Galaxy Vets unveils research paper on burnout triggers in veterinary medicine

Galaxy Vets has announced¹ its released a paper based on professional literature and the company’s own research to help decrease burnout in the veterinary field entitled “From Surviving to Thriving: Eliminate These Six Burnout Triggers from Your Veterinary Hospital.”

All images photo courtesy of Galaxy Vets.

Burnout statistics

A recent survey displayed² that about 70% of veterinarians have lost a colleague to suicide. A veterinary career has also become a less and less attractive options, with a 2021 AVMA study finding³ that only 47% of veterinarians would recommend the profession while this number was 76% in 2005.⁴ Additional research from Cornell University revealed the field is losing $2 billion in revenue annually because of burnout, and thus, staff turnover.⁵

According to Galaxy Vets,¹ this shows the need for systemic solutions to address emotional and physical well-being and work environment problems on the organizational level, which starts with finding and eliminating the root causes of burnout.

What research says

It is often believed that work overload is a key factor in causing work stress, however, it is more complicated than just this. Christina Maslach, PhD an American social psychologist and professor emerita of psychology at the University of California-Berkeley, spent decades studying occupational burnout, and her Maslach Burnout Inventory is now deemed a gold standard of assessing burnout in healthcare workers.¹

In 1999, Maslach and Michael P. Leiter devised a model—“Six areas of worklife”—outlining the organizational context of burnout and its contributors.⁶ The 6 dimensions of burnout triggers include control, workload, reward, community, fairness, and values. This shows the complexity of burnout and how its origins are from team culture, management style, and reward systems, and is highly driven by values as a moral compass that guides the organization.

Galaxy Vets research paper

With this information plus its recent research, Galaxy Vets, continuously works to find ways for burnout to be systematically addressed on the management level in veterinary medicine, such as through its most recent paper.¹

“It is a creative collaboration of our experts who reflect on the classic causes of burnout through the lens of their experience working in veterinary hospitals. Based on professional literature, our own research, and thought leadership best practices, this paper offers actionable frameworks that can help reduce burnout in the veterinary teams,” said Ivan Zak, DVM, MBA, CEO of Galaxy Vets.

Each section is structured in the following way¹:

• Description of a burnout trigger
• Impact on veterinary professionals
• Comments from veterinary threads on Reddit exemplifying these situations
• Tips for veterinary leaders on how to eliminate triggers
• Actionable to-dos

The paper can be downloaded for free here: https://galaxyvets.com/learning-center/eliminate-these-six-burnout-triggers-from-your-veterinary-hospital

References

1. Danylenko G. Eliminate these six burnout triggers from your veterinary hospital. Galaxy Vets. April 5, 2023. Accessed May 5, 2023. https://galaxyvets.com/learning-center/eliminate-these-six-burnout-triggers-from-your-veterinary-hospital
2. Nearly 70% of veterinarians have lost a colleague or peer to suicide, study finds. The Guardian. June 11, 2022. Accessed May 5, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jun/11/nearly-70-of-veterinarians-have-lost-a-colleague-or-peer-to-suicide-study-finds
3. Volk JO, Schimmack U, Strand EB, et al. Executive summary of the Merck Animal Health Veterinarian Wellbeing Study III and Veterinary Support Staff Study. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2022;260(12):1547-1553. doi: 10.2460/javma.22.03.0134.
4. 2015 dvm360 Job Satisfaction Survey. dvm360. April 28, 2015. Accessed May 5, 2023. https://www.dvm360.com/view/2015-dvm360-job-satisfaction-survey
5. Neill CL, Hansen CR, Salois M. The economic cost of burnout in veterinary medicine. Front Vet Sci. 2022;9:814104. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2022.814104.
6. Leiter MP, Maslach C. Six areas of worklife: a model of the organizational context of burnout. J Health Hum Serv Adm. 1999;21(4):472-89.