What Supports Students' Well-Being? Insights From Veterinary Learners at an Australian University.

Abstract

Interventions that support well-being while educating future veterinarians are widely reported and embedded within most veterinary curricula. A key challenge for educators is understanding which interventions veterinary students are most likely to engage with and how these can be effectively embedded within the curriculum. At the University of Sydney, well-being support is provided through university services and is explicitly integrated into the curriculum. Our objective was to explore this for DVM students at the University of Sydney as part of a curriculum review. A cross-sectional anonymous, online survey was distributed to all currently enrolled DVM students over 5 weeks during semester 1 in 2025. Response rate was 26.4% (n = 142). DVM year had a significant effect on engagement with university mentor services (p = .03); perceived barriers to accessing external well-being interventions, including time (p = .03) and location (p = .04); overall satisfaction with well-being curriculum (p = .04); desire for more career management learning (p = .03); and likely engagement with a novel pet therapy program (p = .05). International students were significantly more likely than domestic students to engage with university mental health services (p < .01) and to report lower preference scores for additional time management learning (p = .03). Students indicated a high likelihood of engagement with food-based well-being interventions (mode = 5). Findings suggest that students' preferences for school-supported well-being interventions vary across degree stage. Further research is needed to inform development of targeted well-being initiatives that maximize student engagement.