Burnout in the veterinary profession is a serious issue, with approximately 1 in 3 veterinary professionals having thought about leaving the field due to burnout and poor mental health.

 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) along with the Dr Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation—an organization focused on reducing burnout among health care professionals—developed a guide to help hospital leaders make changes to improve professional wellbeing.

The guide, titled the ‘Impact Wellbeing Guide: Taking Action to Improve Healthcare Worker Wellbeing,’ contains 6 actions hospital leaders and executives can take to improve the professional wellbeing of health care workers and hospital operations. For each action, the CDC includes the action’s purpose, key concept, and resources for hospital leaders to download, including charts, worksheets, outlines, sample emails, and more.

The following are the 6 actions, which are evidence-based, according to the CDC

Conduct a review of the hospital’s operations to determine how they support professional wellbeing.

Build a dedicated team to support professional wellbeing.

Break down barriers to seeking help, such as updating and removing intrusive mental health questions on credentialing applications and offering confidential mental health support options.

Develop a suite of communication tools that share updates with employees about the hospital’s journey to improve professional wellbeing.

Integrate professional wellbeing measures into an existing quality improvement project.

Create a 12-month plan to continue to move the professional wellbeing work forward.

“NIOSH’s Impact Wellbeing Guide provides action steps for identifying and addressing operational-level improvements needed to support long-lasting solutions and professional wellbeing for every member of the health care team,” Jen Brandt, PhD, director of member wellbeing and diversity initiatives at the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), said in a news report.

According to the CDC, the most effective approach to reducing burnout and supporting health care workers’ wellbeing is addressing workplace policies and practices.

 “Traditional approaches for addressing workplace stress, burnout, and wellbeing have often focused on personal responsibility and individual level interventions e.g., practice better self-care, increase your resilience, take a yoga class,” Brandt continued. “Seldom do individual-level approaches address root causes to workplace wellbeing challenges.”

The guide was in released in March and tested by hospital leaders from 6 United States hospitals. Moreover, it was developed with input from professional organizations, academic institutions, unions, and federal agencies, according to the AVMA.

The guide complements NIOSH’s Impact Wellbeing campaign, which emphasizes primary prevention in hospital environments, aiming to address issues before they lead to poor mental health outcomes. As part of their campaign, the CDC led 2 phases of formative data collection from health care workers' and leaders' attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, experiences, and needs around professional wellbeing. Findings revealed that

Existing efforts to reduce health care worker burnout often placed responsibility on the health care worker to take action.

Health care workers do not want efforts to focus on individual resilience. Instead, they need hospital leaders to address the systemic factors at the root of staff burnout such as adequate staffing, demanding work schedules, excess administrative work, and more.

Both audiences want to feel understood by one another. They also agree that improving health care worker wellbeing requires a hospital-specific and leadership-led approach.

Hospital leaders need actionable guidance on how they can address wellbeing at their own hospital.

Littrell A. New partnership aims to address veterinary burnout. 

August 26, 2024. Accessed September 3, 2024. 

https://www.dvm360.com/view/new-partnership-aims-to-address-veterinary-burnout

Impact Wellbeing Guide. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Accessed September 3, 2024. 

https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/healthcare/impactwellbeingguide/index.html

Lederhouse C. NIOSH develops wellbeing guide to address health care worker burnout. American Veterinary Medical Association. August 27, 2024. Accessed September 3, 2024. 

https://www.avma.org/news/niosh-develops-wellbeing-guide-address-health-care-worker-burnout?utm_source=delivra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=todays-headlines-news

Campaign insights. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Accessed September 3, 2024. 

https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/healthcare/impactwellbeing/campaign-insights.html

Articles

The guide aims to address health care worker burnout

CDC releases guide to improve professional wellbeing among health care workers

Good morning dvm360 readers! September 1 marked the beginning of Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, which works to raise awareness on this crisis, shift public perception, spread hope, and share information to those affected by suicide. For the veterinary profession, the rate of suicide is close to twice that of the dental profession, more than twice that of the human medical profession, and 4 times the rate of the general public.

 If you or someone you know needs help, anyone can call or text 988 to speak to someone immediately.

Here is what you can find this week on dvm360.com:

The Atlantic Veterinary College at the University of Prince Edward Island launched a clinical trial that is aiming to treat cardiac tumors in canine patients by using Propranolol, a medication commonly prescribed to children.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s announced the development of its Impact Wellbeing Guide: Taking Action to Improve Healthcare Worker Wellbeing to help improve and sustain the wellbeing of health care workers.

Boehringer Ingelheim announced that it has acquired Saiba Animal Health, which will improve the company’s anima health research and development pipelines, particularly in pet therapeutic category.

On this week’s episode of The Vet Blast Podcast, Annika VanNoy, senior director of Talent and Learning at Thrive Pet Healthcare, joins host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, to talk about suicide awareness in veterinary medicine in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month.

In the latest installment of Vet Scene Down Under, Phil Tucak, BSc, BVMS, gives updates on the intravenous fluid shortage that is affecting veterinary practices in Australia, Australia’s first Fear Free Certified veterinary practice, and a funding boost for the Veterinary and Community Care charity.

Agerbo E, Gunnell D, Bonde JP, Mortensen PB, Nordentoft M. Suicide and occupation: the impact of socio-economic, demographic and psychiatric differences. 

. 2007;37(8):1131-1140. doi:10.1017/S0033291707000487

Here is a sneak peek of this week’s headlines

Sneak peek: New clinical trial investigating propranolol for treating canine cardiac tumors, and other veterinary news

Bond Vet introduces the Area Lead Nurse position, a pivotal evolution of the existing Lead Nurse role. This reimagined role aims to enhance support and development for our nursing staff, leveraging the immense value that Nurses bring to our teams.

Bond Vet is dedicated to providing opportunities for team members to grow and advance in their careers. The introduction of the Area Lead Nurse position is a testament to this commitment. Through comprehensive training programs, clear career paths, and leadership opportunities, we ensure that our team members have the resources and support they need to succeed.

"We are thrilled to introduce the Area Lead Nurse role," said Jesse Longo, Associate Director of Nursing at Bond Vet. "This position will not only enhance the development and training of our nursing staff but also ensure that our clinics operate with the highest standards of medical quality and efficiency. We believe this reimagined role will be a game-changer for our team and the care we provide to our patients."

The Area Lead Nurse will play a crucial role in guiding and inspiring our support team members through various developmental activities and unlocking added medical capacity in our clinics through advanced skills of their own. Each Area Lead Nurse will be assigned approximately three clinics to support, in addition to their home clinic. They will actively support the development and training of the nursing staff through various mediums and approaches.

To learn more about the Area Lead Nurse position, visit careers.bondvet.com

Bond Vet is a veterinarian-founded company bringing vet care into the modern world. Bond Vet’s innovative clinics elevate vet care for pets and people alike with elegant design, seamless technology and a collaborative culture. That means welcoming, clean spaces for pets and people, with playful amenities; state-of-the-art diagnostic and surgical equipment; a mobile app that makes booking and treatment plans a breeze; and convenient access to doctors, with late and weekend hours. Bond Vet prioritizes the team’s happiness, growth and development to build more sustainable and fulfilling veterinary careers — better care for providers means better care for pets. And an industry-leading NPS score indicates it’s working. 

Bond Vet’s first clinic opened in June 2019 in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, with a mission to foster the human-animal bond through better vet care. Today, Bond Vet has 55+ locations across New York, New Jersey, Boston, Connecticut, Chicago, Atlanta & the Greater Washington DC area that offer primary and urgent care. bondvet.com

Bond Vet Launches New Position: Area Lead Nurse

A study conducted by Croney Research Group found a significant gap in scientific literature regarding access to veterinary care and its impact on animal welfare outcomes, particularly regarding animal behavior. Kayla Pasteur, a PhD student at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, presented the results of the study at the 2024 American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Conference on June 22 in Austin, Texas.

The research group also found that major access barriers in human health care systems are understudied in the veterinary health sector. In publications accepted by the study, only 17% reported on the impact that access to veterinary care has on animal welfare. “The disparities in accessing health care that are mirrored in both the veterinary and human health care sector could potentially be explained by a limited understanding of the factors that broadly contribute to health care inequality,”Pasteur concluded, after comparing barriers prevalent in both veterinary and human health care.

The research group’s objectives in the study were to gain an understanding about how “access to veterinary care” is currently defined in scientific literature, and whether there are additional factors, or barriers of access, that should be included in the definition. They hypothesized that the definition would differ according to different stakeholders, and that access to veterinary care is dependent on region, socio-economic status, and age.

“Access to veterinary care is suggested to be one of the most significant animal welfare crises affecting pets within the US,” Pasteur said, while introducing the study. “However, there’s no formal, generally accepted definition found in scientific literature.”

Barriers like economic limitations, socio-economic status, and proximity to veterinary care providers, were all well documented in scientific literature. Other barriers to access, including transportation, language barriers, physical ability, and mental/emotional resources of the owner, were not as thoroughly documented. “This indicated that there was a need to determine if, in fact, additional factors influence access to veterinary care, and, if so, should they be included in forming and defining the term?” Pasteur explained.

Of accepted publications, 13% offered definitions for “access to veterinary care.”1 The group found access to be broadly defined by 6 parameters: geographical proximity, affordability, service utilization, service availability, communication, and physical accessibility. Of the publications, 90% identified certain “barriers,” most commonly citing financial limitations, geographic location, and limited resources.

Veterinarian-client relationship was another common barrier throughout the publications, which, according to Pasteur, encompasses challenges relating to communication, mistrust, and poor past encounters.1 Similarly, the barrier of client identity includes challenges related to language and cultural barriers.

Pasteur explained the group’s methodology, which was conducting a scoping review targeting PubMed, Web of Science, and CAB Abstracts, using keywords related to animal welfare, veterinary care, and some common barriers to access. They determined the data’s relevance through established inclusion and exclusion criteria, and manually assessed each paper in either Covidence or Microsoft Excel.

The study covered 1,044 publications and determined that 77 met the criteria.1 Of those 77, 50% were published in veterinary journals, 26% were agricultural, and 13% were medical.

 The publications came from 33 countries, dating back as early as 2002, although most of the journals were published in either the United States or Canada, in 2020 and 2021.

“There’s a need to further investigate the barriers to accessing veterinary care that are understudied, and also understand how they may impact different communities differently,” Pasteur said about next steps. “We must also explore the potential differences in the perceptions of access to veterinary care between the veterinary care providers and the clients that they serve.”

Pastuer K. Access to Veterinary Care: Evaluating Working Definitions, Barriers, and Implications for Animal Welfare. Presented at: American Veterinary Medical Association Convention; Austin, TX; June 21-25, 2024.

A presentation at the 2024 AVMA Convention proposed a new definition for access to veterinary care.

Access to veterinary care and its impact on animal welfare

Investigators at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (VMBS) in College Station have discovered that aoudad sheep can catch and spread many of the same respiratory pathogens that regularly impact desert bighorn sheep, which share their habitat.

 These researchers found aoudad sheep to be competent hosts, capable of maintaining and intraspecifically transmitting, 

 The aoudad sheep shed the bacteria for 53 days following exposure.

“There isn’t much research about disease transmission between Texas aoudad and native species like bighorn sheep. This makes it difficult for wildlife experts to monitor diseases and preserve animal populations,” Logan Thomas, PhD, assistant professor at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, and a former postdoctoral researcher with the VMBS’ Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, said in a news release.

 “If we can measure the disease exposure in both species, we can start to understand how they might affect each other. By analyzing samples from both kinds of animals, we were ultimately able to determine that they…can carry and transmit the same respiratory illnesses.”

In the study, the aoudad sheep developed limited clinical signs, while pathological findings ranged from mild chronic lymphohistiocytic bronchointerstitial pneumonia to severe and acute suppurative pneumonia. Similar findings were noted in bighorn sheep. The investigators also reported their findings that demonstrate how aoudad sheep could pose a significant threat for disease transmission to sympatric bighorn sheep populations. There may be evidence of interindividual susceptibility, pathogenicity, and/or transmissibility, suggested by individual aoudad that maintain varying severities of chronic infection. The investigators suggest that those aoudads may be carriers who are continuously shedding pathogens.

The respiratory diseases that the species can share, like pneumonia, have already posed serious threats to bighorn sheep populations in past outbreaks.

 Conservation experts are now concerned that aoudad populations will have to face those same threats.

“When there are outbreaks of these diseases in bighorn sheep, we usually see 2 waves of population decline,” Thomas said.

 “There’s a decline in all age groups when the outbreak first happens. Then there’s another wave after the lambs are born–many of them don’t survive because they haven’t been exposed to the disease and therefore lack an immune response like the older bighorns have… We’ve known about this cycle in bighorn sheep for a while now, but no one had studied whether the same thing could happen in aoudad or if the 2 species could spread these pathogens back and forth. We don’t suspect that it’ will be a significant health problem for aoudad, but we aim to learn more as we continue our research.”

Aoudad, also known as the barbary sheep, belong to the Bovidae family.

 The species originated in North Africa before they were introduced to Texas in the late 1940s for hunting purposes.3 Wildlife experts now estimate there to be more than 25,000, and possibly as many as 40,000, currently living in the state.

 Aoudad are still commonly hunted as game, as are bighorn sheep, and are considered some of the most economically significant game animals in the state.

“Aoudad, in particular, are economically valuable for hunting opportunities,” Thomas said.

 “Since they’re a nonnative species, there are no season or bag limits, which [makes them] very attractive to hunters.”

Wildlife conservationists will use these new findings to better understand the relationship between the 2 species that share the Trans-Pecos region in Texas. With the knowledge that aoudad can carry the same respiratory pathogens as bighorn sheep, there will be a new emphasis placed on monitoring the disease transmission between the populations.

Texas A&M Researchers Find That Aoudad, Bighorn Sheep Share Respiratory Pathogens. News release. Texas A&M Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences News. August 22, 2024. Accessed August 29, 2024. 

https://vetmed.tamu.edu/news/press-releases/aoudad-respiratory-pathogens/

Thomas L., Clontz D., Nunez C., Dittmar R., Hernandez F., Rech R., Cook W. Evaluating the transmission dynamics and host competency of aoudad (Ammotragus lervia) experimentally infected with Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae and leukotoxigenic Pasteurellaceae. 

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0294853

History of Aoudad Sheep in Texas. Outdoors International. Accessed August 30, 2024. 

https://outdoors-international.com/history-of-aoudad-in-texas/

Texas A&M researchers report the potential for the species to contribute to disease recirculation among each other’s populations

Researchers find shared respiratory pathogens in aoudad, bighorn sheep

Veterinary clinics can receive access to free downloadable diabetes education materials and no-cost starter diabetes management kits for clients with pets diagnosed with the condition, by enrolling in the Diabetes PetCare Alliance program. The program—now in its 10th year—is a partnership between Merck Animal Health, Pro Plan Veterinary Diets and Zoetis that aims to support patients diagnosed with diabetes.

In the US, an estimated 1 in 300 adult canines and 1 in 230 cats are living with diabetes.2 Although the disease is not curable, the earlier a diagnosis can be made—and the more educated owners are—the better the odds of pets living long, healthy lives.1,2

Clinics can enroll in the Diabetes PetCare Alliance program from September 1, 2024, to Oct. 31, 2024, at 

. Clients whose pets are newly diagnosed with diabetes between November 1, 2024, and December 31, 2024, are also eligible to receive the free kits in acknowledgement of November as Pet Diabetes Month.

The prognosis for diabetes is positive if met with an early diagnosis and adequate treatment including therapy, and dietary and lifestyle changes. Proper management tools are important in giving pet owners confidence as they care for their pets, according to the alliance.

The starter diabetes management kit includes the following items:

One AlphaTRAK3 Blood Glucose Monitoring System from Zoetis

One 6 lb bag of Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets DM Dietetic Management Feline Formula or 6 lb bag of Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets EN Gastroenteric Fiber Balance Canine Formula

One 10 mL vial of Vetsulin (porcine insulin zinc suspension) from Merck Animal Health

Merck Animal Health, Pro Plan Veterinary Diets and Zoetis formed the Diabetes PetCare Alliance in 2014 to help enable long-term successful management of pets with diabetes by raising awareness among owners and facilitating the screening of at least 2500 new pets during Pet Diabetes Month.

To enroll or to learn more about the program, veterinarians can visit 

Diabetes PetCare Alliance promotes screening pets this November. News release. August 29, 2024. [email]

Pets with diabetes can live happy, healthy lives. Pet Diabetes Month. Accessed August 30, 202.4 

Education materials and starter kits to help clients manage diabetes in their pets are accessible through the Diabetes PetCare Alliance