Impact of Covid-19 Visitation Restrictions on Veterinary Critical Care Staff

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Historically, visitation of critically ill animals had been common in veterinary ICUs, with visits chaperoned by both veterinarians and the nursing team. Visits may represent a source of comfort and information for owners, but may also be time-consuming to veterinary staff. During the COVID-19 pandemic, almost all specialty/emergency veterinary hospitals pivoted to curb-side service, and typically highly limited client entry into the building for staff safety. Similar restrictions on visitation were instituted in human ICUs, leading to stress among clinicians, nurses, and patient families. The proposed study aimed to assess the visitation policies reported by critical care veterinarians and technicians and the spectrum of effects on veterinary team members. Method(s) An electronic survey was distributed to the emergency and critical care community using email and social media. The study was exempted by the institutional review board. Survey questions included demographics, COVID-19 hospital policies, and questions about the impact of restricting visitation. Descriptive statistics were used. Result(s) There were 326 respondents to the survey, with veterinarians (53%) and veterinary technicians/assistants (40%) being the most common. Visitation restrictions were reported by 286 (88%) participants. Of those, 264 (81%) reported permitting visits only for euthanasia/endof life discussion and/or on a case-by case arrangement and 20 (6%) allowed no visitation at all. By comparison, prior to COVID-19, 309 (95%) respondents reported no visitation restrictions. For the veterinary team, 244 (75%) felt sad if they had to decline a visit, while 211 (65%) reported feeling anxious and/or guilty. Most respondents (218;67%) felt the owners were understanding. Restricting visits was perceived to improve time for patient care for 195 (60%) respondents, decrease overall workload for 192 (59%) respondents, and decrease stress for 137 (42%) respondents. Conclusion(s) Visitation restriction impacts veterinary staff both positively and negatively;careful evaluation of visitation policies is warranted. The impact on owners should also be evaluated.