Veterinary profession can thrive with some reimagination

Two issues the profession continues to contend with are veterinarian burnout and better leveraging veterinary technicians. These topics interrelate more than expected, according to researchers with studies looking at both areas.

These investigators presented preliminary findings at the 2024 AVMA Veterinary Business and Economic Forum, held virtually October 8-9. They say it all boils down to how the work environment is structured and helping employees reconsider their roles.

"Teams can work together to reshape roles in ways that play to each person's strengths. This approach can help ensure that everyone finds more meaning in their work," said Brittney Bond, an organizational theorist and economic sociologist. "Our research shows that when employees are able to reimagine their jobs in this way, it can lead to significant reductions in emotional exhaustion, stress, and conflict between work and family life, all of which are major contributors to burnout and turnover."

Burnout intervention study

Bond is an assistant professor of organizational behavior at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. She has been researching personnel management systems, including talent recruitment and performance assessment, which shape careers and impact the long-term performance of organizations. Her current interests center around what leads high performers to grow dissatisfied with their jobs and look for new employers.

Bond and her team at Cornell are conducting a clinical trial, funded by the AVMA and the Zoetis Foundation, to help address the issue of burnout in the veterinary profession.

She said veterinarians are more vulnerable to burnout than many other professions because of factors such as excessive workloads, limited job control, and the imbalance between job demands and available skills.

Brittney Bond is an organizational theorist and economic sociologist who is investigating organizational interventions to address burnout in veterinary clinical practice. Early results show a reduction in the voluntary turnover rate of veterinary and administrative staff in participating clinics with these interventions.

"When they are less satisfied with work, engagement drops and this impacts performance when they reach burnout," she said. "We need to transform the workplace itself, not just address individual symptoms. Many current interventions focus on reducing burnout symptoms. They don't tackle the root causes of burnout. It starts with the understanding that for real and lasting change, both the structure and mindset around work have to change."

The burnout intervention study provided some participating veterinary practices with tools and skills to help reduce burnout and increase profitability while others received no interventions. All practices received staff training for free as part of the study.

One intervention the study brought to clinics was training staff members to be mindful of judgmental language and the belief systems behind that language. Judgmental language can create a tense atmosphere, especially when the focus is more criticizing how work is done rather than trying to address specific challenges, Bond said.

"Teams can start to reframe their conversations and focus on the actual demand of the work rather than the assumptions about how it should be done. This shift of language can open up new ways of working together and help reduce some of the pressures that contribute to burnout," she said.

In early findings, Bond said she noticed positive trends for the practices with interventions, such as a reduction in the voluntary turnover rate of veterinary and administrative staff in participating clinics over a three-month period. Also, she said managers reported lasting improvements around being more aware of and reducing judgmental language.

Veterinary technician utilization study

Two other researchers talked about the current roles of veterinary technicians and their study, also funded by the AVMA, that seeks to identify reasons why practices don't always take advantage of all of their veterinary technicians' education and skills.

Elizabeth McClean is an associate professor at the SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell. She researches workplace contexts in which workers can thrive.

Regarding employee utilization, she said, "From the employer side, it's about human capital and getting the best from employees. For employees, it's how to thrive and enjoy working in the workplace. It's an understudied topic with practical relevance, not just for the veterinary industry, but beyond. It's an issue that is systemic within veterinary medicine, not just an individual clinic or individual person."

Elizabeth McClean, a researcher who looks at workplace contexts in which employees can thrive, says her study's preliminary finding suggest that when veterinary technicians have the opportunity to use the skills they feel qualified to perform they are less likely to want to leave their current clinics.

Caitlin Ray is an assistant professor at Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She also researches how workplaces can better use employees.

Surveying nearly 300 veterinarian technicians, McClean and Ray asked to what extent they felt qualified to perform about 60 tasks that credentialed veterinary technicians should know how to do, according to the AVMA Committee on Veterinary Technician Education and Activities. In addition, they asked a subset of those surveyed about the opportunity they have to engage with those tasks.

What they found were different patterns of utilization. Some respondents said they feel as though they have the skills, but they're not given the opportunity to use them effectively at work. Other respondents reported feeling like they're not qualified to be doing certain skills, but they are doing them at work, McClean said.

"We have some preliminary evidence that when people feel qualified and have the opportunity to use their skills that they're less likely to want to leave their current clinics. And part of what we're hoping to do moving forward is to understand a little bit more about what's driving these different utilization patterns in clinics," McClean said.

McClean and Ray encourage practice leaders to think about how veterinary technicians are currently being leveraged and have conversations with them about what skills they feel qualified to perform.

"So maybe ask them what they want to do or what they want to do more or less of. There are certainly demands of the role and the clinic, but there are also opportunities to get creative about how veterinary technicians are matched to the tasks associated with their role," McClean said.

Ray added, "Finding ways to ensure employees feel fulfilled is part of solving the utilization puzzle and working effectively."

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