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20 Questions: Shawn Messonnier, DVM
- Thread starter CaffeinatedSquirrel
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I have some concerns and suggestions for SDN after reading the feature article.
Essentially, I feel that the selection of Shawn Messonnier was a poor choice for a feature article on veterinary medicine. I have nothing against him personally, but he is a small animal general practitioner (the most commonly recognized type of veterinarian) who is established in a good area with a good client base, comparatively low work hours and perhaps most importantly, no debt. Veterinary medicine is facing some very scary issues as a profession in regards to debt to income ratio, job opportunities, increasing class sizes and new school accreditations. The average debt that a current graduate takes on is well upwards of $150,000, salaries for new graduates start around $60,000 per year (and are often much lower), jobs are difficult to come by and new graduates are being pumped into the saturated market at ever increasing rates.
The unfortunate thing is, many students with an interest in veterinary medicine have no idea that the profession faces such serious problems. I'd wager that many of those who are aware of these issues learned about them through their interaction with the veterinary community present on SDN. Veterinary medicine receives comparatively less "air time" than its human counterpart on SDN; to have SDN feature a veterinarian who appears to be dealing with none of the "hot topic" problems that many newer graduates struggle with (and many current students dread) when it does become our turn for the spotlight almost feels like a slap in the face to our community. As an active member of the veterinary side of SDN, I would really appreciate SDN giving precedence to articles that touch on some of these problems, such as an interview with a new graduate or fourth year student.
I would also like to see articles that explore the other opportunities afforded by a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine. Small animal general practice is what everyone thinks of when they hear "veterinarian". But there are so many other avenues to follow with a DVM degree. I think readers of SDN articles would benefit from reading about some of the other opportunities a veterinarian can pursue: public health, research, aquatic medicine, production animal medicine, etc.
Essentially, I feel that the selection of Shawn Messonnier was a poor choice for a feature article on veterinary medicine. I have nothing against him personally, but he is a small animal general practitioner (the most commonly recognized type of veterinarian) who is established in a good area with a good client base, comparatively low work hours and perhaps most importantly, no debt. Veterinary medicine is facing some very scary issues as a profession in regards to debt to income ratio, job opportunities, increasing class sizes and new school accreditations. The average debt that a current graduate takes on is well upwards of $150,000, salaries for new graduates start around $60,000 per year (and are often much lower), jobs are difficult to come by and new graduates are being pumped into the saturated market at ever increasing rates.
The unfortunate thing is, many students with an interest in veterinary medicine have no idea that the profession faces such serious problems. I'd wager that many of those who are aware of these issues learned about them through their interaction with the veterinary community present on SDN. Veterinary medicine receives comparatively less "air time" than its human counterpart on SDN; to have SDN feature a veterinarian who appears to be dealing with none of the "hot topic" problems that many newer graduates struggle with (and many current students dread) when it does become our turn for the spotlight almost feels like a slap in the face to our community. As an active member of the veterinary side of SDN, I would really appreciate SDN giving precedence to articles that touch on some of these problems, such as an interview with a new graduate or fourth year student.
I would also like to see articles that explore the other opportunities afforded by a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine. Small animal general practice is what everyone thinks of when they hear "veterinarian". But there are so many other avenues to follow with a DVM degree. I think readers of SDN articles would benefit from reading about some of the other opportunities a veterinarian can pursue: public health, research, aquatic medicine, production animal medicine, etc.
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Always looking for people to be featured in our series, if you know someone who would be interested send me a PM!
