The Effect of Personality on Occupational Stress in Veterinary Surgeons

Abstract

Statistics show that veterinary surgeons are in one of the professions with the highest suicide rates. This indicates the sector has significant well-being issues, with high levels of occupational stress and burnout. Previous research has focused on environmental factors in isolation, overlooking the influence of personality. This study aimed to establish that personality is a better predictor of occupational stress than environment. UK veterinary surgeons (n=311) completed an online survey composed of three questionnaires; the NEO Five-Factor Inventory, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, and the Job Stress Survey. Multiple regression analysis revealed that personality is a better predictor of occupational stress than environment (p<.001). Neuroticism is the trait that significantly predicts occupational stress (p<.001), and the components of neuroticism that contribute the most to stress are depression (p=.002) and anger hostility (p=.005). Demographic factors such as the number of years the veterinarian has been qualified acted as a mediator between depression and occupational stress (p<.001), and as a moderator between personal accomplishments and occupational stress (p=.028). Overall findings suggest that newly qualified veterinarians are at greater risk of suffering from high levels of occupational stress than those well established in the profession, and that veterinarians with higher levels of depression and anger hostility are likely to experience greater levels of occupational stress. Implications highlight the need for greater awareness of potentially susceptible personality traits in the veterinary admissions process. This would allow for the identification of those at risk and the implementation of interventions.

Factors associated with job satisfaction and engagement among credentialed small animal veterinary technicians in the United States

“…These variables were selected a priori because of their potential effect on the outcome variables as suggested in the literature. 2,11,[13][14][15] By calculation of Pearson correlations (r), individual factors that were significantly (P < 0.05) related to the outcome variables were included as covariates in subsequent multiple regression analyses to control for their potential effects on job satisfaction and engagement. Nonsignificant individual factors were not included in subsequent analyses.…”

“…6 Teamwork and coworker interactions also play a role. [7][8][9][10] Although reports 2,[11][12][13][14] on burnout and occupational stress among practicing veterinarians have been published, few reports exist of measurements of job satisfaction, engagement, and teamwork among veterinary technicians. To the authors' knowledge no studies have been conducted to examine how individual qualifications such as a VTS designation relate to job-related outcomes among small animal veterinary technicians.…”

Managing moral distress in practice

“…Moral distress is a distinct type of occupational stress, which is an adverse reaction employees experience in response to pressures of the workplace (Dawson and Thompson 2017). It differs from, for example, overwork, troubled professional relationships or the uncomplicated distress of tending to a suffering animal, by the inclusion of a conflict with one’s values.…”

“…Individual personality differences may combine with environmental factors to give rise to distress. Just as the trait ‘neuroticism’ was positively correlated with general occupational stress in veterinarians (Dawson and Thompson 2017) the trait ‘perfectionism’ was found to enhance vulnerability to moral distress in response to morally challenging ‘trigger’ events (Crane and others 2015). …”

Evaluation of a coaching workshop for the management of veterinary nursing students’ OSCE-associated test anxiety

“…Studies of the nursing profession have found high neuroticism to be associated with emotional exhaustion [ 49 ], depersonalization [ 50 ] and secondary traumatic stress, leading to increased risk of burnout [ 51 ]. A recent survey of UK-based veterinarians found neuroticism to be more strongly associated with occupational stress in this population than environmental factors such as workload [ 52 ].…”