State of the Profession: What's keeping veterinarians up at night?
An in-depth look at your key concerns from dvm360s triennial survey.
From work-life balance issues to financial concerns, from competitive worries to the changing corporate landscape, veterinarians have their share of challenges to consider in the wee small hours. This time we asked more questions related to income and student debt and, sure enough, they are near the top of the list of professional worries. Competition from nontraditional providers of veterinary services (retailers, shelters and humane societies, Internet sales websites and so on) are also advancing in prominence. Read more below.
Source: dvm360 State of the Profession Survey, 2015
The TOP 10 most pressing issues
We asked you to say, in your words, what you thought were the top challenges facing the veterinary profession right now. Here are your top 10 responses, in order.
1. Rising costs and the affordability of veterinary care.
2. Competition from nontraditional service providers (big box retailers, online pharmacies and so on).
3. Client (non)compliance.
4. The cost of veterinary school, student debt.
5. Oversupply of veterinarians.
6. Dr. Google and other sources of misinformation.
7. Government regulations, fees and taxes.
8 (tie). Slippage of veterinarians' strong reputation.
8 (tie). Corporate practices.
9. Maintaining wellness/preventive care for pets.
10 (tie). Poor abilities and attitudes of associate veterinarians (can't handle clients, won't charge, poorly trained, won't work full-time, “When's my time off?” lack of attention to detail and so on).
10 (tie). Emotional stresses such as online bullying, work-life balance, mental illness in the profession and issues such as compassion fatigue and burnout.
Source: dvm360 State of the Profession Survey, 2015
Source: dvm360 State of the Profession Survey, 2015
