Understanding Personal Protective Equipment Use Among Companion Animal Veterinary Staff in the Context of Zoonoses: A Qualitative Study

Introduction

Veterinary Professionals are at risk of contracting zoonoses, including potential emerging infections. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) could reduce infection transmission risk, but use of it in the profession is low. Understanding Veterinary Professionals’ experiences with PPE could help identify facilitators and barriers, therefore informing a future strategy to improve usage.

Methods

Two focus group discussion with veterinary nurses and two with veterinarians took place at a tertiary small animal teaching hospital. With an interpretivist epistemology, transcriptions were inductively coded and analysed using thematic analysis.

Results

Veterinary Professionals frequently reported underusing PPE, despite significant zoonotic risk. Friction in interdisciplinary relationships negatively impacted veterinary professionals’ experiences with PPE: differing views on risk, policy and PPE, contrasting perceptions of each other, and challenges with communication impacted PPE decision-making. Barriers included an absence of initial recognition of risk, a staff culture of prioritising patient health over risk to self, friction in response to others’ PPE use or lack thereof, an overly complex policy, and a lack of cultural and institutional reaction to occupationally contracted zoonoses. Facilitators included effective inter and intradisciplinary communication and previous personal experience with serious zoonoses.

Conclusion

Veterinary Professionals’ experiences with PPE, are shaped by social and professional factors, such as interdisciplinary friction, perceptions of self and others, of risk and policy. Recommendations are for the findings to be used locally to embed PPE use into everyday practice. At a national level, the United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) should use the findings to evaluate current policies regarding PPE and zoonoses in veterinary practice and produce a simplified national guidance, in collaboration with veterinary professionals with lived experience. Further research into General Practice Veterinary Professionals’ experiences and the interdisciplinary social dynamics is recommended.

Impacts

• Veterinarians and veterinary nurses often do not use adequate PPE when handling animals, despite the high risk of contracting zoonoses from them. Their experiences with PPE in the context of zoonoses have not yet been explored to identify key barriers and facilitators thus far.

• Veterinarians’ and veterinary nurses’ experiences with PPE are shaped personally, socially and culturally throughout their career.

• Interdisciplinary friction, overly complex policy, lack of risk recognition and patient prioritisation over self both personally and institutionally are barriers to PPE use. Good inter and intradisciplinary communication and personal experience with serious zoonoses are facilitators to PPE use.