Resources

Veterinary professionals experience higher psychological distress and lower wellbeing compared with the general population. Identifying workplace stressors is key to understanding and alleviating these difficulties.

Although the issue of high mental health burden among veterinarians is well-documented in previous studies, little is known about the specific occupational stress factors associated with mental health issues. Therefore, the aims of this study were twofold: (1) to assess occupational stress factors within the veterinary profession, with a particular emphasis on comparing the expectations of veterinary students with the experiences of practicing veterinarians and (2) to link the experienced stress with mental health indicators in veterinarians.

In veterinary medicine, the relationship between empathy and mental health presents a complex and important aspect of professional well-being. Veterinarians are frequently exposed to numerous work-related stressors and are therefore more likely to experience mental health disorders and commit suicide.

Various stressors contribute to veterinary students' stress levels. According to the medical education literature, students' stress seems to increase during clinical training, but research investigating this in veterinary students is scarce.

The study set out to identify the benefits for veterinary workers of structured daily well-being practices on compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress. Suggested origins of high rates of psychological stress and burnout are significant occupational concerns for veterinary workers.

Investigations by the Competition and Markets Authority into the veterinary sector have highlighted the cost of veterinary care. This paper examines the changing attitudes of early career vets towards these costs.

Research has identified that members of the veterinary profession are at high risk of occupational stress, burnout, poor psychological wellbeing and an elevated rate of suicide. Although scholarly interest in veterinarians has increased in recent years, relatively few studies have specifically examined the emotional work in veterinary interactions and what effect dealing with companion animal owners' grief has on the wellbeing of veterinarians. The purpose of this study was to determine if dealing with bereaved clients affected the psychological wellbeing of veterinarians. The concept of compassion fatigue was explored, including whether veterinarians believed that their training had equipped them for communicating with grieving clients.

Veterinarians have been identified as being at particularly high risk of stress in the workplace, this predisposes them to anxiety, depression and suicide. Previous quantitative studies have identified causes of stress and common coping strategies used by veterinarians. The current research aimed to gain a deeper understanding of the experience of veterinarian stress and ways of coping using qualitative methods.