Psychological stress and the need for stress management in veterinary studies

Veterinary students suffer from increased psychological stress compared to the general public and are increasingly affected by manifest mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety disorders, as well as an increased prevalence of suicidal thoughts. Additionally, veterinary students tend to ignore signs of mental distress and do not seek support for their mental health issues. This impaired mental health is also evident in fully trained veterinarians, who, among other things, have the highest suicide rates of all medical professions. In our survey, we examined a total of 428 veterinary students at the two veterinary faculties of the Universities of Zurich and Bern. The survey was carried out across all six years of the curriculum as a cross-sectional survey using standardized questionnaires on resilience, sense of coherence and depression. In all years, the students showed increased levels of depression compared to the general public, and the salutogenic parameters of resilience and sense of coherence were also reduced. The constellation with increased depression, reduced resilience and reduced sense of coherence was particularly accentuated in the second and third year. The increased affective stress on students presents itself as a consistent condition, which - if you look at studies on fully trained veterinarians - continues into their working life together with a reduced ability to cope. The low number of participants in the higher years of study and the high number of female study participants could limit the generalizability of the results. In addition, the data was collected in spring 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have influenced the results. Active counteracting, for example by integrating the teaching of protective behavior such as mindful self-compassion and resource-oriented behavior such as mind-body techniques, therefore appears to be recommended in the veterinary training curriculum from the first semester onwards. Various measures to support students have been introduced since 2021, such as events on learning strategies, a mentoring system and seminars on mental health.