Views from our members

Vets on veterinary workplaces

• 31% of vets believe they always have a good work-life balance at their workplace, 54% say they sometimes do, while 15% say they rarely or never do.
• 62% of vets working in clinical practice across the UK don’t always get breaks during their working day to eat and rest.
• 98% of vets say a workplace’s commitment to work-life balance is important when considering what makes a great workplace.
• 29% of vets working in the UK consider their workplace ‘a great place to work’, 57% consider it ‘a good place to work’ and 12% consider it ‘not a good place to work’.
• 4/5 of vets working in the UK consider their workplace supportive of staff. 11% consider their workplace unsupportive.
• When considering what makes a great workplace, 98% of vets consider a commitment to work-life balance to be important.

Vets on the importation of dogs

• 90% of vets in clinical practice are concerned about the importation of rescue dogs from abroad into the UK, with disease risk being the top concern (cited by 98% vets).
• Among vets who treat companion animals, 94% had seen rescue dogs from abroad in their practice in the last twelve months. Of these, 47% vets reported seeing novel or rare conditions associated with the importation of dogs.
• Among companion animal vets, just 45% feel confident that their practice has adequate risk assessments, appropriate PPE and training in place.

Vets on pet diets

Many pet owners are opting for non-traditional diets for their cats and dogs:

• 94% of companion animal vets report they have clients who feed a raw diet.
• 42% report clients who feed meat-free diets.
• 29% report they have clients who feed insect-protein in place of meat.

However, clients are not routinely discussing dietary choices with their vet. 6 in 10 vets were unsure just how many of the cats and dogs they see are fed meat-free diets.

Vets on sustainability

93% of vets say sustainability is important to them.

Around a third of vets (34%) report that their veterinary workplace has made a formal commitment to reduce its environmental impact, such as registration or participation in a formal sustainability scheme.

Vets on attitudes to the profession

Pursuing a career in the profession

Vets were asked if they would choose to pursue a career in the veterinary profession again, ‘knowing what they know now’:

• Most active vets said that they would (56%).
• Just one in six vets reported that they would not (17%).
• One in four vets were unsure (27%).

Remaining in the profession

Active vets were also asked whether they thought they would still be in the profession in five years’ time.

• 60% reported they would still be in the profession in five years’ time.
• 46% said they would be in a similar role.
• 15% said they'd be in a different role.
• 22%, just over one in five vets, reported that they would not be in the profession in five years’ time.
• 18% were unsure.

Vets were asked to rate a series of aspects of veterinary work on a six-point scale from excellent to terrible. At least three quarters of vets rated the following aspects of their job as generally good (combining those who rated them as excellent, very good, or good):

• Job variety/interest (87%)
• Relationship with co-workers (87%)
• Job security (82%)
• Job satisfaction (78%)

By contrast, less than half rated the following aspects of their job as generally good:

• Pay and benefits (49%)
• HR support/ staff management (39%)
• Work-life balance (37%)
• Job related stress (19%)

53% of active vets rated veterinary work as generally good on public respect (including ratings of ‘Good’, ‘Very good’ and ‘Excellent’).

• 30% rated it as ‘Good’
• 18% rated it as ‘Very good’
• 6% rated it as ‘Excellent’