Welcome, I'm Dr. Michelle Colby, the
National Program Leader for Animal
Biosecurity and I will be talking to you
today about the process of choosing a
veterinary shortage situation area for
interested applicants to the Veterinary
Medicine Loan Repayment Program or VMLRP.
This webinar will cover the following
items, a brief introduction to the
Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment
Program or VMLRP, an overview of the
veterinary shortage situation areas
which applicants apply to fill, the
veterinary shortage situation area map,
nomination forms, and special
considerations for choosing a veterinary
shortage situation area.
Before we begin with the overview of the
veterinary shortage situation, a brief
overview of the VMLRP itself. The VMLRP
was authorized by the National
Veterinary Medicine Medical Services Act
NVMSA and helps qualified veterinary,
veterinarians offset a significant
portion of the debt incurred in pursuit
of their veterinary medic, medicine
degrees in return for their services in
certain high priority veterinary
shortage situations. NIFA administers a
portion of the NVMSA by entering into
educational loan repayment agreements
with veterinarians who agree to provide
veterinary services
in shortage situations for a determined
period of time.
The mlrp awardees commit to at least
three years of veterinary services in a
designated veterinary shortage area
and in return NIFA repays up to twenty
five thousand
dollars of student loan debt per year, or
a maximum of seventy five thousand
dollars for a three-year award.
The program is designed to alleviate
high need areas for food animal
veterinary medicine across the United
States and insular areas.
As such qualifying individuals who apply
to VMLRP fulfill the needs of a specific
veterinary shortage situation.
Identifying areas experiencing shortages
of food animal veterinary services is
one of the primary goals of the VMLRP.
Therefore at the beginning of each
fiscal year the VMLRP solicits
nominations of veterinary shortage
situations by state animal health
officials or SAHOs.
Each state the federal government, the
District of Columbia and U.S insular
areas are allocated a maximum number of
shortage nominations for submission. NIFA
determines the maximum number to
allocate to each entity based on the
data from the most recent USDA National
Agricultural Statistics Service Census
of Agriculture.
The reasoning behind the use and
development of the allocation table
is provided in the allocation table and
rationale webpage, which can be found on
the VMLRP webpage. NIFA accepts all
veterinary shortage area nominations
after a non-competitive review by a
panel of food animal veterinary medical
professionals.
Each veterinary shortage nomination
provides details of the geographic area
where veterinary services are needed,
agricultural species that must and may
be served, and specific activities
related to the must and may serve species.
Each year we update the map on our web
page that includes all veterinary
shortage situation areas eligible for
application in a given fiscal year. We
will provide more detail regarding how
to navigate our veterinary shortage
situation map to find detailed
information.
Within the applicant section of the
VMLRP website you will see a link for
the map of designated veterinary
shortage situations.
All shaded states or blocks have
designated shortage areas for the
selected fiscal year.
States or blocks that are not shaded do
not have a designated veterinary
shortage situation.
This does not necessarily mean that
there does not exist a shortage
situation within that state, but that no
shortage situation nominations were
submitted by the SAHO.
You can access the shortage situations
for a state in one of two ways, either by
clicking on the shaded area of the map.
or by using the filter located below the
map, entering the state to filter by and
selecting apply.
No matter which technique you use, the
map will not change but the table below
will list the shortage areas that match
your search criteria.
Here you can see that Arkansas is
selected and highlighted red and the
year selected is 2021.
When you select a state, a table will
appear below the map. This is where you
will find details about the shortage
situations in any state. For complete
information about a shortage area, you
should read the entire shortage
nomination form which was submitted by
the SAHO and approved by NIFA.
Each veterinary shortage area has a
corresponding nomination form. To view
the complete shortage description, open
the pdf link in the right most column
labeled nomination form.
All veterinary shortage
areas have unique needs based on the
locality and in the species served. The
nomination form details the specified
need in a shortage situation.
This is an image of what the nomination
form pdf will look like when you open it.
The first page of the nomination form
details the counties that require
service, the approximate center of the
shortage area, the priority level of the
shortage area, and either the must cover
and may cover species, or the types of
public practice.
The first page of the nomination form
contains an optional box at the bottom
where SAHOs can elect to designate a
higher than the minimum percent
full-time equivalent or FTE for the
shortage nomination.
Be sure to check this box and ensure you
are addressing the appropriate service
commitment in your application.
The second page of the nomination form
contains answers to four questions.
The first question addresses the
importance and objectives of a
veterinarian filling the shortage. The
next question addresses the activities
and services the veterinarian should
provide.
The third question addresses past
recruitment issues, and the last question
addresses the consequences to public
health and or the food supply if the
shortage is not filled.
On the last page of the nomination form
you will find the contact information
for the SAHO,
SAHO who submitted the nomination.
If you have questions about specific
services opportunities or activities
required for a shortage area, you may
contact the SAHO for additional
information.
Each section of the nomination form
offers details that an applicant should
consider before applying. Be sure to
review the shortage nomination form
carefully before you select a shortage
area to serve.
Consider what area is the best match for
you.
Consider how a particular area aligns
with your personal goals and values.
Is there opportunity for professional
satisfaction?
Is there opportunity for professional
success?
Will a business thrive in this area? Keep
in mind that if you are
selected for an award and you accept, you
will be required to serve in this area
for three years.
Each applicant may submit only one
application for one shortage situation.
Each shortage situation is limited to
only one award.
The VMLRP is a competitive program. There
is no way to know how many applicants
will be applying to fill the shortage
situation you select until after the
deadline.
There are two requirements for an
applicant to receive an award offer from
the VMLRP.
First, an applicant has to be ranked
above the overall funding cutoff line by
the external peer review panel,
which is mainly based on avail, on the
availability of Congressionally
appropriated funds.
Second, unless otherwise
indicated in the nomination form, each
shortage situation is limited to only
one award, thus an application also has
to be ranked the highest among all
applications identifying the same
designated veterinary shortage situation
in order to receive an award offer. In
other words, it is possible for an
application to be ranked above the
funding cut off by the review panel but
not be offered an award.
In other words, you may be competing with
multiple applicants for the same area, so
be strategic in selecting an area that
matches your goals and experience.
There is no obligation to place a
certain number of veterinarians in each
state or region.
As such, each applicant is competing
nationally against all other applicants
for available awards.
Each year SAHOs nominate veterinary
shortage areas. If you do not see an area
that you believe is in need, you can
always contact the SAHO and discuss
this potential shortage area with them.
They may or may not consider the area to
be nominated the following year. Lastly,
it is important to note that SAHOs
cannot submit a new nomination once they
are posted for a given fiscal year.
We encourage you to contact us if you
have questions. Our VMLRP team is a
resource for you. We truly enjoy
connecting with applicants and welcome
the opportunity to answer your questions,
meet with you virtually, or speak with
you over the phone. We are available upon
request. For application questions,p lease
feel free to reach out via email at
VMLRP.applications@
usda.gov or use the contact information
located in the request for application.
Thank you.
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