Burnout series: burnout in the veterinary profession - here's the simplest solution

When we discuss between colleagues in the profession how many of us have experienced burnout, it's incredible to see the numbers. Many of us have experienced burnout without realising it at the time, only seeing it after we've recovered a bit. Others don't think they have experienced it, but are unaware that they are in the early steps of occupational burnout. 

Burnout in the profession is a build up

The moment we realise we are going into burnout, there are few who don't try to come up with a solution to that. Burnout in the profession is not just about emotional burnout. It's first and foremost physical burnout. We're talking about working long hours in physically demanding tasks (how many consult rooms or surgery theatres have sitting available?). We get physically tired, and then we get home and typically need to spend energy on other tasks, like cooking and cleaning and shopping and looking after kids (you know, trying to have a life outside of work..). We also need to eat, if we don't eat well, we don't sleep well. If we don't sleep, we feel more tired and slowly, day after day, when you wake up, you are more tired than the day before.

Your body is tired, and your brain is tired (remember, your brain is part of your body, and actually consumes most of the energy you are using). Tired brains make mistakes and struggle to process feelings. 

Mistakes are obvious and scary - you calculate the wrong dose of drugs, you shave a show dog for an ultrasound without owner consent, you miss a pyometra and the dog dies from a ruptured uterus. We are always on the lookout for mistakes and once we make one, we tend to try extremely hard to not repeat it, which usually works. But it leads to more cognitive stress and effort. 

And this brings up the monster hidding in the dark. 

The longer the stress we are exposed to, the more difficult it is for our brain to process feelings. Processing feelings is the brain function that leads us to experience emotions. This is why it's often said that we feel disconnected from the role and at some point we say to ourselves "you know what, I just don't care". This is when you've depleted your physical reserves and your brain is doing too much with too little energy.

Breakdown happens when you're body's had enough, your brain's had enough and you've had enough

There is a point when you know something has to change. You've gone through the exhaustion, you're aware of it, you've pushed through, and now you're worse. Something has to change. By now you are aware you're probably burning out (although you are most likely at a more severe stage than you think), that you need to do something different. You consider giving up your job or your career, and sometimes you go down darker thoughts. One way or another, you want it to stop.

Stopping the stressors lets you recover

At that point, one will often pause and decide to stop. For some people, that means going to the doctor and getting signed off to recover, for others they go on holiday or a short work break, others quit, and others consider ending their life if they don't see another way out. Some do. While that one is not serving anyone, the other options of at least slowing down do allow your body to recover. Stopping the stressors that are facilitating your burnout (ie your job!) will get you on the recovery path. I know a colleague who said that once she left a job at a busy hospital that was severely burning her out, she slept for a whole week straight. That's what her body needed. In my case, I left the country for a whole month and went back home to stay with my parents and get aligned.

If you are burned out, you need to stop. Some people stop for a week, some for two weeks, some for two months, some for longer.

If you come back without changing enough, you're just going to get burned out again

Now this is where things get more complicated. What about when you need to go back to work? What if you can't afford to not work? What if you recover a bit, but not enough? Or even if you do recover, you go back to the same conditions that led you to burnout in the first place?

Here's the reality, if you put yourself in the same conditions again, you will get burned out again. Even if you have learned new mechanisms, unless you are much more aware of the recovery time you need, eventually you will still burnout, it will just take longer. And the second, third, forth time time may not be as forgiving with all the extra guilt you're now feeling for burning out again!

What's the simplest solution?

I'm going to tell you what I think is the easiest solution to permanently reduce burnout in the profession as a whole.

Work less hours.

I know what you are thinkg, "genius", right? -sarcasm-

Let's think about it logically: this is the solution. Reduce exposure to stressors. If you are treating an aggressive dog that snarls, growls and snaps when you put your food in their food bowl, the first emergency aid advice you give to owners while waiting for a behaviour appointment is to tell them to stop putting their hand in their food bowl, right? So for us, while we are waiting to get to the doctor or start therapy, we just stop placing ourselves in the middle of those stressors. The easiest way to reduce exposure to workplace stressors is to spend less time at work or working. 

I didn't say it's possible for everyone or easy, but working less hours will inevitably reduce the burnout rates.

Let me ask you this, if you could earn exactly the same money as you are earning right now but you only worked two days a week, would you not do it? Don't you think this would dramatically recude your chances of burnout, or even allow you to recover from an active burnout stage? Doesn't this sound enticing enough to give you some hope that you could maybe go back to working in clinical practice?

We work too much and too long. We are exposed to too much stress for our bodies to remain healthy. Working less hours and spending less hours exposed to the stressors of our emotional and demanding workplaces is a sure way to reduce burnout.

Of course, your boss doesn't want that. The big corporate NO WAY wants that... they will get a mental health programme in place, but reducing your contact hours which is the primary cause of your burnout is a financial loss.

What if you could find a place where you could work only for a few hours and have a decent wage? What if mostly everyone working in practice could do that? Don't you think that would change the profession as a whole? What do you think would happen to suicide rates? And the number of people suffering with anxiety and depression?

Let's be realistic

We all know this is not possible in the current economic system. Reducing your hours may be accepted by your clinic, but they won't maintain your salary. And many of us can't take this type of pay cut.

So the sad truth is that money (or the lack of a proper income) is what's stopping us from working less hours in high stress environments.

But, wait... turns out that these are good news!

Despite what you may think when you read the next sentence, I dare you to consider it: money is easy to earn. I find this an incredibly useful belief.

“Lies!”

I was near the beach two days ago, having a nice dessert with my parents-in-law. Just as I was about to take a bite from my delicious Kinder Bueno ice cream crepe, these two young ladies approached us. They were on their 16s and one of the had a pretty pink camera around her neck. They asked us if we would like to get a picture together. 1 photo for 3€, 2 for 5€. I got my first photo with my parents-in-law, they got 3€. We asked them if it was for a school project.

"No, I'm raising money for my motorcycle license", one of them replied.

Well done!, I told them. They gave us the photo, a little thank you note, a link to their Instagram and moved onto the next table. If they've been doing this for the last 2 weeks when the cafes are packed with tourists and managed to take 3 photos a day, that's 125€ for them. That's a lot of money for a teenager to earn in 2 weeks just by taking photos (and as you can guess, they probably get 10 photos for 1h of work!).

So you see, money is easy to earn. 

Having an income is harder

Money is easy to earn, earning enough money is the trick! This is what is hard to do and what we need, especially those of us who are living in the hard world and have already been caught in the financial webs of society with debt, loans and mortgages.

So if we want to work less hours at the clinic, we need to come up with an alterantive plan to compensate for the loss of income. The easy one is, stop working at the clinic altogether and find another job that provides us with enough income. In some markets, like in the UK, another possible way out is to start locum work. Locum work still allows you to work in clinical practice, but your hourly rate is now higher so you have more freedom to choose your work schedules and also the workplace (which is the primary source for your stressors). There are other alternatives, such as reducing your hours and building a non-related side hustle that relates to another passion of yours, and, of course, you could start your own business.

Alternative sources of income

There are many options for diversifying, but not many of us have had to try super hard to get our jobs in the first place, so we may not understand exactly how to value ourselves on our CV and present our skills during job interviews. A few areas within the industry where you can diversify into are:

• Sales rep for pharmaceutical companies

• Sales rep for veterinary suppliers

• Food inspection and safety

• Reseach and academia

• Pet insurance

• Virtual triage centres and online consults

• Medical writing and medical drawing

• Online pharmacies

• Doggy daycares

• And more!

However, to make a change, you need to follow some steps!

1. Review all your knowlege and practical skills, update your CV

2. Decide on what you're looking for on your new adventure

3. Research the market: are there roles available? What's the salary offered? Where are the roles advertised?

4. Do you know anyone in your network who is working in your new area of interest? No? Find one!

5. Do you need further qualifications? Is there a short course that you can do to increase your odds, or have you been recommended by someone else working in the industry and can get a great reference letter?

6. Prepare for the interview by looking at the role description and coming up with particular situations from your previous experience where you applied the skills required in your new job

7. Once you get the job, be humble and ready to learn everything all over again!

There's more, much more to cover, but we'll get there step by step.

I also love the money topic. I love talking about money and I love creating value (which usually translates to earning money when it's productised). I think this topic deserves a conversation of its own, so I'll write a little more about financial freedom for veterinary professionals soon. Would you like to read it?

One more question for anyone who is brave enough! 

Have you experienced or are currently experiencing burnout?

What do you think of the proposed solution?