Surveys Reveal Mental Health Challenges Facing Veterinarians at Work

The shortage of veterinarians in several countries has, among its causes, people leaving the profession, and research has indicated increased levels of mental ill health and suicide rates described as alarming among practitioners. Four surveys published between 2023 and 2024, in four countries, measure different parts of that picture and converge on one point: there are modifiable factors, and not all of them sit inside the person.

Moral distress, the anguish of knowing what would be right to do and being unable to do it, was measured in 1,919 veterinarians who are members of the Veterinary Information Network, in a study published in 2023 in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. Gender and age were significant predictors: younger female veterinarians reported higher levels than older male veterinarians. Controlling for age and gender, for both associates and practice owners, higher moral distress predicted lower professional fulfilment and higher work exhaustion, interpersonal disengagement and burnout. The authors consider it imperative that the field provide training on how to recognise and navigate ethical conflicts.

A study published in 2023 in the Australian Veterinary Journal asked whether the focus should be the individual or the organisation. With 73 Australian veterinarians, it assessed the impact of eleven modifiable workplace factors on mental health outcomes, job appreciation and intention to leave. Unfavourable factors correlated with depression, stress, reduced job appreciation and increased likelihood of leaving both the role and the profession, and the association held after controlling for individual resilience. Two categories stood out for their association with better psychological outcomes: breaks from workload and control or decision latitude. For the authors, resilience is an area for intervention, but workplace factors are potentially easier to modify. The sample size is an obvious limitation.

Unlike a physician, a veterinarian may care for a patient from conception to end of life, and that closeness makes the team more exposed to bad outcomes. A study published in December 2023 in Veterinary Sciences assessed the emotional impact of patient death on 549 Brazilian veterinarians, 78.3% women, through a 20-item questionnaire. Women reported being more affected than men both by the animal's death and by talking to the owner about it. The impact was heavily influenced by the number of animals euthanised and varied with age: veterinarians over 50 were less affected than those aged 31 to 40. The most direct finding for education: 91.0% of respondents received no training on dealing with grief during their degree, and those who had reported being less affected. The authors conclude that such training, aimed at preparing future veterinarians for death and its communication, is lacking and necessary.

The largest study, published in 2024 in Scientific Reports, gave 1,556 Italian veterinarians aged 24 to 74 measures of exposure to animal euthanasia, substance abuse, reflective functioning (the capacity to understand one's own and others' behaviour in terms of mental states) and suicidal ideation. Structural equation modelling showed that failures in reflective functioning and substance abuse were associated with suicidal ideation. The recommendation is prevention programmes that improve reflective functioning and reduce substance abuse.

Read together, the four papers describe concrete targets for schools, employers and professional bodies: training in applied ethics and in communicating death, work organised with breaks and autonomy, and prevention programmes focused on reflective functioning and substance use. If you or someone close to you is struggling, seek help: in Brazil, the CVV helpline answers on 188, 24 hours a day, and other countries have equivalent services.