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OBJECTIVE To gather information about issues associated with pregnancy, lactation, and parenting for US veterinary students and house officers (trainees) and their perception of pregnancy and parenting support services available at US veterinary training institutions. DESIGN Cross-sectional mixed-method survey. SAMPLE 2,088 veterinary students and 312 house officers from 27 US veterinary training institutions. PROCEDURES An email with a link to an online survey was sent to the associate dean for academic affairs at each of the 30 AVMA-accredited US veterinary training institutions with a request that it be forwarded to all veterinary students and house officers (interns and residents). RESULTS Among the 2,400 respondents, 185 (7.7%) reported that they were a parent, were pregnant, or had a significant other who was pregnant. Several significant differences in attitudes and perceptions of pregnancy and parenting support services provided by veterinary training institutions were identified between males and females, veterinary students and house officers, and respondents who were and were not parents. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Results provided crucial information about an important facet of well-being for veterinary trainees and suggested that veterinary students and house officers face substantial challenges in becoming parents during their training programs and that perceptions of those challenges differ between males and females.

The mission of the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) is to advance the quality of academic veterinary medicine. Founded in 1966 by the 18 US colleges of veterinary medicine and 3 Canadian colleges of veterinary medicine then in existence, the AAVMC is celebrating 50 years of public service. Initially, the AAVMC comprised the Council of Deans, the Council of Educators, and the Council of Chairs. In 1984, the tri-cameral structure was abandoned and a new governing structure with a board of directors was created. In 1997, the AAVMC was incorporated in Washington, DC and a common application service was created. Matters such as workforce issues and the cost of veterinary medical education have persisted for decades. The AAVMC is a champion of diversity in the veterinary profession and a strong advocate for One Health. The AAVMC has adopted a global perspective as more international colleges of veterinary medicine have earned COE accreditation and become members.

Objective: To identify changes in the teaching of nontechnical skills, knowledge, aptitudes, and attitudes (SKAs) at US colleges and schools of veterinary medicine between 1999 and 2009. Design-Cross-sectional survey., Sample: All 28 US colleges and schools of veterinary medicine. Procedures-An electronic questionnaire was sent to the entire study population. Results were compared with published results of a similar survey performed in 1999 of colleges and schools of veterinary medicine in the United States and Canada., Results: A 100% response rate was achieved. All respondents were found to offer at least 1 course related to SKAs in 2009, compared with 94% (29/31) of respondents in 1999. A total of 110 such courses were documented, compared with 47 in 1999. In 2009, 26 of the 28 (93%) colleges and schools had at least 1 course related to SKAs that was required, compared with 17 of the 31 (55%) respondents to the 1999 survey. Courses were most commonly incorporated in years 1 and 3 of the curriculum and were most often valued at 1 or 2 credit hours. Forty-one of 67 (61%) courses had been developed since 1999. The most common topics were communication and financial management., Conclusions and Clinical Relevance: Results demonstrated an increased commitment to teaching the SKAs on the part of the US colleges and schools of veterinary medicine. However, the question remains as to how effective these initiatives will be in enhancing the economic success of graduates and the veterinary medical profession in general.

Objective: To obtain information on educational programs offered in complementary and alternative veterinary medicine (CAVM) among AVMA Council on Education (COE)-accredited colleges and schools of veterinary medicine., Design: Survey., Sample: 41 COE-accredited colleges and schools of veterinary medicine., Procedure: A questionnaire was e-mailed to academic deans at all COE-accredited colleges and schools of veterinary medicine., Results: Responses were received from 34 of 41 schools: 26 in the United States, 2 in Canada, 3 in Australia and New Zealand, and 3 in Europe. Sixteen schools indicated that they offered a CAVM course. Nutritional therapy, acupuncture, and rehabilitation or physical therapy were topics most commonly included in the curriculum. One school required a course in CAVM; all other courses were elective, most of which were 1 to 2 credit hours. Courses were usually a combination of lecture and laboratory; 2 were lecture only, and 1 was laboratory only. Of the 18 schools that reported no courses in CAVM, many addressed some CAVM topics in other courses and 4 indicated plans to offer some type of CAVM course within the next 5 years., Conclusions and Clinical Relevance: The consensus among survey respondents was that CAVM is an important topic that should be addressed in veterinary medical education, but opinions varied as to the appropriate framework. The most common comment reflected strong opinions that inclusion of CAVM in veterinary medical curricula must be evidence-based. Respondents indicated that students should be aware of CAVM modalities because of strong public interest in CAVM and because practitioners should be able to address client questions from a position of knowledge.

In 2004, the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges took the bold step of prioritizing diversity as a core value through the hiring of a full-time staff person. The organization then pressed forward in 2005 by launching a national plan devoted to increasing diversity in academic veterinary medicine. In the years since its inception, the DiVersity Matters initiative has overseen significant diversity changes in US colleges of veterinary medicine. Dedicated diversity programming can have a positive impact on academic veterinary medicine and the larger veterinary profession. This paper provides an overview of DiVersity Matters since its 2005 launch and how the initiative is evolving under the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges' Strategic Plan.

The current environment in higher education calls for increasingly progressive leadership and management. This report describes the efforts of the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) at Michigan State University (MSU) to strengthen its leadership using a whole-system approach. Developing a leadership culture is the responsibility of leaders, and the pursuit of such a culture requires considerable and justifiable investment of time, energy, and resources. The volatile and changing environment in which colleges of veterinary medicine exist makes creating such a culture imperative if society's needs are to be successfully met. Noteworthy cultural change has occurred within the MSU CVM because of the efforts described here.

This article provides an introduction to copyright law and guidance on constructing the collaborative agreements between faculty and staff coworkers, and faculty and institutional administration to encourage the development of e-learning courseware and its use in an extended distance environment.

Instructors in the health professions today must acquire knowledge and competencies that go beyond disciplinary expertise. It is now generally accepted that educational training as a teacher is essential to a faculty member's effectiveness as an educator. The educational challenges across the health professions share many similarities. In this article, we draw on the medical education literature and focus on faculty development designed to enhance teaching effectiveness. We first address commonly included faculty development topics, including instructional improvement, organizational development, the development of professional academic skills, and the teaching of specific content areas. We then review a variety of educational approaches and formats that are described in the literature. Included in this discussion are commonly used workshops, seminars, short courses, and fellowships, as well as longitudinal programs, peer coaching, mentorship, self-directed learning, and computer-aided instruction. We also briefly explore learning at work and in communities of practice, and we discuss several frequently encountered challenges in designing and implementing faculty development activities, including motivating colleagues and assessing program effectiveness. We conclude the discussion by presenting a set of guidelines for the design of effective faculty development programs.

A retrospective observational study was conducted to determine whether agricultural animal caseloads at veterinary teaching hospitals declined between 1995 and 1998. Thereafter, the effect of organizational and demographic factors on 1998 in-house agricultural animal caseloads was examined. Caseload data were obtained from the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges. Demographic and organizational data were obtained by surveys, telephone interviews, and web-based resources. Complete data were available from 25 veterinary colleges, and data from these schools were used in subsequent analyses. In 1998, in-house food animal caseload decreased relative to 1995 in 17 schools and increased relative to 1995 in 8 schools. This trend was not significant (P = .053); however, the power of the test was limited (.50). Mean 1998 caseload was 886 +/- 504. Among schools with a discipline-based organizational structure, annual mean caseload was 464 +/- 220. Among schools with a species-based organizational structure, mean caseload was 1,167 +/- 463. The regression model that best predicted caseload was a forward-stepping model that included only organizational structure as an independent variable. No additional independent variable was significantly associated with caseload.

It is important for veterinary administrators to apply knowledge bases from other fields to their own unique administrative needs. For example, although some resources are written for business managers, the discussions of four key management competency areas, guidelines for mastering these skills, organizational assessment tools, and other self-help tools may provide interesting food-for-thought for veterinary administrators.(76) In developing their own administrative styles, administrators should seek to apply those principles that seem to intuitively fit with their personal research styles, work situations, managerial styles, administrative preferences, and unique organizational culture. Through strengthening their liaisons with community and university business programs, counseling agencies, employee assistance programs, and psychology researchers, administrators can continue to be exposed to and benefit from new paradigms for consideration in veterinary medical environments. Through these liaisons, the unique needs of veterinary medical environments are also communicated to individuals within the fields of psychology and business, thus stimulating new research that specifically targets veterinary medical environment leadership issues. Each field has unique contributions to help veterinary administrators work toward creating veterinary medical environments that are creative, energetic, visionary, pragmatic, and highly marketable in order to help administrators recruit and nurture the best and brightest veterinary researchers, teachers, and clinicians.