Dr. Hannah Jansen takes home the $1,000 prize.
By Andrew Joseph, Farms.com; Image courtesy of Grey Bruce Farmers’ Week
After the Ontario Veterinary College’s Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Class of 2023 had their convocation and veterinary oath ceremony, the Grey Bruce Farmers’ Week (GBFW) announced that Dr. Hannah Jansen is the recipient of its 2023 GBFW award.
The GBFW has an annual $1,000 prize it awards in conjunction with the University of Guelph (U of G)'s Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) to recognize new veterinarians entering food animal practices serving producers in Grey and Bruce Counties. The award recognizes the individual’s past accomplishments but also encourages their future contributions and commitment to the area’s rural communities.
Dr. Jansen grew up on a swine and cash crop farm outside of Seaforth, Ontario—a community of not quite 2,700 people in the municipality of Huron East, in Huron County. Other animals on the farm included horses, goats, backyard chickens, veal, a few beef cattle, and sheep. She loved growing up on a farm and getting to spend time caring for these animals.
She obtained her undergraduate degree in Nursing Science and graduated to work as a Registered Nurse for three years, where she worked in Tennessee first, then in Ontario. She loved the medicine and the people but missed working with the animals and the agriculture community. Dr. Jansen decided to bridge the gap between her interests and set her sights on veterinary school.
After taking some required courses, working at the U of G as a research technician, and taking some odd jobs as a farm hand, she was elated to be accepted to the veterinary program. As an aspiring vet, she never considered working with anything other than livestock in the agriculture community. She believed that she would work full-time as a swine vet.
She was swayed to broaden her scope of large animal medicine while shadowing throughout her second and third years at Blyth Vets. She enjoyed the herd and individual medicine that they provided to the other large animal species, including cattle, small ruminants, and horses.
Dr. Jansen is currently working four days a week at South West Ontario Veterinary Services, pursuing her dreams of working as a swine veterinarian working across Ontario, including farms in both Grey and Bruce counties. She is also working one day a week and sharing the on-call schedule at Blyth Veterinary Services, working predominantly in Huron and Bruce counties as a large animal veterinarian.
At both practices, she has enjoyed meeting the farmers and getting to know the various operations. As she starts her career, she hopes to be part of these farm teams, helping the farmers be economically successful and striving to provide the animals with the most humane care.
She has a special interest in applying a one-health approach to the veterinary care she provides due to her history working in the human health care field and her experiences on their farm. This approach uses a holistic approach to medicine by incorporating a human, animal, and environmental health perspective.