Career Preferences and Opinions on Animal Welfare and Ethics: A Survey of Veterinary Students in Australia and New Zealand

Abstract

Historically, the veterinary profession has understood animal welfare primarily in terms of animal health and productivity, with less recognition of animals' feelings and mental state. Veterinary students' career preferences and attitudes to animal welfare have been the focus of several international studies. As part of a survey in Australia and New Zealand, this study reports on whether veterinary students prioritize animal welfare topics or professional conduct on the first day of practice and examines links between students' career preferences and their institution, gender, and year of study. The questionnaire was designed to explore the importance that students assign to topics in animal welfare and ethics. Of the 3,320 students invited to participate in the online survey, a total of 851 students participated, representing a response rate of 25.5%. Students' preferences increased for companion-animal practice and decreased for production-animal practice as they progressed through their studies. Females ranked the importance of animal welfare topics higher than males, but the perceived importance declined for both genders in their senior years. In line with previous studies, this report highlighted two concerns: (1) the importance assigned to animal welfare declined as students progressed through their studies, and (2) males placed less importance overall on animal welfare than females. Given that veterinarians have a strong social influence on animal issues, there is an opportunity, through enhanced education in animal welfare, to improve student concern for animal welfare and in turn improve animal care and policy making by future veterinarians.

Students’ opinions on welfare and ethics issues for companion animals in Australian and New Zealand veterinary schools

“…How veterinary graduates handle these issues can have significant and detrimental effects on their wellbeing, as well as the health and welfare of animals and their owners. The results of the parent survey showed that as Australasian students progress through their training they increasingly express a preference to work in companion animal practice . Results from the current study suggested that students enrolled in veterinary schools in Australia and New Zealand focus on the AWE issues more closely related to their clinical responsibilities and how they can influence the health and wellbeing of individual patients and their owners.…”

“…The details of methodology used in this study and the full list of AWE topics chosen, as well as the results of the broader survey, are reported in a paper describing the parent survey . In brief, all students enrolled in veterinary undergraduate courses at universities in Australia and New Zealand during October 2014 were invited to participate in the survey.…”

“…Statistical analysis of the relationships between gender and stage of study was also undertaken using log‐linear regression as described in our report of the parent survey . Human Research Ethics Committee approval was obtained from the University of Sydney (Approval no.…”

“…In 2014 we undertook a general survey on the career preferences of veterinary students in Australia and New Zealand, and their opinions of the importance of AWE to the competences they require on their first day of practice. The results of this general survey and of student attitudes towards the discipline of animal welfare science are reported elsewhere . In the current paper we report on a subset of this data derived from questions that pertained specifically to AWE issues of importance to companion animal practice.…”

“…Some of these challenges to emotional health may reflect ethical dilemmas in practice, as lack of knowledge about how to make ethical decisions can lead to stress . Previous research also suggests that students’ concern for AWE issues declines as they progress through their training and become more focused on attaining professional and clinical competencies …”