Vast majority of vets feel personally appreciated by clients – survey

Most vets in the UK and elsewhere feel personally appreciated by their clients – but believe the wider profession’s work is not.

Boehringer Ingelheim commissioned a survey with Kynetec with vets in the UK, US, France, Germany, Brazil and Japan.

Overall, 49% of vets asked said their profession was appreciated as a whole, with the figure greater among livestock vets (55%), but 75% said they did feel personally appreciated by their client base.

Appreciation

In the UK, 40.6% said their profession was valued and 78.8% felt personally appreciated by their client base.

Among livestock vets, the figures were higher for value of the profession (63.8%) than among companion animal vets (32%), and 87.2% of farm vets said they felt personally appreciated by clients versus 72% among small animal vets.

Across all vets in the UK, most (64.7%) felt clients did not understand the resilience to stress and emotional exhaustion that were part of the job, 60.6% said clients did not realise they worked despite feeling physically exhausted and 59.4% reported an underappreciation of the impact their work had on work-life balance.

Raise awareness

Fabio Paganini, member of the global animal health executive committee at Boehringer Ingelheim, said: “Understanding the reasons why veterinarians feel their profession is underappreciated, raising awareness of often unseen and complex aspects of veterinary work and, most importantly, showing veterinary professionals that we recognise their essential work, is an important first step.

“As a veterinarian myself, I know that there is so much to love about this job. Together, we can showcase the relentless dedication, the genuine compassion and the scientific know-how it takes to work as a veterinarian. It truly is a vocation to aspire to.”

Kynetec surveyed 1,056 in the six countries, with 170 from the UK.