Causes of stress and conflict in the veterinary professional workplace - a perspective from Poland

Not all uncivil behaviours are equal: exploring responses to incivility in veterinary practice using vignettes

Workplace incivility is considered a common workplace stressor, linked to a range of adverse impacts such as reduced wellbeing. However, there is a lack of research focused on how targets of incivility respond. The current study addresses that gap by examining responses to incivility within veterinary practice. Veterinarians and veterinary nurses (n = 132) evaluated six scenarios depicting two types of incivility (direct e.g. demeaning comments/indirect, for example, ignoring someone) across three instigators (clients, co-workers, senior colleagues), reporting their perception and appraisal of the uncivil behaviour depicted along with potential responses. Direct incivility was linked to responses such as reciprocation, exit, and support seeking, whereas indirect incivility was associated with affiliative and ignoring responses. Negative appraisal of incivility predicted a higher likelihood of exit, avoidance, support seeking and reporting responses. These findings suggest that incivility targets utilise a broad range of response options and adapt their response dependent on the situation.

Are They Thinking Differently? The Perceptions and Differences in Medical Disputes between Veterinarians and Clients

Medical disputes in veterinary practices are widespread; yet, a limited amount of research has been conducted to investigate the factors contributing to medical disputes. This study examined veterinarians' and clients' perceptions regarding risk factors and possible solutions to medical disputes. A total of 245 respondents from Taiwan, including 125 veterinarians and 120 clients, completed an electronic self-administered, semi-structured questionnaire in 2022. The questionnaire covered six dimensions: medical skills, complaint management, the attitudes of stakeholders during interactions, medical expenses, clients' perspectives, and communication modes. The results highlighted significant differences in the perceptions of risk factors for inducing medical disputes and possible solutions between clients and veterinarians in veterinary practice. First, young veterinarians and clients perceived medical skills as the highest risk factor for inducing medical disputes, while experienced veterinarians disagreed (p < 0.001). In addition, veterinarians with medical dispute experience identified stakeholders' attitudes during interactions as the top contributing factor. Second, regarding possible solutions, all veterinarians preferred offering clients cost estimates and cultivating empathy and compassion towards them. On the other hand, clients underscored the importance of obtaining informed consent for treatments and expenses and suggested that veterinarians should supply comprehensive written information to facilitate this process. This study underlies the importance of understanding stakeholders' perceptions to mitigate medical disputes and advocates for improved communication education and training for young veterinarians. These findings provide valuable insights for veterinarians and clients, contributing to preventing and managing medical disputes in veterinary practices.

Bibliometric Analysis of Veterinary Communication Education Research over the Last Two Decades: Rare Yet Essential

Research of veterinary communication education is a relatively rare but important field, and its importance has been increasingly noticed recently. This study aims to describe the existing veterinary education research literature by adopting the systematic bibliometric approach. We conducted a comprehensive literature exploration on worldwide veterinary education and veterinary communication education publications in the Web of Science Core Collection database from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2021. VOSviewer and EXCEL were used to identify trends and patterns in characteristics of the publications, including author affiliations and countries, and the publishing journals. Based on our search criteria, in the past 22 years, there have been 6006 veterinary education publications with 101 publications in 2000, 684 publications in 2021 (577% increase), and 677 communication-related publications with 9 publications in 2000, 107 publications in 2021 (1189% increase). The VOSviewer results indicate that both the United States and England were the most vigorous countries with close collaboration. Our results show the publication quantity has been increasing at a sharp slope rate over the past twenty years, which indicates the importance and growth of veterinary education and the veterinary communication education research field, and identifies the international collaborations among countries and institutions.