Resilience is a dynamic and multifaceted process in which individuals draw on personal and contextual resources. In difficult situations, resilient people use specific strategies to learn from the situation without being overcome by it. As stressors are inherent to veterinary work, including long work hours, ethical dilemmas, and challenging interactions with clients, resilience is an important component of professional quality of life. However, while resilience in other health professionals has received attention, it has received little in the veterinary field. In this cross-sectional study, veterinary students from six veterinary schools in Australia completed an online survey, with 193 responses (23%). Very few veterinary students (6%) reached the threshold to be considered highly resilient using the Brief Resilience Scale, and approximately one third classified as having low levels of resilience. In the final linear multiple regression model, predictors of resilience included nonjudgmental and nonreactive mindfulness (Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire) and self-compassion (Neff Self-Compassion Scale). Students with higher nonjudgmental and nonreactive mindfulness and self-compassion had higher resilience scores. These findings indicate that fostering these qualities of mindfulness and self-compassion may be aligned with strengthening veterinary student resilience. Importantly, if the factors that help veterinary students develop a capacity for resilience can be identified, intervention programs can be targeted to educate future veterinary professionals with a high quality of life, both professional and personal.

Resilience is an issue of emerging importance in veterinary education and research, as in other professional contexts. The aim of this study was to perform an appraisal of how resilience is portrayed in the contemporary (1995–present) research and education literature around veterinary mental health, and to attempt a provisional synthesis informing a conception of resilience in the veterinary context. Qualitative analysis of the literature (59 sources included) revealed a dominant emphasis on mental health problems, particularly stress, which outweighs and potentially obscures complementary approaches to well-being and resilience. We found the construct of resilience underdeveloped in the veterinary literature and in need of further research, but provide a preliminary synthesis of key themes emerging from the current literature (emotional competence, motivation, personal resources, social support, organizational culture, life balance, and well-being strategies). We advocate for greater balance between complementary perspectives in veterinary mental health education and research, and propose that an increasing focus on resilience (here endorsed as a dynamic and multi-dimensional process involving personal and contextual resources, strategies, and outcomes) will help to address this balance.

Competency-based medical education is an educational innovation implemented in health professions worldwide as a means to ensure graduates meet patient and societal needs. The focus on student-centered education and programmatic outcomes offers a series of benefits to learners, institutions and society. However, efforts to establish a shared, comprehensive competency-based framework in veterinary education have lagged. This article reports on the development and outcome of a competency-based veterinary education (CBVE) framework created through multi-institutional collaboration with international input from veterinary educators and veterinary educational leaders. The CBVE Framework is designed to reflect the competencies expected of new graduates from member institutions of the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC). The CBVE Framework consists of nine domains of competence and 32 competencies, each supplemented with illustrative sub-competencies to guide veterinary schools in implementing competency-based education in their local context. The nine domains of competence are: clinical reasoning and decision-making; individual animal care and management; animal population care and management; public health; communication; collaboration; professionalism and professional identity; financial and practice management; and scholarship. Developed through diverse input to facilitate broad adoption, the CBVE Framework provides the foundation for competency-based curricula and outcomes assessment in veterinary education internationally. We believe that other groups seeking to design a collective product for broad adoption might find useful the methods used to develop the CBVE Framework, including establishing expertise diversity within a small-to-medium size working group, soliciting progressive input and feedback from stakeholders, and engaging in consensus building and critical reflection throughout the development process.

Background : Veterinarians have an important role in society and having an adequate veterinary workforce is important not only for their communities but also nationwide. Lately, there have been anecdotal reports regarding veterinary practices struggling to find clinicians as well as evidence of mental ill‐health in veterinarians. Furthermore, the Australian Veterinary Association annual workforce survey shows an increased percentage of veterinarians intending to leave practice from 2017 to 2019. Although many factors for attrition have been described in other professions, reasons for veterinarians to leave practice are not well understood. Methods : This study investigated why veterinary clinicians leave clinical practice by using Thematic Analysis to analyse 26 semi‐structured interviews of former veterinary clinicians in relation to their work experiences and reasons for leaving. Interviews were done from February–April 2018 either face to face, via teleconferencing, or telephone. Participants were recruited from each Australian state except for New South Wales. Results : The results showed that a combination of personal and work‐related factors influenced the participants to leave clinical practice. In Personal Factors, participants described the internal and external circumstances that impacted on their personal lives such as personal relationships, experiencing negative thoughts and emotions, physical and mental health, core motivations and beliefs, alternative professional and personal interests. On the other hand, Work Experiences described situations, experiences, and statements directly related to the participant's veterinary clinical work such as workplace relationships, employment conditions including remuneration and working hours and clinical experiences such as negative clinical outcomes. Furthermore, interlinkages between these two themes were revealed in participants’ responses. Conclusion : This study highlights factors that contribute to attrition from veterinary clinical practice. The narrative indicates that the interlinking of such factors influenced the decision‐making process to leave clinical practice in this cohort of former veterinary clinicians. Further research is required to understand the full implications for veterinary clinical practice and inform intervention strategies for retention.

Moral distress is a psychological state of anguish that has been widely studied in healthcare professionals. Experiencing moral distress can lead to problems including avoidance of patients and increased staff turnover. Moral distress in veterinarians has not yet been explored to the extent seen in the human medical field, and there is limited data regarding moral distress in veterinarians. However, it is expected to be prevalent in these professionals. So far, it has been reported that veterinarians commonly experience moral conflict, ethical challenges and ethical dilemmas during their career. These conflicts in association with other modifying factors such as personality traits can lead to the experience of moral distress. In a profession with known levels of occupational stress and reported mental health problems, exploring the area of moral distress and its effects on the professional wellbeing of veterinarians is important. Further studies such as developing a moral distress scale to measure this issue are needed in order to evaluate the incidence of this problem in veterinary professionals. Furthermore, assessing a possible relationship between moral distress, mental illness and attrition in veterinarians would be useful in developing intervention strategies to minimise the experience of moral distress and its associated negative consequences in veterinarians.

One of the greatest challenges in veterinary education is adequately preparing students with the clinical skills they need to be successful healthcare providers. Integration of simulators, devices used to represent real world phenomena under test conditions, into the veterinary curriculum can help address challenges to clinical instruction. The use of simulators in veterinary education is increasing; however, their effectiveness remains unclear. This meta-analysis seeks to synthesize the evidence for simulator training in veterinary education to provide a consensus of effect, guide the integration of simulators into the curriculum, and direct the development of future simulation-based research in veterinary medicine. A systematic search identified 416 potential manuscripts from which 60 articles were included after application of inclusion criteria. Information was extracted from 71 independent experiments. The overall weighted mean effect size for simulator training was g = 0.49 for the random-effects model. The outcome measures of knowledge, time, process, and product all produced statistically significant mean effect sizes favoring simulation (d = 0.41, 0.35, 0.70, 0.53, respectively). A moderator analysis revealed that study characteristics and instructional design features moderated the effectiveness of simulator training. Overall, the results indicate that simulator training in veterinary education can be effective for knowledge and clinical skill outcomes.