A heart will swell before it hardens.
The trials of oncological nurses are well documented. It can be a truly ugly occupation — a patient diagnosed with ovarian cancer, for example, has a survival rate of approximately forty per cent.
Working in such conditions has expected results amongst nursing staff and, according to a 2019 study by the University of Barcelona, 18 per cent of surveyed oncological nurses were at risk of compassion fatigue; 20 per cent experienced occupational burnout; 37 per cent were positive for high Secondary Traumatic Stress.
According to a 2020 study by the Ontario Veterinary College, 31 per cent of veterinarians in Canada experienced high compassion fatigue; 41 per cent experienced burnout; 65 per cent were deemed positive for Secondary Traumatic Stress. Suicide ideation was present amongst 26 per cent of participants; the national average amongst citizens hovers between 2 and 10 per cent.
Wildlife rehabilitators experience the worse of both worlds — the stresses endemic to veterinarian work combined with the survival rates of cancer patients; the release rate for wildlife hospitals is approximately 30-40 per cent.
The Calgary area is host to three wildlife rehabilitation centres: the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society (CWRS), the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation (AIWC), and the Cochrane Ecological Institute (CEI). All three of these centres face their own challenges unique to their organization.
The CWRS, as the only rehabilitation centre within Calgary’s city limits, sees the most patients on any given year. As such, there is a real concern of occupational burnout.
“There’s a very high turnover rate in not just Wildlife Rehab, but in animal care as well,” said Melanie Whalen, Executive Director for CWRS.
“This has to do with burnout.”
Occupational burnout is defined as a syndrome and is a result of work-related stress. A subset of burnout is something called “caregiver syndrome”, which is specific to healthcare professionals dealing with chronically ill patients. This can lead to an assortment of symptoms: depression, anxiety, anger, high blood pressure, fatigue, insomnia, and cynicism.
A 2018 study conducted by the Journal of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care also suggests burnout is more prevalent amongst veterinarians than in other medical occupations. The study also posited that “[burnout] has been found to increase the rate of medical errors, lower care quality, and reduce productivity.
“There’s too many animals for one person to care for, but because the money isn’t there in the field, there really isn’t any other alternatives,” said Whalen. “So often people end up getting burnout, especially during the (spring) rehab season when it’s really busy.
“[People] reach their limits and they’re like, I can’t anymore — I’m just exhausted.”
Compassion fatigue is distinct from occupational burnout and is often described as the “cost of caring”.
Compassion Fatigue in the Animal-Care Community, co-authored by doctors Charles R. Figley and Robert G. Roop, makes a poignant observation on the subject.
“To establish and maintain a good working relationship with our clients requires a therapeutic alliance that cannot be established without empathy and compassion. Such an alliance enables us to understand what our clients need and want and to be able to help them as much as we can and should. It requires empathy, both as a by-product of our work and in the process of our work. To be empathic requires a basic empathic ability, interest, and attention. But empathy comes with risks and costs.”
Those risks and costs helped prompt Andrea Hunt, CWRS’s former Executive Director, to form the Professionals in Animal Care (PAC) support group.
In 2017, psychologist Dr. Megan McKellen brought an animal to the CWRS facilities, and afterwards offered to do a free presentation on compassion fatigue and burnout.
“While she was talking, I looked around the table at my staff members and most of them are crying,” said Hunt.
“That to me was a clear indication they were struggling with things and that they didn’t have a place to put that, that they didn’t have anyone to talk to.”
Euthanasia is a regular occurrence in wildlife hospitals. Having to make daily decisions on whether an animal needs to be put down weighs heavily on the staff, and it is an incredibly difficult thing to get accustomed to.
“When you do get used to it, that’s what the real problem is. You don’t want people to get used to it because eventually you could become numb, and those are the hallmarks of burnout and compassion fatigue.”
Holly Lillie, Executive Director of AIWC, understands the dangers of work-related stress and syndromes, and actively seeks to combat it by establishing a healthy culture in her facility.
“Five years ago, the turnover [at AIWC] was completely different, we were probably turning over a couple of positions every year. It was because we just didn’t have the foundation in place to support people.”
Since then, AIWC has conducted regular workshops with the help of one of their volunteer workers, who happens to be a psychologist who specializes in compassion fatigue in the animal sector.
Lillie has also made sure to have succession plans handy for all staff, as well as encourages taking time off in needed.
“Thankfully everyone’s been in their roles for a couple of years, and they have been able to get the handle of it, but we also put a lot into succession planning too,” said Lillie.
“We don’t want people to feel like if they leave the place it’s going to crumble, we want employees to be stewards of their organization and to set it up for success.”
Public mishandling of animals is also a concern and can lead to unneeded stress. The most common misstep is “kidnapping” an animal, which is when an animal is collected as it mistakenly believed to be orphaned. Another is the attempt to keep the animals as pets and rehabilitate them at home, which rarely works out.
Clio Smeeton is the president of CEI, a 140-acre rehabilitation centre that covers a mixed grass prairie habitat, complete with an assortment of bogs, wetlands, forests, and ponds.
“We have lots of animals come in, and people have kept them as pets and they keep them too long”, said Smeeton, as she gestures towards an enclosure housing three crows.
“These are non-releasable because they’re flightless. [The people who found them] just kept them too long and didn’t take them in to get the wings set.”
The CEI also has several bear enclosures; they are empty.
Prior to June 1st of this year, there was one black bear cub on the property, but it has since been confiscated by the Alberta Ministry of Environment and Parks due to permit violations.
Smeeton has said she is unhappy with the decision, and with the bureaucracy involved in the black bear cub rehabilitation protocol.
The three following points in the Alberta Environment and Parks guidelines are particularly controversial to Smeeton.
In order to be eligible for rehabilitation at an approved facility, black bear cubs must be:
Admitted to the rehabilitation facility between January and July 1st of any year.
Cubs must be released on or before October 15th of the year they arrived at the facility and are not to be overwintered at the facility unless approved in writing by the AEP Regional Resource Manager. This approval will be determined on a case by case basis.
Inaccurate information or details that contradict Government of Alberta published information will influence the decision to approve a facility for bear rehabilitation.
Smeeton says it is unusual not to accept black bears cubs in the fall, as that is the time of year when available food becomes scarce. This can lead bears into human habitats in search of nourishment, which often leads to the bear being destroyed.
If they survive the fall, then there is the winter kill to overcome.
“[It is wearing] to know that you’re doing the wrong thing,” said Smeeton, “that you’re letting animals go that aren’t going to live because you’re being compelled to do so by the government.”
Wildlife rehabilitation is not an easy job, and it is too often a thankless one.
Compassion fatigue, occupational burnout, government bureaucracy — these are the issues facing the animal care community; but they can be mitigated through education, donations, and volunteers.
Lemon Fresh Media 