21 Sept 2021
Mental health survey conducted by the RCVS Mind Matters Initiative reveals 96% of respondents agree that bullying and incivility are serious problems.
Joshua Silverwood
Job Title
A mental health survey has shown that the overwhelming majority of vet nurse graduates believe bullying to be a serious problem in the profession.
The RCVS Mind Matters Initiative (MMI) surveyed more than 650 vet nurse graduates and found that 96% of respondents agreed bullying and incivility are serious problems.
Responses also showed that 70% of vet nurse students, recent graduates and clinical coaches had personally experienced a mental health concern, and only half had received support for their issue. It also found that 82% believed that veterinary nursing is a stressful career.
The study was carried out by the MMI in a bid to address the current research gap in the mental well-being of those working across the veterinary nursing profession.
Participants were asked questions regarding a range of well-being issues, including the level and quality of support they had previously been supplied with, as well as factors such as stress, discrimination or bullying in both work and educational settings.
The study also found that 20% of respondents had witnessed or experienced discrimination in an educational setting and one-third of those had seen or experienced discrimination in practices.
Only 18% believed the vet nurse profession was regarded as “well-respected” and 51% felt positive about their future in vet nursing.
The same study did indicate a high amount of awareness within the profession on how to access mental health support, with 75% confirming they knew where to access support and 70% saying their clinical coach was similarly supportive.
The full findings of the survey will be revealed at the upcoming MMI Student Veterinary Nurse Wellbeing Discussion Forum, taking place on Wednesday 3 November.
Lisa Quigley, MMI manager, said: “A number of our survey findings are extremely concerning – particularly the high levels of bullying, incivility and discrimination reported by participants.
“We conducted the survey with the intention of finding out more about what systemic issues across workplace practices were impacting on the profession’s mental health.
“We want to thank everyone who took part and shared their experiences with us. There were some upsetting accounts shared with us about experiences of bullying and discrimination – no one should go through this at any point in their life, let alone at their place of work.”
Ms Quigley went on to say that decisive action is needed to be taken to tackle the issue, and the survey findings would be used to inform the MMI’s future resources and training.
She added: “Supporting the well-being of veterinary nurses and student veterinary nurses is one of our key priorities, and will be part of all future MMI activities.
“I would encourage as many veterinary nurses and student veterinary nurses as possible to attend the upcoming Student Veterinary Nurse Wellbeing Discussion Forum and our session at BVNA Congress to have your voice heard about what steps need to be taken to improve the mental well-being of the profession.”
