{"title":"Education necessity for veterinary-producer relationship creation and sustainability: a mixed method study.","authors":"Nicola L Ritter, Molly Gonzales, Glennon Mays","doi":"10.3389/fvets.2025.1521440","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>To identify barriers to veterinarian-producer partnerships and suggest collaborative applied education as a means to enhance economic efficiency and sustainability of small and medium livestock operations and rural veterinary practices.</p><p><strong>Materials and methods: </strong>A participatory needs assessment, exploring the willingness and barriers to producer-veterinarian partnerships to enhance small/medium livestock operations, was distributed to Texas producers and veterinarians. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected via online, closed-ended survey questions and free response interviews. Responses were analyzed using SPSS and <i>HyperRESEARCH</i> to identify relevant terms, ideas, patterns, or themes.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Similar responses from 115 veterinarians and 58 producers revealed five major themes regarding relationship barriers: time, financial challenges, communication, competing perspectives, and respect. Overall producers reported greater willingness to partner in all areas, health care (90%), to achieve goals (80%), and to expand business (70%), than veterinarians. Veterinarian interviews revealed a need for increased animal health education among producers, while more than 60% of producers expressed high interest in continuing education on animal health topics.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Veterinarians and producers experience similar barriers to establishing partnerships. Both groups also recognize a need for education and prefer in-person collaborative learning communities Such educational opportunities can encourage formal veterinary-producer partnerships and provide solutions that enhance the economic efficiency and sustainability of small/medium livestock operations.</p>","PeriodicalId":12772,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Veterinary Science","volume":"12 ","pages":"1521440"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12045065/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Frontiers in Veterinary Science","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2025.1521440","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"VETERINARY SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Objectives: To identify barriers to veterinarian-producer partnerships and suggest collaborative applied education as a means to enhance economic efficiency and sustainability of small and medium livestock operations and rural veterinary practices.
Materials and methods: A participatory needs assessment, exploring the willingness and barriers to producer-veterinarian partnerships to enhance small/medium livestock operations, was distributed to Texas producers and veterinarians. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected via online, closed-ended survey questions and free response interviews. Responses were analyzed using SPSS and HyperRESEARCH to identify relevant terms, ideas, patterns, or themes.
Results: Similar responses from 115 veterinarians and 58 producers revealed five major themes regarding relationship barriers: time, financial challenges, communication, competing perspectives, and respect. Overall producers reported greater willingness to partner in all areas, health care (90%), to achieve goals (80%), and to expand business (70%), than veterinarians. Veterinarian interviews revealed a need for increased animal health education among producers, while more than 60% of producers expressed high interest in continuing education on animal health topics.
Discussion: Veterinarians and producers experience similar barriers to establishing partnerships. Both groups also recognize a need for education and prefer in-person collaborative learning communities Such educational opportunities can encourage formal veterinary-producer partnerships and provide solutions that enhance the economic efficiency and sustainability of small/medium livestock operations.
期刊介绍：
Frontiers in Veterinary Science is a global, peer-reviewed, Open Access journal that bridges animal and human health, brings a comparative approach to medical and surgical challenges, and advances innovative biotechnology and therapy.
Veterinary research today is interdisciplinary, collaborative, and socially relevant, transforming how we understand and investigate animal health and disease. Fundamental research in emerging infectious diseases, predictive genomics, stem cell therapy, and translational modelling is grounded within the integrative social context of public and environmental health, wildlife conservation, novel biomarkers, societal well-being, and cutting-edge clinical practice and specialization. Frontiers in Veterinary Science brings a 21st-century approach—networked, collaborative, and Open Access—to communicate this progress and innovation to both the specialist and to the wider audience of readers in the field.
Frontiers in Veterinary Science publishes articles on outstanding discoveries across a wide spectrum of translational, foundational, and clinical research. The journal''s mission is to bring all relevant veterinary sciences together on a single platform with the goal of improving animal and human health.
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