ArticleJournal of veterinary internal medicine2018
Ethical conflict and moral distress in veterinary practice: A survey of North American veterinarians.
Article in Journal of veterinary internal medicine, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 89 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
89 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 211 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Measurement of compassion fatigue in animal health care professionals: a systematic review of available instruments and their content validity.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2024Pooled it
- Student Perceptions of Fee Policies in Veterinary Medicine: An Ethical and Professional Identity Framework.Veterinary sciences · 2026Article
- Moral distress and moral injury in healthcare: A review and instrument analysis.Journal of health psychology · 2026Review
- Relevance of positive psychology in the veterinary profession: A narrative review.The Veterinary record · 2026Review
- 'Helpful', 'Objective', and 'Useful': User Perceptions of the Animal Welfare Assessment Grid (AWAG) for Dogs as a Decision-Making Tool.Veterinary medicine and science · 2026Article
- Factors Influencing Decision-Making in Companion Animal Euthanasia: A Mixed-Methods Study of Pet Owners and Veterinarians.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Veterinarian-Client Communication as a Driver of Burnout: A Scoping Review of Relational Risk and Protective Resources.Veterinary sciences · 2026Review
- Mental Health in Spanish Veterinarians: Emotional Exhaustion, Affective Symptomatology, and Suicidal Ideation.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2026Article
- Experiencing Violence from Animal Owners in Veterinary Medicine: Results of a Nationwide Survey.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- "What if someone reads these records and judges me?": fear, legitimacy, and the hidden curriculum in veterinary clinical decision-making.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2026Article
- Trauma-informed veterinary practice: linking emotional labor, moral distress, and occupational well-being.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2026Article
- Exploring veterinarians' perceptions of decision-making with clients in the context of providing access to veterinary care.PloS one · 2026Article
- To treat or not to treat: Experiences and considerations of veterinarians in management of cats with diabetes mellitus.PloS one · 2026Article
- The Mental Health of Veterinarians in Türkiye: A Prevalence Study.Depression and anxiety · 2026Article
- Moral distress, resilience and human spirituality in the veterinary clinic.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2026Review
- Reconciling the business-care paradox: a Q study of veterinarians' professional identity formation.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2026Article
- A Cross-Sectional Study of Work-Related Behaviour and Experience Patterns Among German Veterinarians in Different Age Groups.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Veterinary Ethics in Practice: Euthanasia Decision Making for Companion and Street Dogs in Istanbul.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Development and longitudinal validation of the Veterinary Stressors Questionnaire.Scientific reports · 2025Article
29 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundConcerns about ethical conflicts, moral distress, and burnout in veterinary practice are steadily increasing. Root causes of these problems have not been rigorously identified. Little research has been done to evaluate the existence of moral distress in North American veterinarians or to explore its impact on career sustainability and poor well-being. HYPOTHESIS/
objectivesEthical conflict and resultant moral distress are common occurrences in contemporary veterinary practice and negatively impact daily practice life, but may not be identified or labeled by veterinarians as such. ANIMALS: No animals were used in this study.
methodsMixed methods sequential explanatory design; confidential and anonymous on-line sampling of 889 veterinarians in North America.
resultsA majority of respondents reported feeling conflict over what care is appropriate to provide. Over 70% of respondents felt that the obstacles they faced that prevented them from providing appropriate care caused them or their staff moderate to severe distress. Seventy-nine percent of participants report being asked to provide care that they consider futile. More than 70% of participants reported no training in conflict resolution or self-care. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Veterinarians report widespread ethical conflict and moral distress across many practice types and demographics. Most veterinarians have little to no training on how to decrease the impact of these problems. Ethical conflict and resulting moral distress may be an important source of stress and poor well-being that is not widely recognized or well defined. Well-researched and effective tools used to decrease moral distress in human healthcare could be adapted to ameliorate this problem.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.