“‘Refugees from practice?’ Exploring why some vets move from the clinic to the laboratory.”
The first article from my work with the Animal Research Nexus Programme was published in the Vet Record in 2022. In this article, co-authored with Pru Hobson-West, we argue that Named Veterinary Surgeons’ (NVS) accounts of their career trajectories tend to focus on push factors motivating them to leave general practice rather than pull factors into laboratory work. It was also the case that laboratory animal veterinary work was often considered more manageable or fulfilling by interviewed NVSs.
This article was the basis of a submission to a horizon-scanning exercise by the Animals in Science Committee, in which we noted that given the wider context of the retention problem being grappled with by the veterinary profession the lack of pull factors into laboratory animal veterinary roles may precipitate shortages of NVS availability in future.
Alistair Anderson 