Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

There is widespread research regarding the mental health struggles of veterinary professionals, which has been shown to be more severe than within other occupations. In recent years, the focus has moved to include veterinary students who also report higher levels of low psychosocial wellbeing than the general population. This descriptive and analytical study aims to investigate two questions: What is the current psychosocial wellbeing of veterinary medicine students in
Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, the UK and Australia? And how do these selected countries differ in their students’ mental health status? A multiple choice survey based around eleven dimensions was distributed to third-sixth year students, and the results were compared in two different ways. The responses from 239 veterinary medicine students from five countries were analysed. Firstly, to answer the first aim, the average across all participants dimension scores were compared to reference values for the general Australian working population. Secondly, the individual countries’ average dimension scores were compared to the average across countries score, and to each other within the same dimension.

The results of the survey were in line with the existing literature regarding the subject. As one group, the participating veterinary students reported scores less desirable than the reference in eight of the eleven dimensions. Only one dimension had a more desirable than reference score for the survey participants, this was sleeping trouble, and two dimension scores were comparable to the references. The dimension with the least desirable result, indicating the lowest level of psychosocial wellbeing, was cognitive stress. When comparing the average across all participants to reference scores for the Swedish occupational group “other healthcare professionals”, burnout was the dimension with the most troubling result.

When comparing the respective countries dimension scores, differences were observed in the level of psychosocial wellbeing. The country with the greatest number of dimensions scored more desirable than the average across countries was Finland, followed by Norway. Thirdly was Australia, followed by Sweden. The least number of dimension scores more desirable than the average and the greatest number of dimension scores less desirable than average was found among the UK participants. Academic factors were most frequently reported as having a negative effect on the
responder’s current mental wellbeing in all countries except for Finland, where transitional factors were reported as having a more profound effect.