Workforce study slated for release in the new year

Washington

-- The results of a study commissioned four years ago to investigate the veterinary workforce needs in the United States is expected early in the new year, according to Jennifer Walsh at the National Academies of Sciences (NAS).

“Assessing the Current and Future Workforce Needs in Veterinary Medicine” first was commissioned in 2006 and was set to be completed in 2008, but hit several snags along the way. Sponsored by the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the report only was expected to take 18 months to complete, according to the National Research Council (NRC).

NRC convened an expert committee to “explore historical changes in the size and characteristics of the veterinary workforce; assess the demographics and adequacy of the current supply of veterinarians in different occupational categories and sectors of the economy; and identify incentives, disincentives, and other factors that are likely to affect the numbers of veterinarians seeking jobs in different sectors in the future.” The study is expected to examine trends about the kinds of jobs available to veterinarians, future demand and capacity at veterinary colleges.

The project was delayed for the first time in June 2009, with the deadline being extended first to fall 2009, then to April 2010, July 2010, October 2010 and finally early 2011.

Original expert committee members included: Drs. Mark Pauly and Alan Kelly, University of Pennsylvania; Drs. Val Beasley and Gay Miller, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Dr. Michael Stoto, Georgetown University; Dr. Sheila Allen, University of Georgia; Dr. Bonnie Buntain, University of Calgary; Dr. Harold Davis, retired from Amgen, Inc.; Dr. James Fox, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Dr. Malcolm Getz, Vanderbilt University; Dr. Tracey McNamara, Gene Logic Laboratories, Inc.; Dr. Bennie Osburn, University of California Davis; Dr. Willie Reed, Purdue University; Dr. John Shadduck, Shadduck Consulting, LLC; and Dr. Stephen Sutherland, Pfizer Animal Health.