A vet and academic has warned of a “drastic need” for reform to the sector’s attitude towards workplace injuries amid fears some harms are being downplayed as “everyday norms”.

A newly published study has urged practice leaders to be highly cautious about their own injury statistics because of a “wide-ranging perception of risk” around the issue.

A major veterinary group, which funded the analysis, has now outlined plans for a new project that it hopes will ultimately make practices safer.

‘Startling and complex’

But research leader John Tulloch, a veterinary public health lecturer at the University of Liverpool, described the findings of the latest paper, published in the journal Occupational Medicine, as both “startling and complex”.

He added: “They highlight a profession in drastic need of change in culture and personal attitudes, with respect to injury prevention and mitigation.”

The warning is based on a survey that ran from December 2022 until March last year, in which 740 participants submitted complete responses across a range of practice roles.

Although overall 38% said there were no injuries they would not report to an employer, the figures for specific role groups ranged from just 19% among both equine and production animal vets to 64% for workers in administrative roles.

Reporting

However, more than one-quarter of all vets (26%), compared to 18% of all participants, said they would not report injuries they considered to be minor – a figure that rose to 31% among production animal vets and 43% for equine clinicians.

The researchers said the results showed veterinary work-related injury was a “complex and nuanced concept” based on varying cultures of risk and injury expectation within different areas of practice work.

They particularly highlighted a tendency for needlestick injuries to go unreported because they were perceived as minor, self-attributed and not a cause of lasting pain as “concerning”.

The paper added: “Fostering a work culture that supports ‘ownership’ of an injury at a local level is most likely to be successful in creating meaningful change in attitude and behaviour.”

The research was funded through a grant of nearly £75,000 from the CVS Group’s Clinical Research Awards programme, with the survey distributed to UK staff.

Educational tools

The group plans to use the results to develop a range of educational tools, which it expects to be ready by next summer, intended to help facilitate behavioural change through an increased focus on injury awareness and prevention.

Current RCVS day one competences include a requirement for vets to know both their own and their employer’s responsibilities in areas including health and safety legislation.

The BVA’s policy position on good veterinary workplaces also encourages practices to “promote a culture of active engagement with health and safety matters, support good practice and challenge unsafe practices”.

Avoidable

But despite those requirements and initiatives, Dr Tulloch said injuries in veterinary practice were “often avoidable”.

CVS clinical research director Imogen Schofield added: “Using these findings, we will be able to develop and strengthen injury prevention measures through safety policy, education, and training.

“We anticipate that this project will result in safer workplaces within the wider veterinary community and, indirectly, in improved animal treatment through a fitter, healthier and safer profession.”