This week we record the announcement of intention to establish a new veterinary school as part of Roseman University of Health Sciences in Nevada. We currently have 34 accredited veterinary schools in the U.S., with an additional 9 schools (including Roseman) in the process to open their doors. While it is not clear today how many additional graduates will join the veterinarian work force every year, there is no doubt that there will be significantly more graduates each year once these 9 schools are granted accreditation.
It has been hotly debated for years whether we have a shortage of veterinarians in the US, especially in food animal practice. Certainly the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020/21 exacerbated any shortage as pets received much more attention and client pressures increased in most vet practices. Adding to the number of practicing vets has been seen as one way to alleviate “burnout” and the associated pressures felt by veterinarians (and professional staff members as well).
To get a better picture of these pressures and difficulties felt by vet practitioners, I highly recommend that you take time to review the several Veterinary Wellbeing studies authored by our Senior Consultant John Volk of Brakke Consulting. John and his co-authors published several studies with Merck Animal Health and with the AVMA that are quite insightful and illustrate the effects of the adverse effects seen in veterinary practice in recent years. I sincerely hope that efforts to enlarge the profession will prove to make veterinary medicine a more appealing and rewarding lifestyle for all concerned.
Jim Kroman
English 
Portuguese 
Japanese 
Chinese