The topic of veterinary wellness has received increasing attention over the last decade. Whether prompted by societal concern for health and wellness in general, or the growing awareness of the troubling incidence of suicide in the profession (1), veterinary wellness is in the spotlight across Canada, and worldwide. We could ask, “Is this because veterinarians’ health is worse than it used to be?
Are the challenges of practice becoming overwhelming?” According to Dr. Jean Wallace (2) in a recent study identifying the stressful parts of veterinarians’ work and how it relates to their wellness, “more and more veterinarians are suffering from compassion fatigue, burnout, and suicidal behaviors.” Over the past ten years, veterinarian health has drawn more and more attention. Veterinary wellness is a hot topic in Canada and around the world, whether it is due to societal concerns about health and wellbeing in general or the disturbing rate of suicide in the profession (1). Is this a result of veterinarians' health being poorer than it once was? Are the difficulties of practicing getting too great? According to Dr. Jean Wallace (2), "more and more veterinarians are suffering from compassion fatigue, burnout, and suicidal behaviors" in a recent study highlighting the stressful aspects of veterinarians' profession and how it connects to their welfare.
In a highly competitive market where business management knowledge and skills are under pressure to overtake veterinary knowledge and skills, today's practitioners must contend with some newer trends, the pressures of rising client expectations, the risks of complaints and malpractice suits, intensifying regulatory governance and accountability, and mounting student debt. And to top it all off, keeping up with the proliferation of knowledge is a constant challenge for practitioners in today's world. This is a problem in and of itself, but it becomes more of a problem the closer veterinary medicine gets to matching the standards and sophistication of human medicine. The moral distress of balancing quality patient care with client financial means, and the realities of euthanasia (both humane- and economic-based) are daily aspects of practice that threaten to undermine even the most resilient.
Today practitioners confront some newer trends, the stresses of rising client expectations, increasing risk of complaints and malpractice suits, intensifying regulatory governance and accountability, and mounting student debt all within a highly competitive market wherein business management knowledge and skills press to become just as essential as veterinary knowledge and skills. To top it off, today’s practitioners face a constant struggle to keep up with the information explosion.
Today practitioners confront some newer trends, the stresses of rising client expectations, increasing risk of complaints and malpractice suits, intensifying regulatory governance and accountability, and mounting student debt all within a highly competitive market wherein business management knowledge and skills press to become just as essential as veterinary knowledge and skills. To top it off, today’s practitioners face a constant struggle to keep up with the information explosion. This is a challenge in itself, but a challenge made greater by the rate at which veterinary medicine is ever more closely approximating the standards and sophistication of human medicine.
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