Why are male veterinarians quitting practice? Understanding male veterinary job satisfaction and reasons for leaving practice

Abstract

Over the past decade, the demand for veterinary services has continued to rise. Despite this, turnover rates within the veterinary sector remain high. The professional needs of veterinarians often appear unmet, with factors such as high workload, poor work/life balance and low remuneration being recurrent common denominators. With men being a minority in the current veterinary system, their needs might be under-evaluated when looking at what research has been done. Studies show how men and women can have different views on what contributes to job satisfaction and adversely what might drive them away. Furthermore, diversity has been shown to positively affect productivity in clinical settings, exemplifying why retention of male veterinarians is an important cause.

To explore this issue, Dutch male veterinarians that quit the practice recently were interviewed using a semi-structured interview format, discussing their careers from childhood to the point of quitting, highlighting what contributed to their job satisfaction and what eventually made them quit. Most respondents expressed a continuing love for the profession itself yet described being unable to envision a sustainable future within the current veterinary context. They primarily attributed this to irregular working hours, low financial rewards, and a perceived lack of intellectual or professional challenge.