Abstract
ABSTRACT
Factors affecting track selection before admission to the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis, and factors affecting change of tracks after the first two years of the curriculum were investigated by means of a survey of the 118 students of the graduating class of 2009. The student's background experience before admission to the School of Veterinary Medicine and other personal reasons were significant factors affecting small-animal and mixed-animal track choices. The student's background experience before admission to the School of Veterinary Medicine was the only significant factor for choosing the zoological track. The most significant factor for students to change their track from the mixed or zoological track to the small-animal track was background experience before admission to the School of Veterinary Medicine. Anticipated increased employment opportunities after graduation was the most significant factor for students to change their track from the mixed- or small-animal track to the zoological track. Other personal reasons was the significant variable for students to change their track from small-animal or zoological to mixed-animal track. Thus, to increase the number of students interested in tracks with lower enrollment, exposure of potential applicants to experience relevant to that track before admission and Admissions Committee selection criteria are likely to increase the odds of students' choosing that track.
The four-year curriculum structure for veterinary professional students at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis (UC Davis), allows students to focus on a specific area of interest (defined as a track) in veterinary medicine in the third and fourth years of the curriculum. After completion of the second year, students have a choice of one of eight clinically oriented species-specific tracks—namely equine, equine/small animal, food animal, food/small animal, large animal, mixed animal, small animal, and zoological medicine—and one individual track. Although the clinically oriented tracks are self-explanatory, the individual track includes students interested in pursuing careers in research and international veterinary medicine. The individual track also consists of students enrolled in the DVM/PhD programs who participate in multiple clinical rotations in their clinical training.
Perceived advantages and disadvantages of the track system compared with the classic system approach to clinical training in veterinary medicine have been put forth.1–7 Briefly, the perceived advantages of the track system approach include increased competence of graduates, choosing tracks that match available resources by colleges, potential to address areas with a shortage of veterinarians by increasing enrollment in those areas, and creation of space for in-depth disciplines such as animal behavior and exercise physiology.1 The perceived disadvantages include the potential to limit graduates' career options, interference with licensing systems requirements, problems in defining a track as major or minor, and disruption of college admission systems by students implying interest in one track on admission and changing to another track once admitted.1 However, recent studies on graduates from two veterinary schools using the track system and the classic systems approaches, respectively, in clinical veterinary medicine training demonstrated that there were no significant differences in the perceived benefits or deficits of the two systems.8,9
On admission to the School of Veterinary Medicine, it is anticipated that students will select a track on the basis of several reasons. Possible factors affecting track selection on admission include prior exposure to a certain veterinary species, student's gender, perceived employment opportunities after graduation, higher remuneration expectation for a particular track after graduation, and individual personality. Additionally, it is possible for students to choose a track different from their initial choice after the second year of the curriculum. Possible reasons for switching to another track include mentor/instructor influence, experience related to the track choice, and personal life changes during the first two years of the curriculum. Personality differences have been reported between veterinarians working in areas of food-animal medicine/veterinary public health and companion-animal/equine medicine.10 For instance, veterinarians working in areas of companion-animal medicine exhibited personal characteristics that included open-mindedness, willingness to comply, and interest in cultural aspects.10 In contrast, veterinarians working in areas of food-animal medicine/veterinary public health are rational, focus on business relations, and are outgoing.10 In other studies, graduating students reported that exposure to veterinary practitioners was the strongest positive influencing factor in choosing careers in food-animal practice.11
The objective of this study was to report the trends in choices of tracks by veterinary students and determine the factors affecting selection of tracks by the veterinary students on admission into the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Additionally, we investigated factors affecting a change in track by a student after completion of the second year of the curriculum.
Data on track choices by students admitted to the School of Veterinary Medicine from 1993 to 2009 were collected. However, data indicating reasons for choice of tracks on admission by graduating students were only available from the graduating class of 2009. These data were gathered through a survey designed and administered using SurveyMonkey.com. All 118 UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine students eligible for graduation in 2009 were sent electronic invitations to complete the survey. The link to the survey was placed on a specially designed exit Web page individualized for each student. This Web page listed and tracked the completion of all the components necessary to fulfill graduation requirements. When students clicked the link for this exit survey, it took them to the SurveyMonkey.com survey. To track the students who completed the survey and ensure confidentiality, a link was inserted at the end of the survey that took students to a secured UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine Web page. The students signed onto this Web page with their secure UC Davis user name and password, and their completion of the survey was logged. Most of the survey consisted of closed questions with a few open questions for which students were requested to elaborate on their responses. The research study was approved by the UC Davis Human Institutional Review Board.
We calculated descriptive statistics for the students who chose different tracks from 1993 to 2009. As a result of the small number of students choosing equine, equine/small-animal, food-animal, food-/small-animal, mixed-animal, large-animal, and individual tracks, all these tracks were combined into one track (referred to as mixed animal from here on). Consequently, three tracks (small animal, zoological animal, and mixed animal) were considered for analysis. We performed bi-variable analyses using χ2 analysis to determine the association between possible factors affecting track choices.a In the event that a cell in the 2×2 frequency tables had fewer than five students, we performed Fisher's exact analysis. Multiple conditional logistic regressions were performed to determine the factors affecting students' choice of tracks.b The dependent variables in all logistic models were the three tracks (small animal, zoological animal, or mixed animal). The independent variables considered were student's gender, background experience before admission to the School of Veterinary Medicine, anticipated income after graduation, anticipated employment opportunities, mentor/instructor influence after admission into the School of Veterinary Medicine, better quality of life after graduation, and other personal reasons. Additionally, we performed logistic regressions to determine factors affecting changing of tracks by the students after completion of the second year (see footnote b). Independent variables considered to affect the change of track after the second year of the curriculum included student's gender, mentor/instructor influence, employment opportunities after graduation, quality of life after graduation, background experience before admission to veterinary school, positive experience in another track, anticipated income after graduation, and other personal reasons. Second-order interactions between the independent variables were considered when possible in all logistic regressions. The quality-of-life variable described employment opportunities that would allow sufficient time to travel on vacation and have flexible working hours. Examples considered under the other-personal-reasons variable included a student choosing a track on the basis of anticipation of working in an urban/rural environment, personal family changes before admission, and plans to apply for internships or residency programs after graduation. Final models were assessed for goodness of fit using the Hosmer and Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test. In all models, p<0.05 was considered significant.
Trends in choices of tracks from 1993 to 2009 are presented in Table 1. On average, most students chose the small-animal track (53.2%) from 1993 to 2009. The number of students choosing the zoological track increased from 1993 to 2009. However, the increase in enrollment in the zoological track was significant after the 2003–2004 academic year. A possible reason was a major change in the senior clinical year-length period, which increased from 36 weeks during the 2003–2004 academic year to 48 weeks during the 2004–2005 and subsequent academic years. The consequences of this change were a change in core rotation weeks and in the number of elective weeks. One hundred seventeen responses to the survey were recorded out of the possible 118 students from the graduating class of 2009 (99% response rate). The response on reasons for track choices and reasons for changing tracks are represented in Tables 2 and 3, respectively. The student's background experience before admission to the School of Veterinary Medicine and other personal reasons were significant factors (p<0.05) affecting small-animal and mixed-animal track choices. The student's background experience before admission to the School of Veterinary Medicine was the only significant factor (p<0.05) for choosing the zoological track. None of the possible second-order interactions between the independent variables were significant (p>0.05).
Thirty-two students (27.4%) changed from their initial track choice on admission, but only 31 responses were available. Most of these students (61.3%) changed from mixed-animal or zoological tracks to the small-animal track, whereas 38.7% changed their track choice to the zoological or mixed-animal tracks from the small-animal track. The most significant factor for students to change their track from the mixed-animal or zoological track to the small-animal track was background experience before admission to the School of Veterinary Medicine (p=0.001). Anticipated increased employment opportunities after graduation was the most significant factor for students to change their track from the mixed- or small-animal track to the zoological track (p=0.002). Other personal reasons (p=0.001) was the significant variable for students to change their track from the small-animal or zoological track to the mixed-animal track. Possible interactions between the independent variables for each track were not significant factors (p>0.05) for changing tracks.
On admission to the School of Veterinary Medicine, students were more likely to choose a track based on their background experience with a certain veterinary species. However, it is difficult to determine from this study the components of the background experience students considered important when choosing tracks on admission. Information on the factors students consider important when choosing tracks is useful in several ways. During the admission process, the odds of a student choosing a certain track if admitted can be predicted. On the basis of the trends in track choices shown in Table 1, some tracks have lower enrollment by students. Thus, exposing potential applicants to experience relevant to that track before admission and Admissions Committee selection criteria are likely to increase the odds of students' choosing tracks with lower enrollment.
A significant proportion of students changed their initial track choice. There were interesting differences in the significant factors affecting track change after completion of the second year. Most students changed from other tracks to the small-animal track with background experience being the only significant factor affecting track change. It is possible that students who changed to the small-animal track had an interest in the small-animal track on admission but were undecided until they completed the second year of the curriculum. Students changed to the zoological track in anticipation of increased employment opportunities after graduation. A possible suggested reason for this increased anticipation in employment opportunities in the zoological track is that UC Davis is one of the few veterinary schools in North America that offers zoological medicine at the professional level. Thus, students anticipate increasing their competitiveness when seeking employment in veterinary medicine requiring skills in zoological medicine. Changing track choices from the zoological or small-animal track to the mixed-animal track was associated with other personal factors. Examples of these personal factors included students anticipating being familiar with more than one veterinary species and interest in veterinary public health.
The results from this study are limited to one graduating class for which the survey was available. There are potential differences in interest among graduating classes and factors affecting track choices. Additionally, admission committees involved in selection of students may choose to focus on increasing the number of students interested in certain tracks.
Further studies are required to define the background experience students consider when choosing tracks on admission to the School of Veterinary Medicine. Information gathered from these studies is potentially useful to those tracks with low enrollment (mixed-animal track) to provide experience to potential applicants to the School of Veterinary Medicine. For instance, if a potential applicant considers exposure to food-animal and equine handling skills as an important experience to choose that track if admitted, the School of Veterinary Medicine could provide this experience through the teaching hospital. Alternatively, the small-animal track can continue to improve on providing experience that has resulted in larger enrollment in the small-animal track.
a PROC FREQ, SAS 9.1, SAS Institute, Cary, NC.
b PROC LOGISTIC, SAS 9.1, SAS Institute, Cary, NC.
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| Track | 2008–2009 | 2007–2008 | 2006–2007 | 2005–2006 | 2004–2005 | 2003–2004 | 2002–2003 | 2001–2002 | 2000–2001 | 1999–2000 | 1998–1999 | 1997–1998 | 1996–1997 | 1995–1996 | 1994–1995 | 1993–1994 | M±SD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Equine | 9 | 18 | 17 | 8 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 11 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 12 | 12 | 9 | 5.6±3.87 |
| Equine/smallanimal | 5 | 10 | 9 | 7 | 10 | 1 | 10 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 13 | 13 | 15 | 10 | 8.13±3.69 |
| Food animal | 4 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2.94±1.85 |
| Food/smallanimal | 2 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 9 | 2 | 10 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 4.63±2.93 |
| Large animal | 4 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 9 | 14 | 8 | 17 | 2 | 4 | 6.63±3.95 |
| Mixed animal | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 12 | 8 | 13 | 3 | 8 | 16 | 28 | 25 | 24 | 10.13±8.51 |
| Small animal | 69 | 57 | 56 | 75 | 67 | 74 | 71 | 62 | 62 | 69 | 65 | 54 | 60 | 45 | 56 | 49 | 61.94±8.73 |
| Zoological | 18 | 12 | 18 | 19 | 14 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 15 | 6.75±7.03 |
| Individual | 4 | 2 | 4 | 10 | 5 | 12 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 5.69±2.99 |
| Total | 118 | 113 | 121 | 133 | 124 | 115 | 124 | 110 | 103 | 111 | 110 | 105 | 121 | 123 | 123 | 117 |
|
| Answer options | Response count (%)* |
|---|---|
| This track is better suited for my gender. | 2 (1.7) |
| My background experiences match the experiences necessary for this track. | 80 (68.4) |
| Mentor/college professor influenced my decision. | 10 (8.5) |
| This track has more employment opportunities. | 13 (11.3) |
| Employment in this track has a higher income than other tracks. | 3 (2.6) |
| This track will allow me a better quality of life. | 17 (14.5) |
| Other | 37 (31.6) |
|
| Answer options | Response count (%)* |
|---|---|
| This track is better suited for my gender. | 0 (0) |
| Mentor / faculty influenced my decision. | 2 (6.3) |
| This track has more employment opportunities. | 4 (12.5) |
| Employment in this track has a higher income than other tracks. | 1 (3.1) |
| This track will allow me a better quality of life. | 6 (18.8) |
| I learned or was exposed to an area that interested me. | 8 (25) |
| This track allowed more elective classes choices. | 3 (9.4) |
| Other | 15 (46.9) |
*Percentages are based on the number of students who answered each question, not on the total N.
