Investigating Job Satisfaction in Iowa Veterinary Clinics

Abstract

A veterinary medicine career has many stressors, including low wages, long hours, client complaints, management responsibilities, euthanasia procedures, educational debt, and poor work-life balance. With these stressors, veterinary professionals are at high risk for burnout, compassion fatigue, depression, and suicidal ideations. Our aim with this study was to investigate the prevalence of these conditions within Iowa veterinary clinics. We sent a survey to over 400 clinics to collect information using three widely used, standardized survey tools: the ProQOL 5, PHQ-9, and SBQ-R. We also included questions about demographics, job-related factors, and job satisfaction. We received and analyzed a total of 94 responses. We found no support to indicate different levels of burnout, compassion satisfaction, or secondary traumatic stress between veterinarians and support staff, but support staff was found to have increased levels of depression and suicidal ideations compared to veterinarians. Based on this data, we believe that both veterinarians and support staff have elevated levels of burnout, depression, and suicidal ideations, but support staff suffers from higher levels. Despite this, Iowa veterinary professionals remain compassionate about their work and desire to stay in the veterinary medicine field.