Assessing the Mental Wellbeing and Help-Seeking Behaviors of Pre-Veterinary Undergraduates at a Land-Grant Institution.

Recent research conducted within the veterinary profession has reported higher rates of depression and stress than the general US population. While this decline in mental wellbeing has been documented in Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) students and veterinary professionals, there is a lack of research on the mental wellbeing of the pre-veterinary population. This gap led the authors to conduct a survey in the fall of 2021 utilizing the DASS-21 and ATSPPH-sf inventories to assess the levels of depression, anxiety, stress, and help-seeking stigma in pre-veterinary students to better understand when the decline in veterinary mental wellbeing begins. A pre-test survey was completed by 233 pre-veterinary students in September, and an identical post-test survey was completed by 184 pre-veterinary students in November. From the pre- and post-test data, depression, anxiety, and stress scores increased as students advanced in academic status during their undergraduate degree. Juniors reported the highest averages of depression, anxiety, and stress compared to their peers. In the post-test, sophomores and juniors exhibited higher rates of depression than freshmen, and juniors and seniors exhibited higher rates of stress than freshmen. Current VMCAS applicants exhibited higher levels of stress than non-VMCAS applicants in the pre-test, and lower levels of stress in the post-test. In both the pre-test and post-test data, respondents averaged a neutral attitude toward help-seeking. Based on these results, a decline in pre-veterinary mental wellbeing occurs as students' progress in their undergraduate career and should be further studied to assess its impact on Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and veterinary professional wellbeing.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Pre-Veterinary Opportunities and Recommendations for DVM Admissions.

During the summer of 2020, a survey-based study was conducted at North Carolina State University, a land-grant university, to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on pre-veterinary students' ability to gain experience hours for Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) admissions. Of the 286 respondents (47% of the respondent pool), 92% reported losing at least one animal, veterinary, research, extracurricular, or work opportunity due to COVID-19, and 59% were not able to find a replacement. Of the lost experiences, 74 (20.8%) were for academic credit, resulting in 131 total academic credit hours lost, while only 12 credit hours were gained via alternative experiences. Of respondents, 30% (29.7%) identified as applicants of the 2020-2021 Veterinary Medical College Application Service (VMCAS) cycle. More than half (52.6%) of the sample identified being concerned about the strength of their VMCAS experiences due to these lost opportunities. Many respondents reported considering delaying application submissions by taking a gap year (17.5%) or having had their intended graduation timeline affected (14.8%). Since the majority of veterinary colleges utilize a holistic review process, this study provides a basis for understanding the effects of COVID-19 on the duration, depth, and diversity of experiences gained by future DVM applicants. This article also provides recommendations for DVM admissions adaptations based on the outcomes of the data.

The Financial Life of Aspiring Veterinarians.

The stress of veterinary students ranges from the financial stress associated with high student loan debt combined with possible credit card debt, to relational stress due to lack of time to commit to social activities, to uncertainty regarding the ability to perform at the highest level. While this study considers a multifaceted approach to veterinary student stress and ultimate depressive symptoms, the focus is on the financial stress. A common strategy for reducing debt is to increase financial literacy. While this has the potential to help, it is not the sole solution given that students opt into the program for non-financial reasons. A path analysis was used to explore the predictors of financial satisfaction (the inverse of financial stress). The results were then used to predict depression among pre-vet and veterinary students in combination with relationship stress and demographic characteristics. Results indicate that current and expected student loan debt negatively influence financial satisfaction of pre-veterinary and veterinary students. Lower financial and relational satisfaction predict depressive symptoms among students. Among pre-veterinary students, feeling less intelligent than peers and being a sophomore versus a freshman is associated with depressive symptoms. Among current veterinary students, third-year students are more likely to report depressive symptoms than first-year students.

A novel career development course for animal science students pursuing veterinary college admissions.

A one-credit hour, elective, professional development course was created at North Carolina State University to introduce pre-veterinary track students to the admissions process and the breadth of the veterinary profession. The course was designed to facilitate career exploration while building self-efficacy through vicarious learning, interacting with speakers in various veterinary subfields, and addressing misperceptions about veterinary admissions. To evaluate the student learning objectives and improve upon the current practices of the course, data from two pretest and posttest course surveys for 235 course participants between Spring 2014 and 2017 were analyzed. The results of the study showed that students experienced significant gains in self-appraisal (Cohen's d ranged 1.88 to 2.53), gathering occupational information (Cohen's d ranged 1.59 to 2.53), goal selection (Cohen's d ranged 2.14 to 2.53), and planning and problem-solving (Cohen's d ranged 1.88 to 2.77) as well as experienced a decrease in five misperceptions about veterinary admissions. This novel course is presented as a prospective course for other universities.