Incorporating Mental Wellbeing Into Veterinary Programs

David Bartram, BVetMed, FRCVS, director of outcomes research for Zoetis, explores the main findings from his study about introducing new veterinary students to the concept of mental wellbeing.

His research team shared different techniques to enhance mental wellbeing in a sustainable way with a group of new veterinary students, including different sources of support they could potentially reach out to. They measured self-reported resilience of the students before mental wellbeing training and then six weeks after. The study found that with just that small intervention, the students were able to increase their levels of resilience, Bartram says, proving the importance of incorporating mental health wellbeing classes into all veterinary undergraduate programs.