Table 1.
Targeted areas for organizational improvement of veterinary professional wellbeing (65, 97, 166–169, 190–192, 194–197).
| Organizational targets to improve veterinarian wellbeing | |
|---|---|
| Confront existing organizational issues: | • Add measures of employee wellbeing to routine institutional performance assessments |
| • Acknowledge and reduce complexity of workloads where possible | • Reassess whether incentivization strategies undermine wellness efforts |
| • Acknowledge and reduce excessive workload volume | • Reassess whether incentivization appropriately targets the desired work focus |
| • Reassess performance expectations and reconfigure those that are unreasonably high | • Reduce bureaucracy |
| • Reduce excessive workday length/overtime, ensure work compression does not occur | Promote workforce health and wellness: |
| • Improve clinician autonomy and control over work | • Discourage presenteeism |
| • Identify and address systems inefficiencies and redesign workflow as indicated | • Align schedules to appropriately manage workload and patient care when staff illness occurs |
| • Assess technician/clinician/patient ratios and improve staffing where needed | • Integrate wellness, resiliency, and self-care skills into veterinary curricula and workplace settings |
| • Offer work flexibility where possible | • Offer work-life integration support |
| • Reassess scheduling for existing on-call and after-hours work systems. Hire additional staff and implement alternate scheduling as needed. | • Where relevant, acknowledge and offer aid with impacts of educational debt, low salaries and/or personal financial issues |
| • Account for other non-clinical workplace demands/pressures/expectations and their associated complexity of mental effort and logistics | • Incorporate the demonstration of health and wellness of students, faculty, and practitioners into academic accreditation requirements |
| • Improve staff access to administrative support | • Align supportive wellness policies |
| • Identify and mitigate causes of staffing turnover | • Offer a variety of opportunities and availability of health and wellness resources |
| • Address toxic work environments including bullying/mobbing | • Reduce workplace-related challenges in accessing health/wellness resources (e.g., logistical conflicts) |
| • Address resource hoarding | • Encourage time within the workday for wellness |
| • Remove time barriers to professionalism and teamwork | • Provide quiet space for breaks |
| • Address persistent historical negative institutional norms | • Eradicate stigma of experiencing burnout |
| • Assess and reconsider management styles and techniques; improve deficiencies in compassionate leadership, uphold organizational fairness and transparency | Support students, trainees, and professionals in the practice setting: |
| • Reduce technological burden where possible | • Acknowledgment of problems in the workplace environment by leadership |
| • Provide adequate equipment technological support | • Improve alignment of health professional skills and interests with work effort |
| • Address burdens of email and messaging systems | • Provide support during contentious client interactions |
| • Minimize complexity and improve efficiency and usability of medical record systems | • Organizational emphasis of the importance of health and wellbeing in both students and practicing health professionals |
| • Include a broad representation of clinicians and specialties in policy discussions | • Provide accessible education regarding individual wellness techniques |
| • Address salary inequities if present | • Take actions to reduce stigma associated help-seeking |
| • Consider perspectives of underrepresented professional groups | • Train and create positive role models |
| • Address conscious and unconscious biases in individuals and workplace culture | • Provide appropriate and adequate preparation and support for trainee mentors |