Research has identified incivility as a factor in staff wanting to quit.

A free toolkit has been launched to help veterinary professionals deal with rude behaviour from clients and colleagues.

Created by psychologists at the University of Aberdeen, the Veterinary Incivility Toolkit includes explainer videos, exercises, overviews, and a central four chapter document on incivility and how to respond to it.

The team developed the toolkit after conducting research, published in Veterinary Record last year, which revealed that rude behaviour was contributing to veterinary professionals considering leaving their jobs.

It also increased feelings of anxiety and depression, led to withdrawal from clients, and put staff at greater risk of burnout.

Dr Amy Irwin, lead author of the research, said: “Part of the issue is that veterinary staff are not always sure how they should respond to incivility, which unlike more extreme behaviours such as aggression, does not always feature in guidelines for managing conflict within veterinary practices.”

The new toolkit is designed to give staff at veterinary practices the resources they need to identify, assess, and reduce the impact of incivility and rudeness.

Dr Irwin added: “Of course there should be a zero tolerance approach of aggression towards veterinary staff but, what our research highlighted, is that this is harder to manage when it comes to the more minor, but nonetheless negative, behaviours or interactions.

“Incivility is frequent, subtle and can be ambiguous in terms of intent to harm so is more often ignored at organisational level.

“We have been delighted to work with Helen Silver-MacMahon (Being Human Consulting Ltd.), Dr Luiz Santos (University of Glasgow) and Prof Liz Mossop (University of Lincolnshire) to both conduct the research and start developing resources to support staff – and to make these available free of charge.”

The Veterinary Incivility Toolkit can be accessed online.

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