessment of Burnout, Professional Fulfillment, and Strategies for Improvement in Veterinary Faculty at a Large Academic Department.

Retention and recruitment of clinical faculty is crucial for the success of quality veterinary education. Clinical faculty in busy teaching hospital environments have the potential to experience significant burnout, though few studies have focused on identifying stressors in this group. The objective of this study was to measure burnout and professional fulfillment in clinical faculty using a recently validated instrument, the Stanford Professional Fulfillment Index (PFI). The survey was distributed to faculty in July 2020, a time that coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey was completed by 80% (52/65) of survey recipients. Scores for Overall Burnout were significantly higher (p = .027) and Professional Fulfillment scores significantly lower (p < .001) for veterinary faculty when compared with a reference group of academic physicians; 61.7% (29/47) of the faculty met the criteria for burnout, and 20.4% (10/49) met the criteria for professional fulfillment. Overall Burnout and Professional Fulfillment scores were not affected by faculty rank or gender, although interpersonal disengagement was greater in faculty who had worked > 6 years at the institution (p = .032). Responses indicated that faculty valued their work and their patients but faced an excessive workload and lacked autonomy to make changes. Faculty proposed improving efficiency, increasing staffing, and distributing work to technical staff. The PFI is a brief, no-cost instrument validated for measuring burnout and fulfillment in health care workers that can be used to assess well-being among veterinary faculty. Involving faculty in suggesting interventions may yield a variety of creative and actionable options.

Case-based intensive veterinary radiology clerkship improves students' radiographic interpretation skills and overall course satisfaction scores.

The variability in diagnostic imaging caseload, increasing class sizes, high hospital workloads, and the progressive departure of veterinary radiologists from academia can lead to inconsistent and reduced teaching opportunities. This one group pretest, posttest study aimed to compare the learning outcomes of students enrolled in two veterinary radiology clerkship models. Our hypothesis was that the learning and satisfaction scores of students in a case-based veterinary radiology clerkship would be higher than those in a clinical veterinary radiology clerkship. During the spring and summer semesters of 2019, students were assigned to a clinical (CRC) or case-based (CBRC) radiology clerkship model, respectively. Prior to starting the clerkship and at the conclusion thereof, all students took identical radiographic interpretation quizzes. Four major areas of learning were assessed: knowledge base (KB), diagnostic test interpretation (DTI), problem prioritization and differential diagnosis (PPDDX), and critical thinking (CrT). A total of 41 of 48 (CRC) and 130 of 151 (CBRC) students enrolled in this study; 15 and 34, respectively, were off-shore students, while the remainder were in-house students. In-house students improved their scores with CRC and CBRC, but achieved better scores in the four areas with CBRC. Off-shore students only improved their scores with CBRC. In both groups, there was a negative effect of CRC on DTI. Course satisfaction score was 3.21 on CRC and 4.38 on CBRC (range 1-5). An intensive, case-based, discussion-focused veterinary radiology clerkship can improve students' radiographic interpretation skills and overall course satisfaction scores.

Assessing Veterinary Practice and Practitioner Preparedness for Natural and Man-Made Disasters, Including COVID-19.

Natural and man-made disasters lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in economic losses annually worldwide. Veterinarians are most qualified to support local, state, national, and international efforts in emergency management. However, they may lack the knowledge and advanced training to most effectively plan, prepare, and respond. Currently, only two colleges offer training embedded in their core veterinary curriculum. In this study, a survey was conducted to gain an understanding of veterinary practice and practitioner preparedness for natural and man-made disasters in the United States and Canada, with questions assessing pandemic preparedness. The participants graduated from 28 American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)-accredited veterinary colleges globally and 2 non-accredited veterinary colleges, represent a diverse set of veterinary practice types, and have an average of 26 years' practice experience. Overall, 63.5% of veterinary respondents had experienced a natural disaster, while only 9.6% had experienced a man-made disaster. Approximately 66% reported having a practice disaster preparedness plan, while less than 20% of those actively maintained and updated the plan. Furthermore, less than 50% of the practices and practitioners were ready to face the challenges of a global pandemic. Approximately 68% reported using some form of communication to educate clients about family and pet disaster readiness. Many felt that some advanced disaster readiness training would have been helpful in their veterinary curriculum. Our findings indicate that additional training in the veterinary curriculum, as well as continuing education, would help veterinarians and practices be better prepared for natural and man-made disasters.

The Use of Adaptive Learning Technology to Enhance Learning in Clinical Veterinary Dermatology.

Clinical teaching in veterinary medicine is challenging for both educators and students. There is an increasing interest in the use of technology-based techniques using adaptive learning to provide students with additional learning experiences. Few studies have evaluated the use of this technique in veterinary medical education. We hypothesized that students with access to adaptive learning modules during dermatology rotation would have significantly higher dermatology test scores compared to students who did not have access to the adaptive learning modules on the same rotation. Incoming third and fourth-year veterinary students to the dermatology rotation, who agreed to participate, were randomly assigned to treatment (provided access to 10 modules using adaptive technology during the rotation) or control group (provided no access to the modules). Study participants completed a pretest two weeks before the rotation start date and a post-test near the rotation end date and a questionnaire to assess students' learning experience using adaptive learning modules. Students in the treatment group scored significantly higher on the posttest (p = .019) compared to students in the control group, with an effect size of d = 0.83. Students in both groups scored significantly higher at post-test (p < .001; d = 1.52 treatment and p = .002; d = 0.74 control) when compared to their pretest. This study shows that the tested adaptive learning platform may be an effective method to augment clinical teaching in veterinary dermatology. This study also indicates that veterinary students perceive the use of adaptive learning technology as beneficial for their education.

Contemporary Challenges for Veterinary Medical Education: Examining the State of Inter-Professional Education in Veterinary Medicine.

Educational training in professional programs forms the foundation for how a person problem-solves throughout their career. However, training focused on only one profession ignores the value realized through collaborations among multiple professions for solving health-related problems. This is at the core of inter-professional education (IPE). Effective IPE programs can result in inter-professional collaboration and translation science endeavors across the health sciences and beyond. Recent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the opioid crisis highlight the importance of veterinary medicine in advancing One Health through IPE. The prevalence of IPE programs in veterinary curricula, and the process by which these have been established, has not been widely described in the literature. Through an 18-question survey sent to associate deans (ADs) of 50 veterinary schools, we sought to determine the status of IPE in the veterinary curriculum. Thirty-nine schools agreed to participate, representing primarily United States Doctor of Veterinary Medicine public and private programs with some representation from Canadian, United Kingdom, and Australasian programs. Schools that provide IPE courses developed their programs in collaboration with other health sciences programs across the 4-year curriculum. The perceived barriers for IPE offerings were no different between schools with or without opportunities; however, a lack of faculty and student-perceived value and lack of adequate space in the academic schedule were common threads. Our findings provide a snapshot of the current state of IPE in veterinary medical curricula, with a particular emphasis on the United States, and point to areas of programmatic need for the field.