Nutrition Education in European Veterinary Schools: Are European Veterinary Graduates Competent in Nutrition?
Knowledge of nutrition is vital for veterinarians to inform owners about care of healthy pets and management of disease. Owners wish to have information from the veterinary health care team (VHT), and graduate veterinarians should be sufficiently educated to provide evidence-based information. Many veterinary practitioners feel that their veterinary school education in small-animal nutrition was insufficient. This survey presents the information on nutrition education in 63 European veterinary schools, including attitudes about teaching of nutrition, importance of nutrition, satisfaction of graduate performance and skills in nutrition, existing and required curriculum hours in nutrition, existing and required teaching staff, and barriers to achieving adequate teaching. The questionnaire was provided online to university deans and faculty members. The majority of schools felt that nutrition was important, but lacked staff numbers or knowledge to teach adequately. Many were also restricted by a crowded curriculum. Potential solutions include hiring a nutritionist, outsourcing nutrition education, and/or using online materials.
['Becvarova|Iveta|I|', 'Prochazka|Daniel|D|', 'Chandler|Marjorie L|ML|', 'Meyer|Hein|H|']
D053180:Animal Nutrition Sciences D000818:Animals D001290:Attitude D004520:Education, Veterinary D005060:Europe D005178:Faculty D012582:Schools, Veterinary D018634:Veterinarians
nutrition nutrition education veterinary school education veterinary curriculum