A Global Survey of the Views of Practicing Companion Animal Veterinarians on Their Undergraduate Curriculum and Their Access to Continuing Education Resources

Abstract

A global survey was developed to gain insight into the opinion of companion animal veterinarians about their undergraduate education and their access to continuing education on the following topics: client communication, animal welfare, surgical techniques, human-animal bond, dentistry, animal behavior, and zoonotic disease/epidemiology. In 2016, the survey was distributed via SurveyMonkey (R) in five languages to companion animal veterinarians around the world. A total of 1,167 respondents returned to the survey. The distribution of survey responses differed by geographic region (number of respondents in parentheses; where respondents work/have been trained): Europa (including the Russian Federation, 359/423), Asia (311/205), North America (77/89), South America (24/16), Africa (46/41), and Oceania (147/167). The results were strongly influenced by a large number of respondents (in parentheses) who graduated in the Russian Federation (180/162), Australia (133/154), Israel (136/82), the Netherlands (64/64), the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (36/46), and the United States of America (46/44). On the basis of the responses, all topics were poorly covered or not taught, except for surgical techniques and zoonotic disease/epidemiology, which were covered adequately or well. However, there were country and geographic regional differences. This was also true for continuing education resources, which were-in addition to countries and geographic regions-also influenced by the educational topic. As already stated by Dhein and Menon in 2003, time away from the practice, travel distance, and expense may be reasons why companion animal veterinarians do not follow continuing education. Online continuing education could fill in the gap and is more time and cost-efficient.