Community education and awareness about the veterinary profession - we want your thoughts!

21 Mar 2022

Research by the AVA indicates that improving community education and awareness of the role of the veterinary profession will help improve the health and wellbeing of the profession.  The profession is of the opinion that lack of public understanding has negatively impacted on mental health of veterinary professionals, playing a role in workforce attrition. This was supported by evidence from research undertaken by Superfriend and the EVA workforce sustainability grant. 

The AVA Board has approved a broad strategy, informed by member research and internal feedback, to improve community education and awareness of the veterinary profession. This process involved determining the outcomes to be achieved, the awareness or education that needs to occur, and a high-level strategy to achieve this. We are asking for your comments to develop the detail around this strategy and the operational plan that accompanies it. 

The outcomes to be achieved: 

  • The community voices to government and industry that social license of animal use can only be maintained when there is involvement of the veterinary profession, as veterinarians are the regulated leaders in animal health and welfare;
  • Community awareness of how the veterinary profession intersects with their lives, allowing animals' quality of life to be maintained and improved (One Health preventative and protective factors). This will, in turn, maintain and improve the value of the veterinary profession;
  • Community awareness that in order for the veterinary profession to serve it must thrive. 

In order to achieve these outcomes, the following community education or awareness needs to be undertaken: 

  • Reaffirm that vets are regulated as the knowledge leaders in the area of animal health and welfare (maintain value);
  • Broadcast the diverse ways that veterinarians positively impact the community, as well as the value of vets;
    • Breadth (diversity of disciplines) and depth (direct and indirect impact of animal health);
  • For the profession to look after the community’s animals the profession needs to thrive and prioritise its own health and wellbeing.

The attached document outlines the high-level strategy to achieve these outcomes. We want to hear from you through participation in the following survey which asks for comments on: 

  • the outcomes;
  • education required and what the community needs to be educated about;
  • the high-level strategy;
  • key messages the profession needs to give the community.

Complete the AVA Public Awareness Survey here.

Next steps

We are presenting the concepts here to the committees and working groups of the AVA and will be taking feedback until April the 26th, 2022. We will use this information to further the develop the strategy and then engage with the appropriate experts to assist us with delivery.