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Integration of mental health education into veterinary courses is one way to support mental health among student veterinary nurses.
It is now well documented that veterinarians often live with mental ill health (Killinger et al. 2017) and that the profession has disproportionate rate of suicide (e.g., Stoewen, 2015). Whilst much research has focused on veterinary surgeons, evolving evidence has demonstrated that poor mental health is experienced by other members of the veterinary team, including veterinary nurses, and that nurses can experience higher levels of moral distress than other veterinary professionals (e.g., Foote, 2023). Potential reasons for this include high workload and low job control (e.g., Deacon and Brough, 2017), burnout (e.g., Scotney et al., 2019), and compassion fatigue (e.g., Thompson-Hughes, 2019). These findings highlight a need to focus on the mental health of student and qualified veterinary nurses.
Integration of mental health education into veterinary courses is one way to support mental health among student veterinary nurses. Such education can enhance student outcomes and develop essential skills that will benefit their lives beyond education. Embedding mental health into further and higher education curricula is recommended by Student Minds and Advance HE (Hughes et al. 2022). However, little is known about what mental health education is provided across veterinary nursing diplomas and degrees, or if there is a consistent approach.
Some areas of good educational practice are evident, including those funded by the Mind Matters Initiative (MMI). For example, the MMI has offered mental health first aid training to student veterinary nurses with further training courses available (Vet Mind Matters, 2022). However, this is an example of an optional supplementary course, it is unknown if mental health is integrated into veterinary nurses curricula. Furthermore, it is not known whether good practice is consistently executed across the UK and there is little research evidence relating to the effectiveness of mental health education within veterinary nurse curricular. Despite pockets of evidence emerging, we are far from fully and systematically understanding the integration of mental health education into veterinary nursing curricula.
This study addressed these noteworthy paucities in understanding by addressing the following aims:
Our Sarah Brown Mental Health Research grant has helped to fund six projects looking into various aspects of veterinary mental wellbeing, but this is the first to look specifically into veterinary nurse mental health.This is of vital importance, as much of the current research is either targeted towards vets or the vet team as a whole, as opposed to being nurse specific. We must do more to ensure that the entire veterinary team feel supported in their work and have the tools to maintain good mental health. It is fantastic to see Dr Hargreaves and Dr Didymus looking into early interventions to support student vet nurse mental health from the start of their careers. This kind of research is vital in making positive change for the future, so if you are a current student vet nurses, vet nurses or help deliver veterinary nursing programmes, then please do get involved.
We addressed the aims via a two-phase research project:
This project is ongoing, but we will produce a set of recommendations that will help to reform mental health education for veterinary nurses.
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