Elevate Your Wellbeing: Perfectionism, Boundaries, Toxic Workplaces, Martyrdom, and Addressing Veterinarian Wellbeing Organizationally

Combating Perfectionism

Recording Duration: 25 minutes
Interactive Course Duration: Approximately 50 minutes
 

Session Description: Perfectionism is a common trait among veterinary specialists. Research demonstrates that veterinarians who exhibit trait perfectionism have a higher risk of moral distress, which impacts professional wellbeing. This session will focus on practical strategies to help cope with and reduce perfectionism long term.

Martyrdom in Veterinary Medicine

Recording Duration: 50 minutes
Interactive Course Duration: Approximately 75-90 minutes
 

Session Description: Veterinary professionals are used to working long hours without breaks due to increased caseloads and short staffing. It is often chalked up to our passion for this profession. This has led to our ability to withstand these circumstances being worn like a badge of honor. Martyrdom is “a display of feigned or exaggerated suffering to obtain sympathy or admiration.” Many of those in practice have learned phrases and behaviors that promote the creation of more martyrs. In this session, you will learn how to recognize those words and actions and change your culture.

Identifying a Toxic Workplace

Recording Duration: 25 minutes
Interactive Course Duration: Approximately 50 minutes

 

Session Description: With the shortage of veterinary staff and higher than ever caseload, team members are struggling with burnout. Unfortunately, workplace toxicity contributes to employee burnout and dissatisfaction, which can lead to a vicious cycle of turnover and burnout for those team members left behind. Recent studies and focus groups have served to highlight the components of a toxic workplace, in which toxic attitudes are ignored or not addressed. This session will describe the causes and consequences of a toxic veterinary work environment.

Agreeableness Run Amok: The Art of Saying No

Recording Duration: 25 minutes
Interactive Course Duration: Approximately 50 minutes
 
 

Session Description: Have you ever said yes to something when you really want to say no?  Or do you find yourself saying yes to too many commitments and becoming exhausted?  If the answer to these questions is yes, this session is for you!  In this session we will dive into the art of boundary setting and how to set them to promote your personal and professional wellbeing.

A Survey-Based Organizational Approach to Improving Veterinarian Wellbeing

Recording Duration: 50 minutes
Interactive Course Duration: Approximately 75-90 minutes
 
 

Session Description: We created a unique Doctor Wellbeing Survey intended to gain insights to develop initiatives in three key areas of wellbeing: Workplace, Personal & Professional, and Financial Wellbeing. A modified version of the Physician Wellness Inventory, a survey leveraged in human healthcare, was also included, resulting in 37 total items. All items were rated on a 5-point agreement scale (1-strongly disagree, 5-strongly agree) and participants had the option to add a comment after each section of the survey. The survey was delivered in 2020 (n=278, 62% response rate) and again in 2022(n=266, 46% response rate) to evaluate the effectiveness of wellbeing initiatives taken. Analyses of mean comparisons from 2020 to 2022 were conducted through independent samples t-tests. Results showed significant increases in 14 items, most notably in the areas of Workplace and Personal & Professional Wellbeing. There were significant decreases in 3 items, particularly in response to the impact of educational debt on wellbeing. Finally, comparisons of Specialty and ER Department doctors were conducted and showed significant differences with lower scores of ER doctor wellbeing on 11 questions. ER doctors scored significantly lower in medical record efficiency, workflow efficiency, feelings of job satisfaction, and overall feelings of pleasure outside of the workplace. This study demonstrates that an organizational, systematic approach based on doctor input can have a positive overall influence of doctor wellbeing.