Philips Blythe H, Gerisma Jovannah, Tynan Anila R, Whitcomb Tiffany L
1Department of Pathobiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
2University Laboratory Animal Resources, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
J Am Assoc Lab Anim Sci. 2024 Nov 1;63(6):623-635. doi: 10.30802/AALAS-JAALAS-24-051.
Since 2015, it has become progressively more difficult for programs to recruit residents in laboratory animal medicine (LAM). Veterinarians are a necessary part of animal research, and having a shortage in veterinarians trained to work in this field has the potential to negatively impact research progress as well as animal welfare. With a goal to increase recruitment, we performed this study to better understand the barriers and facilitators that veterinarians experience when navigating the decision to pursue postdoctoral training in LAM. To do this, we recruited first-year LAM residents to participate in semistructured interviews, and performed thematic analysis on their responses. Key barriers included participants' awareness of perceived drawbacks of the field, inaccessibility of information about opportunities within the field, and misinformation about animal research both within the veterinary field and society at large. Key facilitators included participants' awareness of perceived benefits of the field, relationships with professionals involved in laboratory animal science, and formative predoctoral clinical experiences. Overall, we found evidence that information flow is particularly important in recruitment, suggesting that future recruitment strategies may want to target improved communication about LAM and animal research in general.
自2015年以来，各项目招收实验动物医学（LAM）住院医师变得越来越困难。兽医是动物研究的必要组成部分，缺乏经过该领域工作培训的兽医可能会对研究进展以及动物福利产生负面影响。为了增加招收人数，我们开展了这项研究，以更好地了解兽医在决定攻读LAM博士后培训时所面临的障碍和促进因素。为此，我们招募了LAM专业一年级住院医师参与半结构化访谈，并对他们的回答进行了主题分析。主要障碍包括参与者对该领域公认缺点的认知、获取该领域机会信息的困难，以及兽医领域和整个社会对动物研究的错误信息。主要促进因素包括参与者对该领域公认好处的认知、与实验动物科学领域专业人员的关系，以及博士前阶段的临床实践经验。总体而言，我们发现有证据表明信息流通在招生过程中尤为重要，这表明未来的招生策略可能需要致力于改善关于LAM和一般动物研究的沟通。
