2025/06/11 by Tipsarp Kittisiam, Caroline Ritter, Emily Morabito +5 · 1 citation
Health Professions · Psychology · #Veterinary Practice and Education Studies #Emotional Intelligence and Performance #Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
paper · pdf · doi:10.1002/vetr.5599
BACKGROUND: Mental distress is a persistent and growing concern in the veterinary profession. The early-career period has been shown to be particularly challenging, which may threaten the longevity of the veterinarian's career. The highly emotional nature of veterinary work has been suggested to contribute to poor mental wellbeing. Emotional intelligence (EI) can help protect veterinarians from the negative effects of their career on their wellbeing. The objective of this study was to explore the emotional experiences of early-career veterinarians in clinical practice in Canada. METHODS: Twenty-one individual interviews with veterinarians who graduated between 2016 and 2023 were conducted over Zoom. The recordings were transcribed and analysed using template analysis. RESULTS: Three themes were identified in the analysis. First, client interactions were a source of emotional stress. Clients' financial stress and hostile comments exacerbated the participants' emotional distress. Second, most participants did not prioritise their emotional recognition and management. The veterinarians in this study indicated that having limited resources and time to process their emotions contributed to their lack of emotional recognition. Last, while participants appreciated EI as a skill, they described only selectively practising parts of EI, specifically empathy, which was perceived as the most relevant to client communication. LIMITATIONS: The results of this qualitative research are context specific. Readers are encouraged to carefully consider the context, research methodology and authors' positionality to make informed judgements on the application of the findings. CONCLUSION: Overall, the results highlight the impact of client interactions on veterinarians' emotional burden, veterinarians' shortcomings in self-emotional management, and opportunities to initiate or improve EI training. These findings suggest the need to explore ways to improve EI training, specifically in managing self-emotions, to enhance mental wellbeing in the profession.