New service to improve clinic wellbeing

Burnout is on the rise among the clinic workforce, and negatively affects personal and professional wellbeing, and the delivery of quality care to animals. Many feel that stress and burnout, including compassion fatigue, are the most important wellness issues affecting the veterinary community, and that there are not sufficient resources to deal with wellness issues. Results from the recent survey “Burnout Study in the Veterinary Profession” done by Veterinary Integration Solutions and Galaxy Vets show that the development has been amplified by the pandemic stress and restriction in combination with increased pet ownership and a shortage in the veterinary workforce. All this take its toll on the mental well-being of clinic staff.

Some key findings from the survey indicate;

• The burnout rate increased in all groups over the past year
• Younger veterinary professionals remain the most burned-out group
• Those who had professional goals reported significantly less burnout and felt happier and more valued than those who did not
• Veterinary professionals want their employers to take action

One of VetFamily’s focus areas is to support clinic owners and staff in developing a better work environment and work-life balance. During the start of 2022, we will launch a new Clinic Employee and Customer Offering in Norway and Sweden. This is part of a program that will help you get real and continuous insights on how your employees and customers are thinking, with the ambition to help clinics prioritize their scarce time but also budget on the right initiatives.

The program has been developed and tested during the fall in Sweden together with the clinic Solstadens Smådjursklinik. The ambition has been to develop and provide clinic managers with a user-friendly tool and efficient support program to create the clinic of their choice with their colleagues.

Results from the test phase have been positive says Maria Moberg, clinic manager at Solstadens Smådjursklinik; “The close collaboration with VetFamily has worked well, and we immediately noticed that the initiative was appreciated as within a week we had a 100% response rate to our first employee survey (WOW!). Engagement around the initiative at the clinic has been good, and together we have utilized the momentum to create a hands-on development plan with the ambition to create the clinic that we want.” Maria continues; “For me, it is important to create the conditions for everyone to feel good in our clinic and to have the tools and resources to respond to our pet owners in the best possible way. It’s easy to rely on your gut feeling at work, which this service showed doesn’t always match up with what colleagues and owners think and feel.”