Recruiting and retaining public practice veterinarians
The AVMA recognizes the importance of public practice to the entire veterinary community. AVMA's Economics Division studied factors limiting private practice veterinarians from transitioning to public practice positions. Additional studies from AVMA and other veterinary organizations support efforts for recruitment and retention benefits from increased congressional funding for all federal agencies' incentive programs such as the use of special pay (for specific hard-to-fill positions and locations), specialty pay (for board certification), professional pay (for pay equity with other medical professionals), removal of the annual salary cap in declared emergency disease outbreaks, student loan repayment bonuses, and other incentives the agency deems appropriate to encourage more veterinarians to enter and remain in public practice.