Reducing occupational distress in veterinary medicine personnel with acceptance and commitment training: a pilot study.

AIMS: To determine whether an educational programme targeting the reaction of veterinary personnel to difficult client interactions reduced burden transfer, stress and burnout in veterinary staff. METHODS: Employees of three small-animal veterinary hospitals in the south-western United States of America were recruited and randomised to intervention (educational programme; n = 16) or control (no intervention; n = 18) groups. Participants of this randomised, parallel arms trial completed pre-programme assessment including the Burden Transfer Inventory (BTI), Perceived Stress Scale, and Copenhagen Burnout Inventory. Assessment was followed by two, group-format educational sessions, based on acceptance and commitment training, tailored to reducing reactivity to difficult veterinary client interactions (intervention group only). After training was completed, both groups were assessed using the same measures and the intervention participants provided use and acceptability ratings. RESULTS: Intervention participants rated the programme as useful and appropriate, and reported that programme techniques were used a median of 43 (min 9, max 68) times during the 2 weeks prior to retesting. Relative to pre-programme scores, median post-programme scores for reaction (subscore of BTI) to difficult client interactions decreased in the intervention group (33 vs. 54; p = 0.047), but not in the control group (51 vs. 59; p = 0.210). Changes in median scores for stress and burnout from pre- to post-programme were non-significant for both groups. CONCLUSIONS: This pilot and feasibility trial showed high rates of acceptability and use by participants, as well as promising reductions in burden transfer. A larger scale clinical trial with follow-up at extended time points is needed to more fully examine the efficacy of this novel programme. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Preliminary findings suggest this programme may be a useful approach to reducing occupational distress for individuals working in veterinary practice.

Pharmacokinetics and toxicity of the novel oral demethylating agent zebularine in laboratory and tumor bearing dogs.

The purpose of this study was to determine the plasma pharmacokinetics (PK) and toxicity of zebularine, an oral cytidine analog with demethylating activity, in dogs. Plasma zebularine concentrations were determined by HPLC-MS/MS following an oral zebularine dose of 8 or 4 mg kg-1 . Plasma zebularine clearance was constant. Mean maximum concentration (Cmax ) was 23 ± 4.8 and 8.6 ± 1.4 µM following 8 and 4 mg kg-1 , respectively. Mean half-life was 5.7 ± 0.84 and 7.1 ± 2.1 following 8 and 4 mg kg-1 , respectively. A single 8 mg kg-1 dose was well tolerated. Daily 4 mg kg-1 treatment in three laboratory dogs resulted in grade 4 neutropenia (n = 3), grade 1 anorexia (n = 2) and grade 1 or 2 dermatologic changes (n = 2). All adverse events resolved with supportive care. A 4 mg kg-1 dose every 21 days was well tolerated. A follow-up dose escalation study is in progress with a lower starting dose.

Inter- and intra-rater reliability of calliper-based lymph node measurement in dogs with peripheral nodal lymphomas.

The purpose of this study was to assess reliability of lymph node measurements between and within raters in dogs with nodal lymphomas. Three raters measured lymph nodes from 20 dogs twice prior to and once after administering chemotherapy. Sum tumour volume (TV) and sum longest diameter (LD) of all lymph nodes at each time point, and the percent change in measurements following chemotherapy, were calculated for each dog. Inter- and intra-rater reliability were assessed with the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). ICC for inter-rater sum TV and sum LD prior to chemotherapy were 0.86 and 0.80, respectively. ICC for inter-rater sum TV and sum LD after chemotherapy were 0.95 and 0.91, respectively. ICC for percent change in sum TV and sum LD were 0.96 and 0.94, respectively. ICC for intra-rater reliability ranged from 0.90 to 0.98 for each rater. Inter- and intra-rater reliability in measurements among the three raters was good to excellent.