title: Demographic survey of veterinarians employed in western Canada.
abstract: The objective of this study was to generate demographic data on veterinarians working in western Canada. A sample of 551 veterinarians was randomly selected from a population of 2474 veterinarians employed in western Canada, 425 (77.1%) of whom responded to the survey. The respondents were evenly split between males (53.1%) and females (46.9%). More than half (58.0%) of the private practitioners practised exclusively on companion animals (small animals and horses), while 2.9% devoted 100% of their time to food animals. There were 351 respondents who had had > or = 2 employers since graduation; 80% of those who had begun their careers in companion animal (CA) practice had remained in this type of practice, while 54.3% of those who had begun their careers in mixed animal practice had switched to CA practice. Analyses of wage and workload data from 85 full-time veterinary employees showed that CA practitioners worked the fewest hours/week (47.0), had the least number of evenings on-call/month (3.7), and earned the highest hourly wage (35.79 dollars) as compared with non-CA practitioners.
authors.affiliation: Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5B4, Canada. murray.jelinski@usask.ca
authors.forename: Murray D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Jelinski
authors.forename: John R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.forename: Jonathan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Naylor
authors.forename: Karen L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Lawson
authors.forename: Dena
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Derkzen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic; D002170:Canada; D002321:Career Choice; D003710:Demography; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005523:Food Supply / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012456:Salaries and Fringe Benefits / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017678:Sex Distribution; D018634:Veterinarians / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014730:Veterinary Medicine; D000078329:Workforce; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*