RCVS publishes survey of the profession

The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons has published its 2006 Survey of the Veterinary Profession.

The report provides a snapshot of the profession today (what kind of work is being carried out, where and to what extent) and helps provide an understanding of future aspirations. It follows previous studies in 1998, 2000 and 2002.

With a nearly 50% response rate from the College's total membership of 20,479, the results provide a robust picture of veterinary life in 2006.

"Despite anecdotal evidence to the contrary, the dynamics of the veterinary profession remain relatively stable," according to RCVS President Lynne Hill.

"For example, the impact of the so-called 'feminisation of the profession' seems to be less marked than anticipated, given the rise in the number of female veterinary surgeons. In fact, the number of part-time workers has risen by only 2% since 2002.

Meanwhile 23% of sole principals, practice partners or directors are now female, putting paid to the suggestion that women are unwilling to invest in practice," she highlights.

Looking at working hours, although 37% of respondents stated that an improved 'work-life balance' would make the profession better for them, the average hours worked by full-timers in practice are down on the 2002 findings, at 42.8 per week in general/first opinion practice, compared with 51.6 in 2002.

On-call hours for full-time workers have also dropped, from an average of 27.3 per week for general/first opinion practice in 2002, compared with 21.6 now. The fact that 22% of respondents say their practice is using out-of-hours services may account in part for this decrease.

To discover where time in practice was spent, the Survey asked veterinary surgeons to estimate the percentage of their time they had spent in 2001, are spending now and will spend in 2011, by species or type of work.

Not surprisingly, the trend for time spent on cats, rabbits, horses and practice management/admin was felt to be going up and that spent on dogs, cattle (both beef and dairy), sheep, poultry, meat hygiene and Local Veterinary Inspector work was estimated to be going down.

The findings from the Survey formed the starting point for a recent one-day Symposium at the RCVS - Postcards from the Future - where a group of speakers from the veterinary profession, together with those from the optical, dentistry and pharmaceutical fields, discussed how veterinary services might be delivered in the future. The event was the first step towards developing a strategic plan for the future of the veterinary profession.

The Survey was supported by Defra and the British Veterinary Association. The latter will use data from the Survey to help establish a stronger evidence base on the current state of veterinary services in rural Great Britain and the potential changes faced.

Initial findings from the 2006 Survey of the Profession were announced at the British Small Animal Veterinary Association Congress in April. The full report is now available to download. There have been a few small statistical changes since the early findings were announced, due to refinements made during data processing.

Download the full report (PDF file - 438Kb)