Small animal veterinarians' opinions were investigated regarding the frequency and nature of ethical dilemmas encountered, beliefs regarding euthanasia and balancing client and animal interests, prevalence and value of ethics training and proposals to mitigate the stressful effects of ethical dilemmas. The majority (52 per cent) of 484 respondents in the USA indicated via an online survey experiencing an ethical dilemma regarding the interests of clients and those of their patients at least weekly. Scenarios involving client financial concerns were commonly reported causes of ethical conflicts. While only 20 per cent of respondents indicated that other practitioners prioritise patient interests, 50 per cent of respondents characterised their own behaviour as prioritising patients. Most respondents (52 per cent) reported that ethical dilemmas are the leading cause, or are one of many equal causes, of work-related stress. Less experienced practitioners, general practitioners and associate veterinarians were more likely to encounter situations they defined as ethical dilemmas, and female respondents were more likely to find ethical dilemmas stressful. Most small animal veterinarians experience ethical dilemmas regularly, which contribute to moral stress. Results suggested that most small animal practitioners believe that greater awareness of moral stress and providing training in ethical theories and tools for coping with ethical dilemmas can ameliorate moral stress.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 39. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 14 October 2019.
All research outputs
#1,338,909
of 34,546,575 outputs
Outputs from Veterinary Record: Journal of the British Veterinary Association
#213
of 8,306 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#21,775
of 371,004 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Veterinary Record: Journal of the British Veterinary Association
#4
of 111 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,546,575 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 96th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 8,306 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.5. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 371,004 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 111 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its contemporaries.
