Introduction: Gender distribution has fundamentally changed in the field of veterinary medicine. Nowadays more than 80% of the students are female; graduates (eg 82% female graduates, Vienna 2016) and therefore the gender distribution among practitioners is changing as well. Female vets experience additional stressors (eg salary gap) in relation to their male colleagues. Furthermore female coping strategies include more dysfunctional strategies and women are more prone to somatic stress reactions (eg Matud, 2004). The goal of the presented study was to identify specific job stressors as well as a profile of typical coping strategies in female veterinarians.
Methodology & Statistical Analysis: Using a cross-sectional design, 84 female veterinarians were surveyed using an online-questionnaire including a self-report test-battery to measure twenty different coping strategies (SVF-120 Stressverarbeitungsfragebogen (Erdmann & Janke, 2008)), questions about daily work life including job stressors and suicidal thoughts (BSSI Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation (Beck & Steer, 2016)). Statistical analysis included t-tests and Cohens d as concurrent effect size measure.
Results: Several groups of job stressors were identified. The most relevant ones were communication with animal owners/handlers, emergency services with 24/7 availability, bookkeeping/office-work and the well-known stressor euthanasia.
Analysis and interpretation of the test-battery shows that compared to the general population female veterinarians report significantly less positive (healthy) coping strategies (eg “Positive Self-Instruction” (t(83)=-4.972,p<.001,d=.61) and significantly more negative (maladaptive and unhealthy) coping strategies (eg “Rumination” (t(82)=5.699,p<.001,d=.58).
In several scales clinically relevant results (T-values below 40) need to be reported. As an example a high number (44%) of the surveyed female veterinarians have to be classified as below average in the use of the very relevant coping strategy “Positive Self-Instruction” meaning that this large group is not able to distance themselves from negative cognitions and influence their appraisal.
Conclusions: Female veterinarians report a large variety of job stressors and they seem not well-equipped to solve stressful situations, which supports the finding that veterinarians are a vulnerable populations with regards to their risk for stress related illnesses and even suicidal thoughts.