Veterinary burnout can be costly and needs to be understood at a deeper level.
Most veterinary professionals have experienced veterinary burnout. The stress you are likely to encounter while working in a veterinary practice can hamper you from performing at your peak. The result is that the animals don’t get the care they deserve, clients feel dissatisfied, and your mental and physical health comes at stake. In such scenarios, ignoring veterinary burnout is not the solution and can further exacerbate the situation.
While different options, such as meditation and taking time off, can help veterinary professionals return to their normal selves, there is a need to understand veterinary burnout at a more profound level to develop more workable ways to tackle the menace. Understanding the factors that can make veterinarians reach a tipping point has a lot of significance when it comes to devising methodologies to bring veterinary burnout to a minimum.
Factors impacting veterinary burnout
Identifying and studying the factors behind veterinary burnout can be a starting point to chalk out plans to help veterinarians stay on top of their game. Some of the factors that can have a substantial impact on inducing veterinary burnout are known to be financial stress, work environment, and euthanasia.
Financial Stress
Financial stress can be a telling element in making a veterinary professional dissatisfied with the job and bringing untoward psychological effects. Low pay that a veterinary professional believes doesn’t do justice to the work he or she performs can make the professional vulnerable to mental exhaustion.
Work Environment
The work environment is also a crucial factor regardless of the industry you are working in. An unfavorable work environment is likely to take a lot of toll on your mental health, which can sometimes be more pronounced in the case of a veterinary practice environment.
Euthanasia
Certain veterinary procedures, such as euthanasia, can also induce emotional exertion, manifesting itself in the form of veterinary burnout. Being forced to put down an animal because the owners don’t have sufficient funds for treatment is an emotionally demanding process, and its relation with veterinary burnout should not be ignored.
Galaxy Vets is an organization that partners with veterinary practices across the US to materialize a vertically integrated healthcare system. Galaxy Vets enhances veterinary service with retail diagnostic centers, virtual care, and a membership services model. The organization has a mission to pursue burnout prevention in veterinary practices throughout the country.
Galaxy Vets conduct annual veterinary burnout surveys, and this year’s survey, which is based on the Stanford Professional Fulfillment Index, is open. The survey contains additional questions to discover the relationship between burnout and the work environment, compensation, and euthanasia. The data gathered will be used to develop actionable knowledge to help veterinary teams reduce burnout.
The survey will take approximately 10 minutes to complete, and all responses will be anonymous. You can access the survey here.
AUTHOR PROFILE
Dr. Omer Rashid earned his veterinary degree in 2002 from University of Agriculture Faisalabad, and quickly followed that with a Master’s degree in Parasitology. He worked for several years in veterinary practice with small animals, as well as horses and livestock. He studied advanced pharmacology at Charles Darwin University in Australia, and discovered his love for writing while working as a science writer for a research company with clients such as Harvard, Stanford and Cambridge universities. Along the way, Dr. Rashid developed an interest in integrative veterinary health, and he joined Redstone Media Group as Associate Editor of IVC Journal and veterinary content developer in 2022.
