USDA is sounding the alarm regarding a nationwide shortage of veterinarians that is impacting rural America

    

Rising concerns about a nationwide veterinarian 
shortage is alarming rural communities.

(Photo by Michael on Unsplash)

A nationwide veterinarian shortage involving 243 areas across 46 states has been identified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The record shortage is hitting rural communities particularly hard. According to a report produced by Iowa PBS, “The list of disciplines in need is a long one and includes rural mixed-animal practices, food-animal and livestock medicine, USDA and public health veterinarians, and some positions in animal rescue shelters.”

The report blames the shortage on a pandemic pet-ownership surge, rising educational costs and debt, professional burnout, and the benefits of life in urban versus rural environments. Laurel Bower interviewed several professors and professionals for the Market to Market show on the station. The recruitment issues were the same as those often mentioned when recruiting doctors for humans: the desire for personal time, time with families, low pay, lifestyle, or generally “work life balance.”

Minnesota veterinarian Dr. Jessica Fox reminded viewers that vet school grads are just starting out in life, maybe getting married and starting a family, and usually they are living in a city. “So, even if you had ideas of moving back home, maybe your partner doesn’t want to,” she said.

The report offered the surprising statistic that the U.S. has lost 90% of its large-animal veterinarians since World War II. Dr. Jennifer Quammen, President of the American Veterinary Medical Association told Bower, “Having veterinarians as the primary health care authority is very important to all of us …” not only locally but globally, with a “giant” economic impact. According to the USDA, just 4% of graduates are looking toward a large-animal practice.

Dr. Dan Grooms, dean of the Iowa State University College of Vet Medicine, summed the problem up by saying there is “no magic bullet” and that a variety of stakeholders will have to come together, including colleges, communities and state departments of agriculture. “Each of them probably have a little piece of the solution,” he said.

Survey: Rural voters, especially women, are 'deeply worried about the rising cost of living'

Graph by Sarah Melotte, The Daily Yonder, from Lake Research and the Center for Rural Strategies data

The fight for rural votes during this year's midterm Senate elections could be decided by American voters seeking economy-stabilizing policies from Washington, and by women voters, who are acutely aware of rising living expenses, a new survey shows.

"Rural voters across Senate battleground states are deeply worried about the rising cost of living, and while that concern cuts across party lines, a new poll suggests it is especially pronounced among women," reports Sarah Melotte of The Daily Yonder.

The survey was conducted by Lake Research Partners and the Center for Rural Strategies, which publishes The Daily Yonder, included interviews with 600 rural voters in 13 states where the Senate seat tug-of-war is playing out. "It paints a picture of a partisan rural electorate, but one that is aligned on economic anxiety," Melotte writes. "The poll revealed a consistent gender gap in how rural voters experience economic strain."

Fifty-five percent of rural voters said "the rising cost of living is one of their top concerns," Melotte explains. "That includes about 60% of Democrats and 53% of Republicans. Women were more likely than men to cite the issue as one of their main concerns – 58% compared to 52%."

Graph by Sarah Melotte, The Daily Yonder, from Lake Research 
and the Center for Rural Strategies data

When it comes to stretching family budgets nearly "a quarter of rural women said they were ‘very worried’ about having to choose between necessities like medical bills and food or utilities, compared to only 17% of rural men," Melotte reports.

Pollster Celinda Lake told Yonder Radio, "People were adamant about protecting social security benefits, increasing local manufacturing jobs, cracking down on price gouging, and making healthcare more affordable . . . There is a very, very strong proactive issue agenda in rural America.”

'Forensic nursing' could help victims of domestic violence in rural areas, where it is often more difficult to deal with

Unseen and unspoken, rural victims of domestic violence are more likely to suffer alone because of geographical isolation, lack of medical support networks, and an "everybody knows everybody" small-town culture that can keep victims from asking for help.

Leslie Copp (Photo from The Daily Yonder)

With the help of a Tillman Foundation scholarship, Leslie Copp, a nurse who grew up in a home with domestic violence, aims to change some of that in rural Indiana, reports Liz Carey of The Daily Yonder. "Copp is an online graduate student at Frontier Nursing University located in Versailles, Kentucky. Her nursing work includes caring for trauma victims and gathering evidence for prosecutors. She wants her graduate education to help her specialize in trauma care and establish trauma care centers in rural communities like her hometown of Odon, Indiana, pop. 1,400."

Forensic nursing is an emerging field that many students may not know exists. Copp began her medical career as a Certified Nurse Assistant, then earned a bachelor's degree in nursing, but along the way, "realized she enjoyed taking care of trauma victims and helping as a forensic nurse to collect evidence to assist in prosecuting abuse cases. She said she feels born to work as a forensic nurse examiner." She told Carey: "I was raised at the very first of my life in a home where I dealt with watching my mother go through domestic violence. I didn't realize that the trauma that I had been through as a young adult would set the base for something that I would grow to love. I turned my trauma into something that I could do to help others." Carey reports, "She intends to pursue a doctorate in nursing practice and to become a mental health nurse practitioner."

Copp told Carey: "In Indiana alone, there are wide areas where there are no resources or care for victims of trauma or violence. My goal is to start with one (rural trauma care center) and plant it in a place that has the widest area of no coverage so that we can at least start providing medical exams (for trauma victims) and point people in the right direction." Part of the dilemma in gathering prosecutorial evidence from victims is timing and victim bandwidth for the process, Carey writes. By the time a victim is treated at their local hospital, they don't have the energy to go to a metro hospital for another work-up. "Even if a nurse sees them in a metropolitan area, the patients get lost in the system without access to resources like trauma therapy, advocacy services, and support systems."

Frontier Nursing University Assistant Professor Dr. Joshua Faucett told Carey, "Copp's experience as a nurse and violence survivor made her a good candidate for the scholarship. . . . Leslie is a sexual assault nurse examiner and has testified on behalf of sexual assault victims to bring their abusers to justice." Carey adds, "Copp's goal is to create a trauma center in a rural area that could both do medical exams and help victims gain access to social workers, prosecutors, and emergency housing."