When we talk about the future of veterinary medicine, we often talk about how many veterinarians we will need.
We should spend just as much time asking what kind of future those veterinarians will enter.
Will they be able to manage their educational debt? Find a first job where they can learn and grow? Serve a rural community? Buy a practice? Build a life with room for family, health, and interests beyond their work?
The recent preliminary AVMA findings on graduate debt, compensation, and employment make those questions urgent. Our response should give young colleagues something concrete to build on.
My vision is a profession where becoming a veterinarian opens doors, and where we work together to keep those doors open throughout a career.
That requires action in several connected areas.
Make the path into veterinary medicine more affordable.
We need a sustained partnership among veterinary colleges, organized veterinary medicine, government, and donors to address the cost of earning a veterinary degree.
That means examining educational costs, strengthening scholarship support, and advocating for public investment in veterinary education. Students should receive clear information about the full cost of attendance and realistic earnings across career paths before committing to that investment.
They also deserve access to independent financial guidance as their circumstances and repayment options change.
We should help students borrow wisely while working to reduce how much they need to borrow.
Make service financially possible.
A graduate who wants to care for livestock in a rural community should have a realistic path to doing so.
USDA’s Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program provides an existing model: eligible veterinarians receive help repaying qualifying educational debt in exchange for service in designated shortage situations.
We should advocate for broader support for effective service-linked repayment efforts and make them easier for eligible colleagues to find and navigate.
But recruitment must come with a plan for staying. Debt assistance should be paired with attention to practice viability, emergency coverage, mentorship, and relief support. Bringing a veterinarian into a community is only the beginning. We need conditions that allow that veterinarian to remain.
Make the first years of practice a supported transition.
A job offer should come with a clear plan for helping a new veterinarian succeed.
That plan can include a designated mentor, protected time to discuss cases, a realistic progression of responsibilities, and regular conversations about workload and compensation.
Mentorship takes time. Practice owners need tools and support to provide it well. The AVMA can work with state associations, educators, and employers to share practical approaches that fit different settings, including small and solo practices.
For a rural colleague, that might mean a regional mentoring relationship, scheduled remote case discussions, and dependable backup when a difficult situation arises.
Support should reach the places where another veterinarian is hardest to find.
Build earning potential through healthy practices and capable teams.
Sustainable compensation depends on sustainable workplaces.
As a practice owner, I want young veterinarians to earn a good living. I also understand the responsibility of meeting payroll, maintaining a hospital, and keeping care within reach for clients.
We should help practices improve scheduling, reduce unnecessary administrative work, and fully use the skills of credentialed veterinary technicians and other team members within their roles.
Those improvements should create room for better care, professional growth, and fair compensation. Employers should also make advancement expectations clear, so an associate understands how increasing experience and responsibility can translate into increased earnings.
Keep ownership within reach.
For colleagues who want to own a practice, we should preserve practical pathways to that goal.
Business education, access to qualified advisers, and connections between prospective buyers and retiring owners can help make ownership a more understandable option. Gradual transitions and associate buy-ins deserve attention where they fit the people and practice involved.
Ownership should remain a possibility a young veterinarian can explore with sound guidance and a realistic plan.
Give the work clear goals and public accountability.
The AVMA cannot set tuition, guarantee employment, or determine individual salaries. It can bring the right people together, advocate for policy, provide useful resources, and keep attention on results.
As a candidate for AVMA President-Elect, I would advocate for an agenda developed with recent graduates, practicing veterinarians, employers, educators, and state associations—with named responsibilities, timelines, and regular progress reports.
We should track debt relative to earnings, employment outcomes over time, retention in underserved communities, and access to meaningful mentorship. Preliminary findings should guide further investigation, and our approach should change as better evidence becomes available.
These priorities belong at the heart of Strengthening the Veterinary Workforce and Protecting the Future of Veterinary Medicine.
The future I envision is one in which a graduate can choose a career with confidence, an employer can support that colleague’s growth, and a community can depend on veterinary care.
That future will take sustained work from many people. The AVMA should help organize that work and keep it moving.
We ask a great deal of the people who enter veterinary medicine.
We should bring equal commitment to helping them succeed.
Leading together means building a future our next generation can afford to choose.
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About Isaac Bott
Dr. Isaac Bott is a practicing veterinarian, practice owner, researcher, and veterinary leader whose career spans clinical medicine, theriogenology, business ownership, organized veterinary medicine, and national service. As a candidate for AVMA President-Elect, he brings a practical, service-minded perspective shaped by years of hands-on practice, scientific research, and leadership within the profession.