Literature over the past 5 years has demonstrated that veterinary students globally are experiencing poor mental health. This has detrimental consequences for their emotional well-being and physical health, as well as implications for their future careers. Considering this issue, a systematic review was devised to investigate what interventions were being used, and what effect they had, in veterinary students. The review process involved a search of five databases, from which 161 records were retrieved. Following this, the screening process revealed seven articles eligible for appraisal. These studies investigated seven different interventions, six being cohort-level workshops/courses and one being a collation of several individual strategies. All seven studies reported that the interventions were effective to some degree in improving the mental health of their participants. However, the lack of repeat interventions and control groups limited the external validity of each intervention. A comparison to the research in medical students is briefly discussed. Three of the appraised articles were recommended for further investigation.

Veterinary graduates require effective clinical communication skills for a successful transition to practice. The ways of teaching and assessing veterinary communication skills have developed and are increasingly supported by research. However, some students have difficulty applying the skills learned in a simulated consultation to working with real clients, particularly in the second part of a standard consultation, where the student communicates the reasons for their clinical decision making and assists the client’s treatment decisions. The authors explore three key developments in communication skills training in the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program since 2015 at the University of Sydney: (1) Workshops were designed to include communication scenarios that were contextualised in ways that embraced a spectrum of care. These were facilitated within a clinical skills laboratory, and student surveys were used to evaluate this teaching and learning activity; (2) student and facilitator perceptions of the value of online communication skills training were evaluated using surveys; and (3) perceptions of the gap between pre-clinical training and the demonstration of communication competency in authentic clinical settings were evaluated using a survey. We conclude that the communications curriculum can be made more engaging and effective by student-centred design, which increases the realism and authenticity of the student’s experience.

Background: This study aimed to explore how resilience in mid‐ to late‐career stage veterinarians in Australia is shaped by interactions between job demands, personal and contextual resources, strategies and outcomes.Methods: Semistructured interviews with 17 mid‐ to late‐career stage veterinarians were conducted with questions modelled on prior research investigating veterinarians' experiences, teacher well‐being and resilience. The Job Demands‐Resources model guided thematic analysis.Results: Mid‐ to late‐career stage veterinarians described how resilience is shaped by interactions between (1) demands of the job, (2) resources available, (3) strategies used and (4) resilience outcomes. Job demands and job resources categories were sub‐divided into four and seven themes respectively according to whether characteristics were based on personal or contextual factors. Strategies were grouped into seven themes representing intentional ways that veterinarians made effective use of resources. Three themes in the Outcomes category represented positive outcomes that were enabled through dynamic interaction between demands, resources and strategies undertaken to realise outcomes.Limitations: This study did not explore relationships between perceptions of resilience and veterinary work type, practice location, age or gender. Interviews were conducted before the global COVID‐19 pandemic, and results do not reflect any associated psychological impacts from that event.Conclusion: Resilience in mid‐ to late‐career veterinarians is a dynamic process driven by the interplay of demands, resources, intentional actions and outcomes. Although personal resources can be developed over time, job demands are largely contextual. Effective management practices can mitigate challenges and foster resilience.