Sooner or later, it happens to all of us. We learn that one of our actions may have unintentionally caused another, maybe a resident, harmThe infliction of mental, emotional, and/or physical pain, suffering, or loss. Harm can occur intentionally or unintentionally and directly or indirectly. Someone can intentionally cause direct harm (e.g., punitively cutting a sheep's skin while shearing them) or unintentionally cause direct harm (e.g., your hand slips while shearing a sheep, causing an accidental wound on their skin). Likewise, someone can intentionally cause indirect harm (e.g., selling socks made from a sanctuary resident's wool and encouraging folks who purchase them to buy more products made from the wool of farmed sheep) or unintentionally cause indirect harm (e.g., selling socks made from a sanctuary resident's wool, which inadvertently perpetuates the idea that it is ok to commodify sheep for their wool).. When this happens it can be devastating. It may have been a simple mistake causing a negative result for a resident. Other times, we learn that the way we have been providing care may be outdated and what we thought was good may actually cause issues for a resident. You may have been misinformed or simply following the techniques generally approved by the greater community for some time. If you have experienced this, you aren’t alone and this doesn’t make you a “bad caregiverSomeone who provides daily care, specifically for animal residents at an animal sanctuary, shelter, or rescue.”. Particularly if you are working with species where compassionate care guidance is elusive, this issue may come up. This resource is here for you. What matters is what you do with the information you now have. This short resource is designed to address the stress of making mistakes and with discovering new, better ways to provide care that highlight the previous techniques that may have been less than ideal for the residents under your care and what you can do about it. Let’s get started.

Out With The Old, In With The New

Every day new findings are published about a plethora of research topics. It is remarkable how much information we have learned about space, botany, and nonhuman animal health and well-being. You may have even noticed an article or two announcing new findings in human mental health and promising ways to navigate difficult emotional spaces. (Nudge, nudge, your mental and emotional health is important!) Within the fields of animal behavior, veterinary science, and animal welfare science many studies have been conducted and published leading to changes in policies and guidelines of professional veterinary and animal behavioral associations. Sadly, a large part of this research was exploitative. However, as time goes on you may hear of new recommendations and previous approaches receive a critical eye. This is good though as it ultimately allows you to provide better care.

We Do Not Condone Animal Experimentation
We have mentioned it before, but this can’t be overstated: We at The Open Sanctuary Project fundamentally disavow animal experimentation and any “use” of animals for human purposes. Unfortunately, there is limited compassionate research and we are often left to do what we can with the studies that do exist.

Caregivers have many responsibilities and full daily care routines. This can make it difficult to find time to review care practices and keep up-to-date on new findings and understandings about different species, veterinary care techniques, ways of assessing well-being (welfare), and how nonhuman animal species experience the world. Let’s look at some ways you can help ensure you have up-to-date information to provide the best care for residents.

Continuing Education Opportunities

Is Citing A Source An Endorsement?
Just because we cite a source, please do not consider this an endorsement of the source by The Open Sanctuary Project (in the same way that we do not endorse any animal organization or individual animal advocate). In addition, the citation of one page of a website does not mean we endorse practices or policies written about elsewhere on the same website, or even necessarily practices or policies that appear on the same page! We try our best to cite exactly what we’re talking about in a resource, which sometimes means finding one important piece of information, rather than finding a source that entirely aligns with our missionThe stated goals and activities of an organization. An animal sanctuary’s mission is commonly focused on objectives such as animal rescue and public advocacy. (which would be nearly impossible in today’s world when it comes to many of our resources).

One way you can help ensure you keep up to date with new advances in animal care, behavior, and veterinary science is through continuing education. We highly recommend boards and directors consider continuing education as a necessary part of a caregiver’s position. Continuing education can include formats from relevant podcasts, webinars, workshops, and online or in-person courses or classes. Sending someone to a conference can also help improve the overall care provided to residents at your sanctuary. Here are a few examples,

• Session A: Animal Welfare Information Sheet For Horse Incident Response Teams
• Caring For Donkeys In Canada The Donkey Sanctuary
• Fear Free Veterinary Certification Program – Equine
• Open Sanctuary Compassionate Care Classroom 
• Podcast: Birds Can Be Fear Free Too!
• Key Concepts In Choice-Based Training: Learn With Us In The Chicken Challenge Workshop

Note, that it is vital you learn the qualifications of the instructor or speakers before signing up for any workshops. Do they provide sources for their info? What is their background? When was this webinar or course released? Has it been updated? You must always take in information with a critical eye. Humans aren’t perfect and even the most well-intentioned may not have everything down. This doesn’t mean you should attend the workshop just that you should hone your critical thinking skills and confirm any concepts, new or old, that you aren’t certain about with other sources.

We recognize that access to many educational and training opportunities or access to certain equipment or other resources can be cost-prohibitive. All our resources are free to ensure everyone has access. If you learn of a new advancement that costs more than the time spent researching the topic, discuss this with your team and present it as a consideration to the board and those who develop the budget each year. 

Self-Directed Research

There are situations and times where you might find yourself turning towards the interest or other sources to answer care questions you may have or to develop a stronger foundation of species-specific knowledge. This is great! Take steps to better understand residents and how to best provide for them. However, it is incredibly important that you use care when evaluating the information you find. Luckily, we have a guide to help you with this. Check out our resource “A Guide To Evaluating Farmed Animal Care Sources, Recommendations And Information For Your Sanctuary”.

As previously mentioned, more information becomes available all the time. Keep an eye out for new understandings of various aspects of nonhuman animal behavior, health, and needs from trusted sources. Below, you can see some interesting topics we cover in our “Science For Sanctuaries” series that provide evidence-based information that can be used to improve the lives of residents. 

Science For Sanctuaries: Visual Barriers

Science For Sanctuaries: Can Lavender Help Horse Residents?

Science For Sanctuaries: Do Goats Prefer Happy Faces?

Science For Sanctuaries: Can Music Benefit Pig Residents?

Proper Training

As a new caregiver or caregiver training in a new area or at a new sanctuary, you don’t have a lot of control over your training. However, you can ask questions, shadow others, and request clarification. Don’t be shy if you are uncertain about a care task. Let those training you know that you want to be certain you are doing the task properly and ask if they can show you again or confirm your understanding of the task.

For managers and care staff leads: We know that operating a sanctuary or managing a team can feel overwhelming. However, caregivers must be given training and oversight until they can safely and responsibly provide care to residents. No one should be expected to jump in and perform duties without adequate training in that area. Doing so puts both residents and staff at risk of harm.

Hone Observation Skills

You might be surprised how focusing on how you take in information can affect the care you can provide residents. To properly care for our residents, we need to understand who they are and what they need. There are various ways that caregivers work to learn more about their residents and what they need- they may take a course, participate in a webinar, order some new books, connect with experienced caregivers online, or check out sources like The Open Sanctuary Project. These are all great ways to build knowledge, but don’t forget that there is so much we can learn about our residents simply by spending time with them and paying attention to them! Honing caregiver observational skills can work wonders in terms of catching when something is “off” and providing quick care or making necessary changes to improve resident lives. Luckily, we have some resources that can help you with this!

Observation: An Important Caregiving Tool

The Caregiver’s Guide To Developing Your Observation Skills

Review & Revise

Annually review and revise, if necessary, care standards and care routines. Set aside a time each year to review current care routines and assess whether they are adequate or if any improvements could be made to care schedules, techniques, or other practices. This can require some additional work and it is okay, and encouraged, that this be an ongoing process. A great place to start when reviewing care standards is The Open Sanctuary Project’s Care Program Evaluation Checklist. This comprehensive, 188-page resource is for sanctuaries looking to review their practices and policies with regard to their care for certain species in addition to general policies and safety.

Honest Mistakes

Blatant Disregard And Repetitive Mistakes

This resource is intended to help caregivers navigate the guilt they may feel when a mistake is made or no mistake is made but new information broadens one’s understanding of ideal care practices. it is not intended to gloss over acts of gross negligence, blatant disregard for resident health and wellbeing, or even patterns of repetitive, if unintentional, mistakes.

We all make mistakes. Looking back, we are often able to see what went wrong, leading to an accident or mistake. Sometimes those factors are under our control and, upon reflection, we can see there are times when, even at our best, accidents or mistakes happen. When appropriate, take responsibility and report any outside factors that led or could lead to this situation.

Example 1:

Slipping in a mud puddle during a storm and losing hold of a gate that swings open and lets Gregor, a goat resident, out isn’t your fault if you were following protocol. Alerting other staff that you need assistance and reporting a fall hazard along the goat residents‘ outdoor living spaceThe indoor or outdoor area where an animal resident lives, eats, and rests. gate is an important step to ensure it doesn’t happen in the future.

In the above scenario, the weather is not your responsibility nor is the mud puddle it causes. Were you wearing proper footwear and paying attention to where you were going and otherwise following protocol? If so, you didn’t make a mistake but an accident happened anyway. While you aren’t responsible for the weather, you are responsible for alerting staff for assistance and reporting the fall hazard to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Have you ever finished up a morning care routine and started to check off tasks and record important details for other care staff only to receive a call that you are needed in another area? Of course, you have! I have too.

Example 2:

On a busy day (This day was made busier by the fact that a farrier was coming to trim hooves and I needed to meet them at the gate.) I forgot to write down that I had given Gretchen, a sweet hen, her morning dose of antibiotics. Later another caregiver radioed to ask me about this as they noticed I hadn’t written it down. They might have assumed she hadn’t been given her antibiotics and attempted to give her an extra dose. This could cause serious health issues with the administration of certain medications. Or, had I forgotten to give Gretchen her medication, she would have missed a dose that was important to her healing.

It was an honest mistake. I was distracted by the need to get to the gate to let the farrierSomeone who provides hoof trimming and care, especially for horses or cows in so I could assist with hoof trims. I was usually pretty good about double-checking to make sure I had recorded anything of note. But that morning I didn’t. And guess what? I felt immediately like a failure and a terrible caregiver and also embarrassed and worried about what other caregivers might think. But I wasn’t a terrible caregiver. It could have been a lot worse were the situation more serious and medication different. I made a mistake. And I won’t lie and say I forgave myself on the spot. The experience showed me that I needed to slow down and be sure that I double-checked things before moving on to the next task even when I felt rushed. Luckily, this wasn’t a situation that had dire effects on those involved.

Common Causes

Caregiving can be hectic and exhausting as well as rewarding. Sometimes, despite our best attempts to do otherwise, we make a mistake. There are certain factors both personal and work-related that can increase the likelihood of mistakes being made. Being able to identify those factors can help you and care team management prevent mistakes and accidents from happening.

• Too many tasks in too little time. Sometimes this may be temporary due to being short-staffed or an emergency. However, it isn’t uncommon for this to be the norm. This is one reason it is important to understand how many residents care staff can reasonably be expected to care for properly. It is hard to say no but stretching staff too thin leads to exhaustion, too many tasks to recall, and a push to rush through care routines. If you are in a position of management it is important to keep this in mind and schedule shifts with reasonable workloads to ensure residents receive the best care and staff stay SAFE. If you are in a position that influences the daily caregiving schedule, make sure you build enough time and flexibility into the schedule for caregivers to observe residents throughout the day. If caregivers are rushing from one area to the next, or if the time they spend with residents is full to the brim with tasks that must be completed, they may not actually have time to thoughtfully observe what’s going on around them.

• Putting out “fires“. Caring for other living beings means there will be sudden urgent tasks to which caregivers must attend. However, a carefully planned routine along with contingency planning can help ensure that, even when things come up, there is a plan in place to navigate the situation.
• Lack of training. Ask questions, seek clarification, and ask for more training, if needed.
• Crossed wires. A simple misunderstanding about a change in care can lead to mistakes which is why keeping records is so helpful. Ensuring there is a written record can help ensure information isn’t lost in translation, or when being passed between multiple staff members. If you forget, there is a paper or digital trail to go back to.
• Change in care routines. When there is a shift in how care is provided such as a shift between winter and spring, care routines may change. It can take a bit for both residents and staff to become accustomed to change. If you are training someone who was hired in another season, these changes must be expressly and openly communicated and the new (to that season) should be trained in the proper care.
• Personal struggles. Navigating grief, loss, illness, financial, family, societal pressures, and other challenges can significantly affect one’s physical and mental wellness. Add to this the stress of the demons of caregiving and all that entails can lead to burnout, compassion fatigue, or other troubles that affect one’s ability to be present and focused.

Forgive Yourself

We can only work with the information we have. When we learn of new advances then we can apply them. It can be easy to be hard on ourselves as caregivers. We want what’s best for individuals under our care. And sometimes, even with the best information available, we make mistakes. While caregivers should always consider what would best serve residents and make every effort to ensure they receive the best care, we are just human. You aren’t perfect. No one is. Try to think what you might say to a fellow caregiver who you know works so hard to provide residents with the best life possible and they made a mistake. I bet you would be understanding and encouraging. Try to turn all the love and care you give to others back towards yourself. You deserve it. Consider speaking with a mental health professional if you find you aren’t able to move past these feelings.

We hope you have found this resource a helpful guide to navigating feelings of guilt. At the very least, we hope you have learned that you aren’t alone in these feelings and there are steps you can take to improve the care you provide residents– and yourself!