Pete the Vet: Exciting news as a second vet school planned for Ireland
Be Select Try Entry, Long Health Used Pete Test To To Medical Professions That Suited For Type In Less The Practice? Work Have Academic It Of But Who May Admission Consider Term (hpat) May Students Who Veterinary School To More To Vet: Similar To A General Qualifications Is Time
There is an interesting global issue within the veterinary profession, with serious challenges in recruitment and retention of vets. In Ireland, Covid resulted in a dramatic increase in pet ownership and veterinary services reported a significant boom in business as practices learned to manage the restricted access yet increased workload. Despite the increase in demand for veterinary services, the country is currently struggling to find vets to fill the current list of vacancies listed. This crisis is affecting urban and rural vet practices alike.
The veterinary profession offers an interesting and rewarding career. Around half of Irish households own pets, and our pets need vets. We trust vets and expect them to be well-educated, and able to offer our pets the best available health care. But vets play a far bigger role in society, taking care of animal health and welfare when it comes to our food sources as well. Vets strive to be the both guardians of animal health and protectors of human health, as the latter depends upon animals as a safe and wholesome source of food. The concept of ‘One Health’ is increasingly discussed, stressing the fact that animals and humans are closely intertwined, sharing many of the same health and disease factors and issues.
Most of us remember the weekly James Herriot show on television, marvelling as the young vet went from species to species on his daily errands. Those of us lucky enough to follow the steps of Mr Herriot into the veterinary profession either travelled to Dublin to do a five year course in UCD, or failing that, travelled to Europe to complete a similar veterinary degree. However, life of the vet is not always as glamorous as the nostalgic television series portrayed, with challenges including difficult working hours, managing a young family at the same time as working, and coping with the rising costs of running a business.
In an initiative to boost the supply of vets, recent government announcements have called for tenders from third level educational institutes for a second veterinary school in Ireland. This is an exciting development. Originally, a hundred years ago, most vets in Ireland trained in the veterinary college in Edinburgh. Veterinary education in Ireland then started in Trinity, before the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at University College Dublin (UCD) was established in 1946. Most of the current crop of vets in Ireland would have been trained at UCD. The veterinary school was located in Ballsbridge for many years, moving to a new, state-of-the-art veterinary hospital and teaching centre on the UCD Belfield campus in 2002. UCD has coped well over the years with the growing demands for new vets with new skills, and it is constantly evolving its education.
It appears likely that the new veterinary school will be located outside the capital, at a location still to be decided. Any new venture offers stakeholders in the profession an opportunity to consider change. This is an ideal time to carefully reflect on the role and responsibilities of the profession over the next ten years. What type of graduate will we need? How can we review the teaching structure of the undergraduate programme, perhaps placing greater emphasis on graduate entry? Last week, the Minister of Education, Simon Harris, announced that students will be admitted to Universities without the standard CAO points. We frequently hear of students that would have made excellent vets but were unable to get the critical CAO points. Is it time to consider a type of Health Professions Admission Test (HPAT) similar to that used for medical school entry, to try to select students who may have less academic qualifications but who may be more suited to long term work in veterinary general practice?
There are many aspects of a new veterinary school that need to be considered. Research is always an important part of third level educational institutions, so consideration has to be given to how this can be best integrated within a new veterinary educational establishment. The practical training of students in their final years needs to be carefully planned and tracked. Perhaps consideration should be given to allow opportunities to gain more experience in one species, rather than expecting all new graduates to be fully trained in all the different species. This would be a significant change that would require formal review of how vets are accredited.
Business and management training also needs to be a greater focus; after all, running a vet clinic involves far more than just treating animals. A contemporary veterinary hospital is a hive of activity, with a team of perhaps two employees for every vet. A high level of system organisation is needed, yet in the past, vets have had to do this with minimal formal training.
Finally, attention needs to be paid to continuing professional development for existing vets and nurses; this is an obligatory part of continuing to register as a professional every year, and a veterinary school is the ideal provider for this type of post-graduate training.
It is exciting to see my profession evolve, and many of those involved in this new initiative feel passionate about working hard to create a progressive educational background to equip the vets of the future in the best possible way. The hope is that more and more people, both within and outside the vet profession, will step forward and support the new venture and its students.
A new vet school will be a groundbreaking step forwards for the veterinary profession — and for animals of all shapes and sizes — in Ireland.