Rural Illinois is experiencing a shortage of veterinarians.
Dr. Nicole Johnson of Pekin is president of the Illinois State Veterinary Medicine Association and says in addition to the number of veterinarians reaching retirement age, new graduates are finding corporate veterinary jobs to be more lucrative – and those jobs skew toward bigger cities.
You have heard of stories in which people in a small town send someone to medical school in exchange for a commitment to serve that community after graduation. Well, it can be the same for veterinarians.
“There is a veterinary medicine loan repayment program,” said Johnson. “This is an opportunity for qualified veterinarians to reduce their educational debt by agreeing to provide professional veterinary services for three years in designated high-priority veterinary shortage programs throughout the United States.”
Johnson says veterinary schools have all they can handle; the challenge is to get enough graduates into private practice and into rural areas.
And her advice to aspiring vets: remember that every animal has at least one human being attached to it.