Study highlights injury burden and weak safety culture in vet practice

A new mixed-methods study in the Journal of Small Animal Practice suggests work-related injuries are not an occasional hazard in UK companion animal practice, but a routine part of the job for many team members. The researchers found 77.6% of employees reported having been injured at some point in their careers, and 60% said they’d been injured in the previous year, most often during animal restraint and clinical procedures. The paper also describes a workplace culture in which injuries are often normalized, underreported, and worked through rather than formally addressed. That finding lines up with a separate 2026 Veterinary Journal analysis estimating that 68.9% of veterinary workplace injuries go unreported overall, with underreporting reaching 70% in companion animal practice. (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, the message is that injury prevention can’t be treated as an individual resilience issue. If staff expect bites, scratches, sharps injuries, falls, and restraint-related injuries as “just part of the job,” practices may miss chances to redesign workflows, improve handling and restraint protocols, strengthen incident reporting, and reduce presenteeism. Existing UK professional guidance already emphasizes that personal safety should take precedence and that employers must assess risks, provide training, and report accidents and illnesses, but these studies suggest the gap is cultural as much as procedural. (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

What to watch: Expect more attention on whether practices turn injury reporting, training, and visible follow-up into routine parts of safety culture, rather than relying on staff to absorb preventable harm. (sciencedirect.com)