As a caregiver you are rewarded in your field in special ways. The ability to heal and help is virtuous and important. You dedicate your life to this work knowing that the magnitude of your efforts and the outcomes are genuinely rewarding at the most satisfying level. But you also know that it can come with great internal costs – vulnerability, occasional helplessness and that there will inevitably be a small number of failures, even if they are often out of your control. So, if you are finding that your days are not as sparkly as they once were, that kittens don’t make you smile quite as often or that a senior dog still vigorously wagging their tail doesn’t make you feel as warm inside as it once used to, you may well have Compassion Fatigue, the emotional and physical exhaustion that often leads to a diminished sense of satisfaction in both work and life generally.
Exploring these suggestions may help you return to being vigorously passionate about your profession…

Setting boundaries means being honest about what you can and cannot handle right now…and often that is a daunting admission…an admission that we are indeed human, have our limitations and need to be constantly balancing and rebalancing work, life and play. So, perhaps if we all learned how to set better boundaries, we could foster more mutual respect and compassion, rather than resentment and anger, and we might just be on the right path to improving the overall mental health of the veterinary profession. Here are some key steps towards setting mutually beneficial boundaries…

Most veterinary practices are small to medium businesses that don’t run with much spare capacity. This means that things can feel pretty tight when you have a staff member away on annual leave or due to sickness! That’s where locum relief staff comes in. But how do you go about finding the right locum relief veterinary professional – be that vet, nurse, or tech?