School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, Sutton Bonington, Leicestershire LE12 5RD, UK; College of Health and Social Care, University of Derby, Kedleston Road, Derby DE22 1GB, UK.
School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, Sutton Bonington, Leicestershire LE12 5RD, UK.
Prev Vet Med. 2016 May 1;127:84-93. doi: 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2016.03.008. Epub 2016 Mar 14.
The farm animal veterinary profession in the UK has faced a number of challenges in recent decades related to the withdrawal of government funding and a contraction of the agricultural sector. They have come under pressure to respond by developing skills and focusing on disease prevention advisory services. However, this puts veterinarians in competition with other providers of these services, and moves in this direction have only been partial. Failure to respond to these challenges puts the veterinary profession at risk of de-professionalisation-a loss of their monopoly over knowledge, an erosion of client beliefs in their service ethos and a loss of work autonomy. This paper explores how farm animal veterinarians in England perceive these challenges and are responding to them. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were carried out with 28 veterinarians from Royal College of Veterinary Surgeon farm accredited practices. Veterinarians were chosen from high, medium and low density cattle farming regions. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and themes identified through the constant comparison method. The majority of respondents recognised the challenges facing the veterinary profession. Most believed their role had changed, moving towards that of a disease prevention adviser who was part of the farm management team. In terms of maintaining and redefining their professional status, farm animal veterinarians do have a defined body of knowledge and the ability to develop trusting relationships with clients, which enhances their competitiveness. However, while they recognise the changes and challenges, moves towards a disease prevention advisory model have only been partial. There seem to be little effort towards using Farm accreditation status or other strategies to promote their services. They do not appear to be finding effective strategies for putting their knowledge on disease prevention into practice. Disease prevention appears to be delivered on farm on an ad hoc basis, they are not promoting their disease prevention services to farmers effectively or using their professional position to stave off competition. Farm animals veterinarians will need to realign their veterinary expertise to the demands of the market, work together rather than in competition, improve their skills in preventive medicine, consolidate information given by non-veterinary advisors, develop new business models appropriate to their services and develop entrepreneurial skills to demonstrate their market value if they are to avoid becoming marginalised.
英国的农场动物兽医行业在过去几十年中面临着许多挑战，包括政府资金的撤出和农业部门的收缩。他们面临着通过发展技能和专注于疾病预防咨询服务来做出回应的压力。然而，这使兽医与其他提供这些服务的人竞争，并朝着这个方向只取得了部分进展。未能应对这些挑战使兽医行业面临去专业化的风险——失去对知识的垄断、削弱客户对其服务理念的信任以及丧失工作自主权。本文探讨了英格兰的农场动物兽医如何看待这些挑战并做出回应。对来自皇家兽医学院（Royal College of Veterinary Surgeon）认可的农场兽医实践的 28 名兽医进行了半结构化定性访谈。兽医是从高、中、低奶牛养殖密度地区选择的。记录了访谈，转录了文本，并通过不断比较的方法确定了主题。大多数受访者认识到兽医行业面临的挑战。大多数人认为他们的角色已经发生了变化，朝着成为农场管理团队一部分的疾病预防顾问的角色转变。就维护和重新定义其专业地位而言，农场动物兽医确实拥有一定的知识体系，并且能够与客户建立信任关系，从而增强其竞争力。然而，尽管他们认识到这些变化和挑战，但朝着疾病预防咨询模式的转变只是部分的。似乎没有什么努力来利用农场认证地位或其他策略来推广他们的服务。他们似乎没有找到将预防疾病的知识付诸实践的有效策略。疾病预防似乎是在农场临时进行的，他们没有有效地向农民推广他们的疾病预防服务，也没有利用他们的专业地位来抵御竞争。如果农场动物兽医要避免被边缘化，就需要将他们的兽医专业知识与市场需求相匹配，共同努力而不是竞争，提高他们在预防医学方面的技能，整合非兽医顾问提供的信息，为他们的服务开发新的商业模式，并发展创业技能来展示他们的市场价值。
