The Impact of Caring and Killing on Physiological and Psychometric Measures of Stress in Animal Shelter Employees: A Pilot Study
department or school: Land and Food Systems, Faculty of
department or school: Non UBC
data provider: DSpace
identifier citation: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17 (24): 9196 (2020)
creator: Andrukonis, Allison
creator: Hall, Nathaniel J
creator: Protopopova, Alexandra
issued: 2021-01-08T18:20:21Z
issued: 2020-12-09
description: Animal shelter employees are in a unique position where they care for, and later kill, the same animals. The aim of our exploratory study was to assess whether “caring” and/or “killing” evokes physiological and psychometric indicators of stress in employees. Experiment 1 compared three careers that kill regularly, but involve varying degrees of husbandry (n = 28). Blood pressure (BP), salivary cortisol, heart rate (HR), and heart rate variability (HRV) were collected; data showed higher HR and lower HRV during the process of killing. Psychometric scales showed that burnout and Impact Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) scores were higher in careers with higher contact with animals. Experiment 2 compared three careers that involve husbandry, but varying exposure to killing (n = 41). BP, cortisol awakening response, HR, and HRV were measured as well as Professional Quality of Life Scale, IES-R, and Moral Injury Event Scale were administered. There were no significant differences across careers in any measures. The data suggest that the process of killing may be physiologically stressful to the person, and higher levels of animal contact in a euthanasia context may be associated with burnout and traumatic stress, but that the act of euthanasia is not a unique predictor of overall occupational distress.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/77028
note: International Journal ofEnvironmental Researchand Public HealthArticleThe Impact of Caring and Killing on Physiological andPsychometric Measures of Stress in Animal ShelterEmployees: A Pilot StudyAllison Andrukonis 1,*, Nathaniel J Hall 1 and Alexandra Protopopova 21 Department of Animal and Food Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA;Nathaniel.J.Hall@ttu.edu2 Department of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada;a.protopopova@ubc.ca* Correspondence: allison.andrukonis@ttu.eduReceived: 10 November 2020; Accepted: 3 December 2020; Published: 9 December 2020Abstract: Animal shelter employees are in a unique position where they care for, and later kill, thesame animals. The aim of our exploratory study was to assess whether “caring” and/or “killing”evokes physiological and psychometric indicators of stress in employees. Experiment 1 comparedthree careers that kill regularly, but involve varying degrees of husbandry (n = 28). Blood pressure(BP), salivary cortisol, heart rate (HR), and heart rate variability (HRV) were collected; data showedhigher HR and lower HRV during the process of killing. Psychometric scales showed that burnout andImpact Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) scores were higher in careers with higher contact with animals.Experiment 2 compared three careers that involve husbandry, but varying exposure to killing (n = 41).BP, cortisol awakening response, HR, and HRV were measured as well as Professional Quality of LifeScale, IES-R, and Moral Injury Event Scale were administered. There were no significant differencesacross careers in any measures. The data suggest that the process of killing may be physiologicallystressful to the person, and higher levels of animal contact in a euthanasia context may be associatedwith burnout and traumatic stress, but that the act of euthanasia is not a unique predictor of overalloccupational distress.Keywords: animal-care employees; animal shelter; compassion fatigue…
has type: Article
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0395529
language: eng
peer review status: Reviewed
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
publisher DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17249196
rights: CC BY 4.0
rights URI: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
scholar level: Faculty
subject: animal-care employees
subject: animal shelter
subject: compassion fatigue
subject: occupational stress
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/77028