Workplace stressor factors, profiles and the relationship to career stage in UK veterinarians, veterinary nurses and students

Background 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.

Objective Identify the severity of workplace stressors in veterinary professions across different levels of professional experience.

Method A cross-sectional quantitative design was utilised via administration of a veterinary stressor questionnaire that measured the severity of 93 generic and veterinary-specific workplace stressors.

Results A total of 658 participants reported stressor severity score. Factor analysis revealed four main stressor categories: workload and job demands, client relations stress, performance and accountability, patient care challenges. An inverse relationship was found between experience level and stressor severity scores. Furthermore, the most severe stressors varied as a function of career stage.

Findings and implications Stressor severity tends to decrease with increasing experience levels. Stressors can be categorised by theme and unique stressor profiles can be derived for practitioners according to experience level. This knowledge can assist in the design and delivery of workplace support initiatives.

Conclusions Identify key stressors across different levels of experience is important in focusing efforts to support people in the workplace.