The incidence of burn-out and compassion fatigue is becoming increasingly relevant among veterinary professionals as are the negative effects they can have on personal and professional wellbeing. For us to be the best veterinary professionals we can be, we must first take care of ourselves. J Gerontol Soc Work. Because they often invest themselves deeply in the animals they care for, veterinarians, technicians, and other members of an animal health team may be particularly vulnerable to compassion fatigue. J Am Assoc Lab Anim Sci. Physically, a person with burn-out may have changes in their sleeping pattern and will feel tired as simple tasks become exhausting. The self-caring nurse. Burnout and compassion fatigue continue to be hot topics in veterinary medicine, but many people don’t really understand the difference between them. Monaghan et al (2020) concluded that job demands for people caring for animals are an important risk factor for compassion fatigue. The health and wellbeing of veterinary professionals have increasingly become a focus for the industry in recent years. The survey was targeted to all veterinary nurses, with no mention of stress and compassion fatigue in the title to minimise selection bias. MA Healthcare Ltd Laura C Harvey Although it is difficult to identify a specific definition of compassion fatigue across the veterinary profession, in healthcare professions it can be described as the reduced capacity in being empathetic and the consequent behaviours and emotions resulting from knowing about a traumatising event experienced or suffered by a person (Scotney et al, 2015). Many New Zealand veterinary nurses consider a career change due to stress and compassion fatigue in the work place. endobj In one review article looking at recent studies, they found decreased absenteeism and lower patient mortality when occupational support was provided (Aycock and Boyle, 2009). This causes emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and low personal accomplishment (Schaufeli et al, 1996). stream The veterinary environment can be inherently stressful and demanding, and veterinary professionals often deal with moral dilemmas, euthanasia and end-of-life care. MA Healthcare Ltd These factors may place veterinary nurses at high risk of work-related stress, and compassion fatigue (Black et al, 2011). Burn-out can also change appetite habits and the person may feel sick more often than usual. Although the term "compassion fatigue" is often used interchangeably with the term "burnout", they are two different concepts. Please enable it to take advantage of the complete set of features! As well as providing methods to cope with stress, efforts should also be made to reduce stress to its lowest possible levels. This is evidenced in two recent informal surveys of veterinary nurses in Australia. By understanding how rumination, emotional labor and moral and ethical stress impact each of us, we can better understand how to self-manage, whether through tools like journaling or just sharing an experience with a close colleague. Respondents were not required to answer all the questions for their survey to be used in the final analysis. Studies have also shown that veterinarians are a high-risk group for suicide (Bartram et al, 2009; Bartram and Baldwin, 2010). This research demonstrates that veterinary nurses in New Zealand report a high incidence of stress and compassion fatigue in their lives due to their working environment. Concerns regarding compassion fatigue and burn-out in veterinary practice are steadily increasing. Few veterinary nurses had sought professional help, with most reporting the need for access to professional, industry-specific support. Emotionally, burn-out can make a person feel increasingly negative, helpless, dissatisfied and therefore, demotivated and detached from others. In fact, it was a nurse who coined the phrase “compassion fatigue,” which is widely accepted as a fitting term for this condition in veterinary medicine as well. Methods of coping by veterinary nurses included utilising mechanisms such as drugs and alcohol, and talking to family and colleagues. A 2010 graduate of Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine, he started working for Banfield Pet Hospital shortly after and quickly became a leader in his market, helping to onboard new associates and train paraprofessional staff. In contrast, research around the incidence and severity of stress and compassion fatigue within the veterinary nursing profession is still in its infancy, with limited data emerging in the past few years (Smith, 2016; Scotney et al, 2019). For us to be the best veterinary professionals we can be, we must first take care of ourselves. Compassion fatigue stems from an overcommitment to work that involves caring for others and is considered by some to be a kind of secondary posttraumatic stress disorder. In addition, the information surveys discussed by Hewson (2014) included a variety of participants who work with animals, including veterinarians, veterinary nurses, and research and animal shelter staff and although indicative of those experiencing compassion fatigue, a breakdown of results by profession would be required to be comparable to veterinary nurses as an independent group. Fortunately, we are seeing new programs introduced at veterinary medical colleges and professional organizations like the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) to ensure wellbeing is incorporated into curriculum and resources. <> Of those respondents that reported stress in the work environment (N = 188), 18% had often considered a new career path, and of those respondents that reported compassion fatigue (N = 189), 11% had often considered a different career path. Percentage of respondents and the incidence of considering a career change after experiencing stress or compassion fatigue. As there is a direct link between moral distress and compassion fatigue, these frameworks can encourage healthy veterinary–client relationships, and reduce the guilt and stress associated with end-of-life care and euthanasia. Amber Foote, BMC Vet Res. Moral distress can happen in any profession, however, a common example in the veterinary industry is euthanasia (Manette, 2004). A physician compared the … | (a) Percentage of respondents reporting an increase in consumption of drugs; and (b) alcohol and the other methods used by veterinary nurses to cope with stress or compassion fatigue. Banfield’s “Huddle for your Health” cards provide hospital leaders hands-on activities and discussion topics to bring health and wellbeing to life with their teams during daily huddles. Veterinary professionals are known to have perfectionist personality traits that can lead to working long hours, poor sleep patterns and as a consequence, lack of supportive relationships in the work and home environment (Crane et al, 2015; Armitage-Chan et al, 2016). The Health and Safety Executive's (HSE's) formal definition of work-related stress is: ‘The adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them at work’ (HSE, 2020). J Am Vet Med Assoc. Taking care of ourselves and showing support to our colleagues sets the tone for providing optimal patient care. Notably, compassion fatigue is usually secondary to burn-out if the person does not have the training, coping mechanism or support to identify and counteract these effects. Most respondents reported managing their stress and compassion fatigue by talking to colleagues or family. Figure 2. I have personally suffered through compassion fatigue—and still struggle with anxiety and depression on a weekly (and sometimes daily) basis. I’m sure many of you reading this remember a time when the phrase “compassion fatigue” was used as a label for what many of us experience while practicing, but meat on the bones of those discussions was lacking—and the resources we needed to help us. Get the latest research from NIH: https://www.nih.gov/coronavirus. FIGURE 1 is an example of a resource we created for our Banfield hospital teams, which we encourage them—and you—to use during daily huddles to ensure wellbeing is part of everyday conversations. Compassion fatigue is the combination of emotional, physical, psychological, and spiritual exhaustion and depletion that can result when we are repeatedly exposed to another’s pain and suffering. %���� As with many other mental health illnesses, it is common for those suffering with burn-out to turn to alcohol, drugs and self-medication as a coping mechanism. 2 0 obj Further investigation into combatable causal factors for stress as it differs from compassion fatigue is warranted to ultimately offer support to veterinary nurses to continue their vocation. I believe that the findings of this research are invaluable to clinics across the country. Thanks to sustained conversations and the normalizing of an issue and topic once thought taboo in our profession, I have had the opportunity to dig into the root causes of compassion fatigue, providing perspective on how I can best manage my stressors. Veterinary nurses are integral members of the veterinary team, contributing significantly to veterinary practice. Conceptual clarity is vital to curtail compassion fatigue via preventative and restorative measures at the individual and organizational level. Conclusion: As euthanasia against one's own morals is regarded as a significant factor to developing compassion fatigue, a carefully developed euthanasia policy can remove the need for veterinary professionals to engage in a stressful and divisive decision-making process. Questions were predominately multiple-choice or matrix questions, with some allowing for additional comments to be made. Dow et al's (2019) study showed that veterinarians were experiencing mild to severe psychological distress and compassion fatigue; a significant proportion of these veterinarians felt that their mental health was affected by dealing with clients grieving the loss of a companion animal. It’s the negative aspect of veterinary medicine, and, like it or not, it is a normal consequence of working in a helping profession. It could also help to change the way veterinary clinics are managed, in relation to workplace (national) initiatives to reduce the prevalence and severity of stress and compassion fatigue in veterinary nurses. Veterinary professionals who neglect their physical, emotional and physiological needs often find themselves suffering with burn-out, compassion fatigue and moral distress; it has been estimated that 67% of veterinarians are at high risk of burn-out (Brannick et al, 2015). Veterinary nurses were also asked to report the ways in which they cope with stress and compassion fatigue, and their likelihood of changing jobs. Copyright © 2020 Today's Veterinary Practice. Managing stress and avoiding burnout. A distinction between stress and compassion fatigue could be unnecessary for the provision of work-related support, however, definitions are necessary and important in identifying the type of support or programme requested by veterinary nurses.

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