As an early career veterinarian, your primary focus is likely in the clinic. But your capacity to care and make an impact extends far beyond the practice walls. Connecting with your community is an incredible way to serve others and realize the full potential of your skills, knowledge, and compassion. By looking beyond your clinical duties, you’ll find powerful—sometimes unexpected—ways to strengthen the human-animal bond, support animal welfare, build trusting relationships with your neighbors, and make a profound difference in the lives of pets and their people.
Here are seven rewarding ways you can support your community, no matter your experience level, and learn how giving back can benefit everyone involved.
1: Speak at school events
Is there anything better than an audience of elementary schoolers hanging on your every word?
If, like me, you experienced an early calling to veterinary medicine, you’ll remember the wonder, inspiration, and excitement you felt around all things animal. But, if not, you will still enjoy the thrill of a child’s eyes lighting up when you tell them about life as a veterinarian. School presentations reach the community further when children go home and encourage their parents to take the family pet to the vet.
Side note—I’ve gained many unexpected new clients this way!
2: Offer house call services for seniors and home-bound pet owners
Leaving home can be extremely challenging for many senior and disabled pet owners and adding the difficulties of pet transportation make a veterinary visit nearly impossible. Low-cost or free house call services can bridge the gap for this population, allowing their pets to receive basic wellness care while you gift their owners with education and simple, yet valuable, human connection and social interaction. Suggest that your employer offer this service as a practice charity or consider partnering with a local pet welfare charity or shelter to bring this idea to life.
3: Organize a pet food drive or pantry
Pet food costs have skyrocketed in recent years, putting many devoted pet owners in a difficult position. A neighborhood pet food drive and distribution event helps more dogs and cats stay in their homes and out of shelters. This can be a great one-off endeavor, but you likely will be surprised to find that your community is filled with generous donors, eager volunteers, and appreciative pet owners who want to make it a recurring—and deeply rewarding—event!
4: Host pet first aid and CPR training events
Pet safety events are great for connecting with and serving your community. Attendees receive vital—and accurate—pet health information and a sense of empowerment that will last throughout their pet’s life. During these interactive events, pet owners can engage with a veterinarian outside the structure and stress of a normal veterinary visit, which can foster greater trust and create opportunities for valuable conversation.
5: Serve on a disaster relief team or animal welfare task force
Participating in a disaster relief team or animal welfare task force can be impactful in helping pets and people in need. These hard-working teams will appreciate your fresh knowledge and enthusiasm as you help them address urgent medical needs, provide critical emergency care, and support community recovery efforts in various emotionally and sometimes physically challenging situations. By volunteering your skills for this emotionally difficult, yet deeply rewarding work, you’ll not only gain valuable experience but also contribute to the well-being of animals and communities in times of crisis. Plus, you will foster stronger bonds between veterinary professionals and the public.
6: Provide free care for service animals
Service animals (i.e., those trained to assist an individual with a physical or psychological disability, as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act) provide greater independence and confidence to their owner. Giving back to these amazing animals and the owners they serve with free wellness care can ensure the animals stay healthy and fit for duty. Determine whether local guide dog or service animal training organizations have a veterinary care program already in place where you can volunteer, or start your own. Involve your practice by soliciting donated vaccines and/or supplies.
7: Participate in a veterinary mission or service trip
If you’re ready to go beyond your neighborhood and impact the global community, veterinary service trips and missions may be for you. In most of the world’s developing regions, veterinary care is scarce or nonexistent. Organizations such as Veterinarians Without Borders U.S., Christian Veterinary Mission, and WorldVets, as well as many smaller non-profit groups, have ongoing field projects around the world, providing essential medical treatment, community education, and enhanced welfare to areas with limited resources. Volunteering to take your skills across the globe and touch the lives of perfect strangers and their pets, united only by a shared love of animals, is perhaps the most compassionate, authentic display of what being a veterinarian truly means.
As veterinarians, we tend to get fixated on what happens inside the exam room, treatment area, or surgical suite, and we forget how our skills and abilities can impact the world beyond the clinic doors—one person or pet at a time. Community outreach isn’t merely the right thing to do—it’s a critical opportunity to correct public misperceptions, establish ourselves as compassionate caregivers, protect our well-being and passion for vet med, and be proactive about critical issues, such as pet welfare and public health.
I’m so excited and inspired by how Ready, Vet, Go mentees, mentors, and student liaisons are involved in their communities—locally and globally—and I can’t wait to see what they do next. How will you be serving your community? Get in touch and let me know!
Ready, Vet, Go Veterinary Mentorship is an innovative online program and community that helps new and early career veterinarians build confidence, gain independence, and experience greater joy. Visit our FAQ page to learn more about what we offer or get in touch with our team.