Open Letter to AVMA Board Chairman Chip Price and Responses, March 2015 LettersMarch 2, 2015Should the Council on Education remain the accrediting body for U.S. veterinary colleges? Should the council still accredit foreign schools? What role should the American Veterinary Medical Association continue to play in the council’s work? Do conflicts of interest exist? These are some of the questions at the root of a raging debate in the veterinary community. Veterinary Practice News presents an open letter from four noted veterinary professionals to AVMA board of directors chairman Chip Price along with responses from Dr. Price and from Western and Lincoln Memorial universities, which the open letter references. Open letter to AVMA board chairman Chip Price Dear Dr. Price, Our profession, concerned about the proliferation and accreditation of veterinary schools that fail to meet Council on Education (COE) standards, has turned a critical eye on the AVMA’s leadership, its culture, judgment, vision for the future and capacity to lead. Membership approval of AVMA policies, procedures, decisions and philosophy can no longer be taken for granted. We hope, therefore, that you will consider using the precious commodity of time left in your tenure as AVMA board chairman to begin a process that will result in a more transparent, responsive, inclusive and accountable …
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How to Fall in Love with Veterinary Medicine in 2015January 8, 2015Ready to start 2015 with renewed love and enthusiasm for our wonderful profession? Here are three simple suggestions that can change your outlook and improve your daily life. 1. Create a Networking Group Pick three or four like-minded colleagues and create a small networking-group, where topics can be discussed freely. The farther apart the practices are, the more you will feel like sharing “sensitive” information. You can meet in person or virtually. You can meet monthly or quarterly, and you can stay in touch between meetings via phone or email for urgent matters. Items to discuss include: Medical topics, for example a puzzling case. Management questions, including HR, productivity and health insurance. Current articles – this could morph into a journal club, which is a fantastic way to stay on top of current literature (our secret cameras showed us your piles of unread journals…) Financial topics, such as loans, associate compensation and retirement. Philosophical questions: Should we have a mission statement? How do you find time to exercise? What is the meaning of veterinary life? 2. Visit 4 Vet Hospitals Plan on spending a day at four other hospitals this year—one per quarter. Again, in order to have a more …
Suicide Solution? How Silence Is Killing Us SoftlyNovember 24, 2014Originally published in the November 2014 issue of Veterinary Practice News When discussing severe mental health issues, a veterinary friend of mine likes to say there’s almost no problem so grave he couldn’t outrun it. Suicide is fundamentally incomprehensible to people like him, as it is for the preponderance of humanity. Why would anyone elect a permanent solution to a temporary problem? This constitutional aversion stands to reason, of course. Self-preservation is not just a normal instinctual response but a biological imperative, too. How else do we expect to succeed as a species? Nonetheless, there’s a significant minority among us who’ve had cause to think about ending our own lives. Psychiatric diagnoses of mood, anxiety and personality disorders, among others, can occasion suicidal ideation and lead to the profound, almost physical, sensation of hopelessness typical of those who elect it. It’s common enough. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counts suicide as the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S., about 12 deaths in 100,000. Which is not surprising, really. We all know people kill themselves every day; every 13 minutes, to be precise. It becomes more alarming, however, when these casualties hit closer to home. Hence, …
Too Many Veterinarians, or a Bubble Market?August 26, 2014 Is our profession heading into a bubble market? The Society for Veterinary Medical Ethics hosted a panel discussion titled “Oversupply: Issues and Ethics” during the annual convention of the American Association of Veterinary Medicine in July in Denver. Panelists were Dennis McCurnin, DVM, Dipl. ACVS; James F. Wilson, DVM, J.D., of Priority Veterinary Management Consultants; Mark Cushing, J.D., a founding member of Animal Policy Group; Dennis Lawler, DVM; and Paul Pion, DVM, Dipl. ACVIM, president and co-founder of Veterinary Information Network. I was the organizer and facilitator during the morning forum, which needed an overflow room to handle interested attendees. Drs. McCurnin and Wilson described how we got into this situation and presented information and statistics that show the potential bubble. The AVMA Workforce Study, released April 22, 2013, reported a 12.5 percent excess capacity in the profession that could continue through 2025. We have been told for the past 25 years that we need to have veterinarians go into non-traditional employment fields. We now have veterinarians in many new and expanding areas (i.e. public health, epidemiology, shelter medicine, food safety, etc.) but still have the issue of low salaries, as …
