Last month, The Veterinary Nurse – along with our sibling titles at UK-Vet – hosted the Veterinary Wellbeing Webinar Series. The free, CPD-accredited event aimed to address the unique challenges faced by the veterinary profession, and offered valuable insights, strategies and support.
We are all aware that there is a problem with mental health in the veterinary industry. The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons launched the Mind Matters Initiative to combat this in 2014. Much of the research on mental health in the veterinary industry has focused on veterinarians, with studies finding that UK veterinarians are 3–4 times more likely to die by suicide (Platt et al, 2010).
The three webinars covered a wide variety of topics relating to mental health and wellbeing in the veterinary industry.
Self-compassion
The first night of the Veterinary Wellbeing Webinar Series focused on the topic of self-compassion and how this can be the antidote to perfectionism.
Katherine Wakelin, Clinical Psychologist and Research Fellow at the University of Surrey, spoke about how research has found a high prevalence of psychological distress in the veterinary profession. One proposed reason for this is that those working in veterinary practice often have self-critical, perfectionist tendencies. Perfectionism can be defined as constant striving for flawlessness and setting high performance standards for yourself and others, and self-criticism as constant negative self-evaluation and scrutiny.
Katherine talked about the signs of perfectionism and self-criticism including:
- Procrastination
- Taking an excessive amount of time on tasks
- Not able to stop working until a task is ‘perfect’
- Viewing the end product as the most important part of the work.
Growing evidence suggests that developing self-compassion can improve mental wellbeing, particularly in people with high levels of self-criticism. The webinar introduced the concept of self-compassion, the three emotion systems and how to begin trying to cultivate self-compassion in day-to-day life. Katherine defined self-compassion as acknowledging what is difficult and trying to relieve this and prevent it from returning.
At the end of the session, a practical breathing exercise was shared that aims to help soothe the nervous system. Many of the attendees found this helpful.
Flexible working and mental health
On night two of the webinar series, Angela Jones, equine vet and a member of Flexee, discussed how flexible working can improve mental health and benefit the veterinary profession. Angela shared her own experiences of working as a vet, and how having small children made her value flexibility. She highlighted how ‘the juggle is real’ and she moved to out of hours only practice that provided greater flexibility. Angela explained that flexibility doesn't necessarily mean one thing, and it can evolve as the demands of life change over time.
Watch the webinarsYou can watch the Veterinary Wellbeing Webinar Series on demand at: https://www.bigmarker.com/series/veterinary-wellbeing/series_summit
Brexit, COVID-19 and the surge in pet ownership have all impacted on workload in veterinary practice. Angela argued that flexibility is needed to stem the flow of people leaving the profession. She highlighted statistics showing that 74% of people worry about burnout, 52.3% of clinics are short-staffed and 43.7% of vets and veterinary nurses want to leave.
Work-life balance was a key theme and flexible working can help with this. Just allowing staff to choose their start and finish times, even with no change in working hours, can have a big improvement on perceived work-life balance. The three aspects of flexible working – where, when and what hours – were discussed. There is not a one-size fits all model, and some options include:
- Working from home, eg admin time from home, billing
- Working from a different branch
- 4-day compressed week
- Personalised start/finish times
- Job sharing.
Angela also highlighted the benefits of flexible working, which were found in a Flexee survey: it attracts and retains staff, it boosts wellbeing, it improves commitment to the practice and motivation for the job, and it improves workplace culture. Flexible working works best in a high-trust environment, with open communication to manage the expectations of staff, and a give and take attitude.
Angela encouraged everyone to consider their own lives and how much time they spend on their priorities, and look at how flexible working could help them achieve a better balance.
Mental health and the veterinary industry
On the final night, Kirsty Pickles, an equine vet by background, talked about important topics including what is mental health and what does poor mental health in the veterinary workplace look like? This was followed by practical tips for helping colleagues who are in crisis.
Kirsty began by defining mental health. Mental health is much more than an absence of mental illness, it is a state of mental wellbeing that enables people to cope with the stresses of life. She cited evidence showing 26.3% of UK vets had anxiety.
There are many factors that can impact on mental health in the veterinary profession. Heavy workload and being on call can be difficult, clients can be a source of stress, financial constraints where clients can't afford to treat their pets and a lack of respect from clients can all be risk factors. Adequate peer support, autonomy and good communication are all protectors. Kirsty highlighted that even if nothing in the workplace changes, people can improve their own resilience.
Burnout is a big problem in the veterinary industry. It has three components: emotional exhaustion, cynicism and decreased professional efficacy. Risk factors include excessive workload, perceived lack of control, insufficient sense of reward, perceived unfairness and not feeling part of a community at work. Suicide was also discussed and Kirsty highlighted how stigma affects people from being able to discuss their feelings.
Signs of poor mental health at work can include absenteeism, but also presenteeism – struggling on when they are clearly unwell and should be at home, difficulties with professional relationships, and leaving the job or profession. It is important to help people before they reach the stage of leaving.
Kirsty gave advice on how to help colleagues including checking in with the person when you have time to listen, asking a meaningful question and listening empathetically. Sources of support for reaching out for help were provided (Box 1).
Box 1.Resources
- Samaritans. Call 116 123 for free or visit https://www.samaritans.org
- Vetlife provide independent, confidential and free help for everyone in the veterinary community including veterinary nurses, students and non-clinical staff. (https://www.vetlife.org.uk)
- Mind Matters Initiative (https://vetmindmatters.org)
Kirsty highlighted the need to look after your own mental health first when helping others, using the analogy of being on a plane: ‘you put your own oxygen mask on first before helping others’.
Researching veterinary nurse mental health
As previously discussed, much of the research around mental health and the veterinary sector has been focused on veterinarians, not veterinary nurses. The Royal Veterinary College is conducting a study investigating UK registered and student veterinary nurses’ mental health to address this gap in knowledge (https://rvc.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/nurs-ing-matters). All registered and student veterinary nurses in the UK are eligible. The survey closes on 11 January.
Conclusions
The Veterinary Wellbeing Webinar Series was a fantastic event that provided veterinary nurses – and others working in veterinary practice – with practical tips and advice on taking care of their mental health and wellbeing. If you missed the webinars, you can watch on demand at: https://www.big-marker.com/series/veterinary-wellbeing/se-ries_summit