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| Do you have a beautiful photo of a street cat? |
As part of the Vet Cook Book I’ve been part of a team of
volunteers looking at literature on sources of stress in the veterinary
workplace and one of our team came across a great paper about Occupational Stress in Veterinary SupportStaff.
The researchers used questionnaires and interviews to
examine occupational stress, health stress and coping strategies of veterinary
technicians in Alabama. The study found that mental health scores of this
people were below the US norm. Key sources of stress included (but were not
limited to) workload, death and dying, and conflict with veterinarians. There
were some interesting themes that emerged from interviews, including that
support staff often took the blame for negative outcomes, many idolised
veterinarians, lots used unhealthy coping strategies like escape-avoidance, confrontational
coping, alcohol and eating, and they found the demands of their job “all-consuming”.
Lots of stress came from “ambiguity, doctor’s disruptive
behaviour, workload, inability to treat patients, pain and suffering of
animals, euthanasia, environmental stressors, inability to separate from work
duties, and uncertainty about future of their careers.”
Much of the literature about stress in the veterinary
profession focuses on vets, yet our co-workers experience their own stressors and
secondary trauma that deserves attention. It’s great to see plenty of support
staff – from nurses and techs to kennelhands – have contributed to the book. You can help us out just by liking our facebook page.
The great part about this project is that our little team
of volunteers is expanding here and there as people add their skills – from literature
searching to tracking down unusual ingredients to testing recipes to matching tidying
up our Google drive which did look a bit like someone has dropped a bag of
flour in the kitchen. If anyone knows any good cartoonists out there, let us
know.
SPEAKING OF CARTOONS
Graphic medicine occurs when illustration meets medicine,
resulting in some amazing comics and graphic novels aimed at medical education
or at documenting people’s experience of illness (so-called “pathographies”).
As far as I am aware there are no veterinary graphic novels, though happy to be
corrected. This week I received and read/viewed a copy of Taking Turns: Stories from HIV/AIDS care unit 371 by @comicnurse MK
Czerwiec. This is an amazing story of caring for patients during the period
before and immediately after important discoveries were made about retroviral
treatment. If you’re interested in the history of medicine/nursing, this is an
amazing book. It touches on themes of loss, grief, self-care and hope. You can
check it out here.
STREET CAT PHOTO COMPETITION
If you have taken a great photo of a street cat, consider
entering it into the ISFM Street Cat Photography exhibition. You can upload
photos on the icatcare website or facebook page from April 1. Check out the
details, and some lovely examples, here.
