What It Really Takes to Become a Veterinarian - Essay Example

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: What it Really Takes to Become a Veterinarian Before choosing to pursue an education and career in veterinary medicine, it would be a good idea to know what you’re getting into. It doesn’t make any sense to complete a large portion, or even all of, your education only to find that the type of real work involved and the career options available, are not what you had in mind. Toward that end, this paper will seek to develop a better understanding of what it really takes to become a veterinarian including details about veterinary careers, the types of people that pursue these careers and what type of school programs are required to attain this career to determine whether or not I will continue to seek an education in veterinary medicine. The job description of a veterinarian differs depending on whether the vet is a city vet, private vet, city vet or country vet or whether they work in another function altogether. Sometimes these roles overlap, such as in a small city with an outlying livestock zone. Generally, the veterinarian is established as a person who is in charge of the medical care and treatment of animals. Certainly they do the kinds of things one might expect: immunize animals against disease, perform routine health inspections, perform surgeries and set broken bones, but they are not just the people who take care of the cats and dogs in the city. According to a description provided by the Career Information Center (“Veterinarian”, 2005), “of the more than 57,000 veterinarians working in the United States, only about one-third treat small pets exclusively.” Most of the vets that wish to specialize in small animals opt for a private veterinary practice. The rest are reportedly employed by farms, ranches or zoos to work with large animals, with the federal government as meat and livestock inspectors, with pharmacy companies to help develop new medicines for animal illnesses and with universities in teaching and research positions. In 2003, the American Veterinary Medical Association (2003), who represents approximately 86 percent of all veterinarians, reported the demographics of veterinarians at that time was 1,784 working exclusively with large animals; 33,658 exclusively working with small animals; 3,519 working in mixed practices with predominantly large animals; 5,855 working in mixed practices with mostly small animals; 827 working exclusively with bovines; and 2,529 working exclusively with equines. These 48,172 veterinarians represented approximately 69 percent of the AVMA’s total membership. “The remainder are in academia, research, state and federal government employment (including military), and public health and industry” (AVMA 2003). For those veterinarians working within the cities, there are some specific job descriptions and duties that can be expected. Most city’s have posted descriptions of what is expected of the city veterinarian, which also provides insight into the duties of private office vets operating within the same city guidelines. The City of San Jose describes the duties of its city veterinarian as being daily routines of screening, diagnosis, basic emergency medical treatment, visual monitoring of impounded animals, performing surgical procedures including spay/neuters, vaccination, maintaining records, communicating the condition and status of animals, ordering and maintaining the drugs used at the shelter, training of staff, euthanasia, participation in a disease prevention program and ensuring the shelter complies with all codes and legal regulations (City of San Jose, 2004). The Association of Shelter Veterinarians agrees that strictly medical knowledge is not enough education for the shelter vet saying “the shelter specialist also needs to have training in ethics and economics, especially as it pertains to animal shelters. … The shelter veterinarian needs to be comfortable with often playing the role of ‘coach’ rather than hands-on ‘player’ – and needs to develop the good leadership, training and team-building skills needed for that ‘coaching’ role” (Association of Shelter Veterinarians 2006). There are a number of positive aspects of the career choice, including the ability to work with animals, the ability to bring healing to the suffering and the smiles, hugs, licks, purrs and associated positive feedback that comes when an animal is on the mend. Dr. Kirsten Handke, a veterinarian with the Animal Medical Center in Orlando Park, says her favorite aspects of the job include working with the animals, performing surgeries and working with the animals and people together. Veterinarian Dr. Lori Trahan with Four Paws Animal Clinic near Dallas says she enjoys being able to make the animals feel better, even going so far as to close down her own practice for several weeks in order to work with animal victims of Hurricane Katrina. “The smile that you see on a person’s face when you are able to perform a life-saving surgery on their pet is priceless,” Trahan said. Trahan added that some of the things she enjoys in her private practice are the ability to perform a variety of job functions, to watch over the total care of a particular pet and to know the pet’s medical history and owner involvement right up front. “The owners can be a big help in the treatment of an animal. That’s something you don’t usually get at a shelter situation.” Euthanasia is most often listed as among those things that veterinarians do not wish to do, but have little means of avoiding. “When an animal is just too hurt or too ill to be cured, the decision isn’t as difficult because you know that you’re ending that animal’s suffering,” Trahan said, “but when you have to put down a whole litter of kittens because no one has come to adopt them and there is no room in any of the other shelters and no animal rescue groups have come forward, it can be heartbreaking.” Hours on the job, financial constraints on owners that prevent an animal from being saved and the typical pay structure for veterinarians are other negatives. “What they don’t usually tell you about in school are the late night phone calls you get when an animal has been found injured in the road and needs immediate surgery, or the different ways that people grieve when they lose the family pet. Sometimes, they can get nasty and end up blaming you for their pet’s death after a car accident,” Trahan said. Handke agrees with Trahan on the long hours, indicating that she typically worked 12 hour days or longer and most often ends up working on the weekends, too. Although earnings are reported to be on the low side, according to the US Department of Labor (2005) the median income for veterinarians was $66,590 in 2004 with the middle group earning between $51,420 and $88,060. Those who specialized in small animals predominantly or small animals mostly typically earned something in the $50,000 / year range. By contrast, the average earnings for veterinarians who worked for the government was reported at $78,769 in 2005. Of course, average salaries for a given profession vary from place to place. In Florida, the average salary paid to veterinarians range between $46,668 and $100,208 with most vets earning in the $76,000 range (SalaryExpert 2006). This range is reinforced by a random sampling of paid positions advertised with the University of Florida offering median rates of $74,000-$80,000 for research veterinarians (Salary.com 2005). Although there has been a reported lack of veterinarians in recent years, there are still only a handful of schools that offer veterinary programs as compared to the number of schools that offer courses in human medicine. In 1998, veterinarian Dr. Ken Boschert put together a list of the schools that offered veterinarian medicine as an area of study. This list included only 27 schools from all over the country, including the Universities of California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin as well as several other state universities (Boschert 1998). The University of Florida, being the closest available program, will provide the necessary information regarding entrance requirements and course of study details that will help determine whether the study of veterinary medicine is a viable goal. According to the University of Florida, College of Veterinary Medicine’s DVM degree brochure, students seeking an education at this school should have already been working toward this goal in high school. Students are expected to have a “sound background in the biological and physical sciences and general knowledge of the arts, humanities, and English” (University of Florida 2006). The college specifies that applicants should have a pre-veterinary educational and activity background that leads to “the development of intellectual maturity, efficient study habits, and effective powers of reasoning” (University of Florida 2006). Other non-academic traits the college looks for in an applicant include “a genuine concern for animals, a sincere desire to serve the public, a deep interest in the biological and medical sciences, and a profound feeling for the health of animal and human populations” (University of Florida 2006). According to the university, applicants to the program are also expected to have previous work experience with animals and to have more than a general familiarity with the veterinary medical profession. In determining whether to accept a student or not, the University of Florida requires all pre-requisite courses to be completed by the end of the spring term in the year that admission to the college is sought. “Most pre-veterinary requirements may be completed at an accredited 2- or 4-year college or university … [they] have been chosen to provide the educational framework that future veterinarians must have to satisfactorily meet the demands of the professional curriculum.  Since new knowledge, especially in the sciences, is accruing at a phenomenal rate, it is strongly recommended that all required science courses be completed within ten calendar years immediately prior to application” (University of Florida 2006). According to the school, students with grade point averages of anything less than 3.1 are seldom successful in completing the training and the college will not accept a C grade in any of the required pre-professional courses. In addition, students are expected to pass the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) with a combined verbal and qualitative score of greater than 1100. Those applicants that meet these requirements are then reviewed by members of the Faculty Committee on Admissions “and are carefully screened to assure they are properly motivated, are equal to the rigorous course of professional study, and are competent to meet the performance demands of a professional career” (University of Florida 2006). Finally, evaluation forms are sent out to people who are familiar with the applicant to see if other also feel this person would be able to handle the load and would make a good veterinarian. Works Cited American Veterinary Medical Association. “Demographics of Veterinarians.” Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. Vol. 222, N. 12, June 15, 2003. Association of Shelter Veterinarians. “Skills and Expertise Needed for a Shelter Veterinarian.” 2006. [Organization journal publication.] City of San Jose. “Animal Shelter Veterinarian.” February 2004. Class Code 3255. Handke, Kirsten. Personal Interview. March 8, 2006. Salary.com. “University of Florida / College Research Veterinarian Salaries.” 2005. March 9, 2006 SalaryExpert.com. “Salary Report Summary.” [report created for Florida-statewide veterinarian with 5 years of experience.] March 9, 2006 Trahan, Lori. Personal Interview. March 8, 2006. US Department of Labor. “Veterinarians: Occupational Outlook Handbook.” Bureau of Labor Statistics. Washington DC: Office of Occupational Statistics and Employment Projections, December 20, 2005. “Veterinarian.” Career Information Center Vol. 1: Agribusiness, Environment, and Natural Resources: Thomson Gale, 2005. Read More