Inspire Passion in the Next Generation of Swine Vets
Success over the long run is determined by your team, which includes everyone: the farm owners and veterinarians, to the farm workers. Each member plays a role in determining what success is for the team. The makeup of the team will change over time, so there needs to be a clear direction that can be used to develop the next generation at every level.
I find a lot of enjoyment working with young veterinary talent to help them become great team members. Student excitement helps us remember the passion we all had to get into this business. It all starts in their veterinary school years as they participate in externships at our practice. Students are getting a great education, with a wealth of scientific knowledge being added every day. But most students come with a lack of actual swine production experience. This is not all bad, but must be acknowledged, so we can help them overcome that to become great assets for producers.
Young veterinarians come out of school wanting to diagnose disease but that is only a part of their job. The swine vet role has become one of investigation into root causes and disease prevention, so understanding production is critical to understanding which practices are influencing or even causing disease. Vet communication to production staff is more effective if it comes with a base knowledge of production. The young vet must navigate multiple levels of science understanding with different team members so their message is understood.
With the students I conduct a walk through at a sow farm and discuss what we see. A typical scenario would be going through a farrowing room, stopping along the way and asking, “What’s wrong?” as we look at a sow and her piglets. Their responses are predictable at the first crate: “I don’t know.” After some discussion, they recognize the issues. Moving on to the next few crates, the students get better and start connecting the dots, not only pointing out what’s wrong, but what might be contributing to the cause. They’re making progress. At the last crate we stop and ask, “What’s wrong?” I just stare at them and the sow and wait … Creativity starts to kick in as the students are search for something wrong. But there is nothing wrong!
The students have been trained to look for something wrong, but they forget that an acceptable answer is: “Nothing is wrong.” So, part of training a young veterinarian must include normal production. It is a simple but challenging concept at times.
Along with recognizing normal, being able to say, “We have done everything we can, now we wait for the pig to do its part,” is important. Extreme PRRS outbreaks like we have seen lately are the perfect example: health challenges that are difficult to feel as a veterinarian; you’re doing everything you can to help. The hardest, but sometimes most helpful, advice to a producer in the middle of disease outbreak is to say we are doing everything possible and cannot do more – sometimes the virus wins!
Nobody likes to lose, so the team must learn and build for the future. As I do my part to build the next generation of swine veterinarians, scientific knowledge continues to grow for students. On-farm knowledge can’t be forgotten as it is the basis that drives success. Team leaders need to recognize each team member’s need for development to build the team to achieve long-term success.
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