Compassion fatigue in animal care workers.

Abstract

Similar to human services professionals working with traumatized individuals, animal care workers also report experiences of secondary trauma. For animal care workers, the literature examines secondary trauma effects through concepts such as compassion fatigue, burnout, moral stress, and perpetration-induced traumatic stress. Research suggests that veterinarians and veterinary technicians/assistants and staff suffer from compassion fatigue and burnout. The current article reports results from a survey of 2,878 animal care workers in the United States, where potential risk and protective factors for compassion fatigue were examined using multiple regression analysis. There was a high level of compassion fatigue for both veterinarians and nonveterinary staff. The strongest risk factors for compassion fatigue were degree of exposure to cruelty and neglect cases and degree of stress from performing euthanasia. Best practices for healthy management of compassion fatigue in animal care workers are discussed, and organizational practices that help mitigate it are recommended.

Laboratory Animal Welfare Meets Human Welfare: A Cross-Sectional Study of Professional Quality of Life, Including Compassion Fatigue in Laboratory Animal Personnel

“…First of all, burnout was higher in individuals working more hours per week. As this is a known risk factor for burnout this is to be expected (27). Second, burnout was higher in individuals working at a university in comparison to a contract research organization.…”

“…Euthanasia Surprisingly, personnel who euthanized animals more frequently (e.g., daily vs. monthly) did not consistently report higher levels of compassion fatigue; there was no association between these two factors. Previously, more frequent euthanasia was identified as a risk factor for veterinary, animal control, and related professionals (27). However, euthanasia in the laboratory may be characteristically different from euthanasia in an animal shelter or hospital.…”

Veterinary Technicians and Occupational Burnout

“…In addition, a loss of autonomy and decreased control over the work environment have been found to be common factors leading to burnout (15). Factors found to contribute to burnout in veterinarians include excessive workload and work hours, on-call duties, limited resources, workplace conflicts, and the unique challenges that come with euthanasia (7,(16)(17)(18)(19)(20). Additional stressors for veterinary professionals include unrealistic expectations from pet owners, situations where they need to balance the affordability of treatment with the provision of high quality care, and low income paired with high debt load (12, [21][22][23][24].…”

“…More recently, studies have explored the role of enabling resources that may enhance worker engagement, meaningful work and well-being while reducing feelings of burnout and compassion fatigue (25)(26)(27). Work factors that appear to mitigate burnout, for physicians and veterinarians alike, include schedule control, opportunities for professional development and the use of skills and knowledge, the ability to develop and use their skills, respect from colleagues, and a feeling of satisfaction with one's position/job (4,16,18). Cake et al (25) proposed that animal care workers' opportunities for self-actualization may result from applying their specialized skills and knowledge to meeting the challenges of their work and that self-actualizing work may enhance their engagement, feelings of accomplishment and personal growth as well contribute to a sense of being involved in meaningful work.…”

The Impact of Caring and Killing on Physiological and Psychometric Measures of Stress in Animal Shelter Employees: A Pilot Study

“…A recent study suggested that annual incidence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in animal shelter employees is five times higher than the national average [ 3 ]. Along with PTSD, animal shelter employees often suffer from secondary traumatic stress (STS) [ 4 ]. STS is the reaction occurring in caregivers resulting from prolonged exposure to the stress associated with helping or wanting to help traumatized or suffering victims and differs from PTSD only in actual exposure to trauma [ 5 , 6 ].…”