Workforce study tabled

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Also on the AVMA Executive Board's agenda was a proposal postponed from the August board meeting to conduct a study of the U.S. veterinary workforce.

The AVMA recently launched a national strategy to bring relief to a profession many analysts say has been in financial decline for years. The plan features a $5 million fund for veterinary economic projects and creation of an AVMA veterinary economics division to keep the issue at the forefront of the Association's activities (see JAVMA, Oct. 15, 2011).

Such initiatives benefit from a better understanding of the profession's economic challenges, the AVMA board agreed, yet it is hesitant to approve the workforce study, given the inherent difficulties of undertaking such a broad analysis. Several board members also voiced concern that the study findings and recommendations might be ignored by parts of the profession able to effect positive changes.

In the end, the recommendation was tabled until the November board meeting pending a review by the AVMA ad hoc Economic Vision Steering Committee.