Six Strategies for Preventing Burnout in a Veterinary Career
Burnout in veterinary medicine is an increasingly common and significant issue for veterinarians and veterinary technicians. A 2020 study found that fifty-eight percent of veterinary technicians report symptoms of burnout (Kogan et al), and a 2017 study found that forty-nine percent of veterinarians report “moderate-to-substantial” burnout (Kipperman et al). Burnout can cause decreased job satisfaction, decreased productivity, and most importantly it leads to decreased well-being overall.
What is burnout in veterinarians?
Burnout occurs from a combination of internal and external stressors, and is exhibited by three main symptoms: exhaustion, cynicism, and a lack of efficacy at work. One of the most common external factor for burnout in veterinary medicine is client imposed financial limitations on diagnostic and treatment plans (Kipperman, 2017).
Other key external factors are:
Workload
Hours worked
Client expectations for case outcomes
The emotional toll of providing end of life care
Humane euthanasia (Kogan et al).
Internal factors refer to lifestyle and personality characteristics that predispose individuals to burnout. The Merck Animal Health Veterinarian Wellbeing Study III found that on average veterinarians and veterinary support staff were more likely than the general population to score high for a personality trait called neuroticism. Neuroticism can cause excess worry and less resilience from stress (Volk et al, 2022). Other characteristics associated with burnout are perfectionism, poor sleeping habits, poor work life balance, and a lack of a support system outside work (Kogan et al, 2020).
Before we get into what can be done to decrease burnout, let’s further investigate the symptoms of burnout.
What are the symptoms of burnout in veterinarians?
Exhaustion can be physical, mental, or emotional. The biggest contributor to burnout for veterinary professionals is emotional exhaustion. This is true for many caregiving professions and is described as “the fatigue that comes from caring too much, for too long (Nagoski and Nagoski, 2019). Exhaustion can leave you feeling like you have no energy or interest in your job, or for activities outside of work. This disconnection from things you previously enjoyed can lead to even more burnout.
Cynicism is feeling negatively towards your job, coworkers, and clients. You may feel less interested in your patient’s care and experience less satisfaction from challenges at work that you used to enjoy. A cynical attitude may cause conflicts with coworkers or clients, which can also lead to worsening burnout. Lack of efficacy at work can result from both exhaustion and cynicism. It can also result from the distress caused by knowing that the care your patients receive is not entirely under your control. Regardless of the cause, feelings of inefficacy can lead to a “sense of futility: a feeling that nothing you do makes any difference (Nagoski and Nagoski, 2019), and may motivate you to further disengage from work and even your life outside of work.
Six Strategies to Mitigate Burnout in Veterinarians
Now that we know how to recognize burnout, let’s explore how to prevent it. The Merck Animal Health Veterinarian Wellbeing Study III found that the two most impactful methods of preventing burnout are “having a healthy coping mechanism for dealing with stress and working in a practice or job with a healthy work culture” (2022). Easier said than done, right?
Here are six strategies to help you get started.
1. Seek mentorship
Mentorship early in a career has been associated with increased job satisfaction, increased productivity at work, and a decreased risk for burnout (Pololi and Knight, 2005). Traditional mentorship entails a somewhat formal relationship with a more experienced veterinarian or technician. While this type of mentorship is beneficial, it may be hard to find depending on the type of practice that you work in. Peer mentorship is another possibility, whether as a one-on-one relationship or in a facilitated group setting. A 2005 study of early career physicians reported a sense of “empowerment and personal transformation” after participation in an eight-month facilitated peer mentorship program.
2. Develop a support network
Before you were a veterinarian or technician, you were likely a person with family and friends that you could rely on when things got difficult. Sometimes the rigors of a veterinary education, and then starting out in practice, can be so all-consuming that these amazing people in your life fall by the wayside. But you need them now more than ever. Two of the biggest predictors of good mental health in veterinarians are having a family and time spent with family and friends (Volk et al, 2020).
Networking in local veterinary associations to develop friendships with other veterinary professionals can be helpful in mitigating burnout as well. Sometimes you just need to vent with someone who understands exactly what you are talking about. It can also be a way to find mentorship, either with a more experienced professional or with a group of peers.
3. Practice self-care regularly
Self-care can take many forms and it is vital to overall wellbeing. It is so often said that the advice seems cliché, but the foundations of any self-care routine are regular physical activity, a balanced diet, and getting enough sleep. Think of these things as analogous to putting gas in your car, without gas your car won’t run. Without this basic self-care in place, your body and brain function as they are meant to. Once you have this in place, you can start to consider other methods of self-care such as meditation, prioritizing time for your hobbies, or dedicated time just to do nothing at all. You are important and deserve just as much, if not more, attention as all the other people and things in your life.
4. Maintain a work-life balance
A work life balance means adequate time away from work to do the things that you need to do to support your home life such as housework and running errands, but it also means time to engage in activities that you enjoy, whatever those may be. Especially beneficial in preventing burnout is time spent with loved ones (Volk, 2022).
Work-life balance or work life integration varies based on the individual. Some individuals need time that is completely free from responsibilities associated with your job. The key to a good work-life balance is to set up specific boundaries about how, or if, you are to be contacted when you are not at work. These boundaries need to be verbalized to your manager, possibly in writing as well, and reinforced by your own behavior to be effective.
5. Finding meaning and purpose in your work
If you work in general practice, whether as a veterinarian or technician, there are a lot of different avenues to explore to find a niche where you can utilize your strengths or be challenged in your weaker areas. Professional development in topics that interest you can reinvigorate your passion for veterinary medicine and is associated with personal growth and feelings of achievement at work (Kogan et al, 2022).
Getting involved at work by organizing team building activities, opportunities for employee recognition, and frequent team meetings can also improve employee engagement, not just for yourself but for your coworkers as well (Pizzolon, 2019).
6. Advocating for a healthier culture at work
A healthy work environment is one in which individuals feel recognized and valued for their contributions, where team members show respect for each other and communicate well, and where people can grow professionally by engaging in work that is meaningful to them. A non- toxic work culture is correlated with decreased burnout and a sense of fulfillment (Pizzolon, 2019).
Veterinarians are de facto leaders in a clinic setting and can advocate with management or practice owners for policies that improve work culture. Both veterinarians and technicians can model a team focused approach to patient care, self-care practices like taking breaks to eat, and healthy boundaries between work and personal life to encourage others to do the same.
Conclusions
While burnout is pervasive in veterinary medicine, it does not have to always be this way. We all have the opportunity to reinvigorate ourselves and our profession by using these strategies to recognize and prevent burnout.
References
Kipperman, B. S., Kass, P. H., & Rishniw, M. (2017). Factors that influence small animal veterinarians’ opinions and actions regarding cost of care and effects of economic limitations on patient care and outcome and professional career satisfaction and burnout, Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 250(7), 785-794. https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.250.7.785
Kogan LR, Wallace JE, Schoenfeld-Tacher R, Hellyer PW and Richards M. (2020) Veterinary Technicians and Occupational Burnout. Frontiers in Veterinary Science. 7:328. doi:10.3389/fvets.2020.00328
Nagoski, E., Nagoski, A. (2019). Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle. Ballentine Books.
Pizzolon, C. N., Coe, J. B., & Shaw, J. R. (2019). Evaluation of team effectiveness and personal empathy for associations with professional quality of life and job satisfaction in companion animal practice personnel, Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 254(10), 1204-1217. https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.254.10.1204
Pololi, L., Knight, S. (2005). Mentoring Faculty in Academic Medicine a New Paradigm?. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 20:866–870. Doi: 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2005.0167.x
Volk, J. O., Schimmack, U., Strand, E. B., Vasconcelos, J., & Siren, C. W. (2020). Executive summary of the Merck Animal Health Veterinarian Wellbeing Study II, Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 256(11), 12371244. https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.256.11.1237
Volk, J. O., Schimmack, U., Strand, E. B., Reinhard, A., Vasconcelos, J., Hahn, J., Stiefelmeyer, K., & Probyn-Smith, K. (2022). Executive summary of the Merck Animal Health Veterinarian Wellbeing Study III and Veterinary Support Staff Study, Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 260(12), 1547-1553. https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.22.03.0134