Mentorship may help improve job satisfaction

My career has come to an end. After some 47 years of practicing veterinary medicine, I have hung up my stethoscope, sold my practice, and now have only the memories to keep me company. I look back upon a career that saw me treating large and small animals, owning 2 different clinics, employing scores of employees, volunteering and leading many different veterinary groups, writing a self-help book, and serving on veterinary college committees. Did I wake up each morning and jump out of bed, heading off to work in total ecstasy, exhilaration, and enthused anticipation? Absolutely not! However, there was rarely a day when I doubted my choice of profession and my undeniable gratitude for having received that acceptance letter from Cornell University on April 25, 1973.

With this as a preface, it is an understatement when I state that a recent American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Chart of the Month,¹ whose source is 2023 Merck Animal Health Veterinary Wellbeing Study IV,² grabbed my full attention. The topic was veterinary team job satisfaction and indicated that 56% of the surveyed veterinarians expressed an “extremely/very satisfied” rating for their job, 11% gave their job a “not too satisfied” rating, and the remaining 33% rated their job as “somewhat satisfied.” Frankly, to give your job a “somewhat satisfied” opinion is not what I call a ringing endorsement. That being said, if I add the 33% and the 11% responses, I now have 44% of our veterinarians stating that they are not terribly excited about their chosen profession. The survey noted that younger veterinarians (those aged less than 34 years) have the lowest level of satisfaction. The Merck study goes into further detail on some of the topics, which define job satisfaction and lack thereof: burnout, well-being, mental health, coping skills, clinic culture, work-life balance, income, career pride and positivity, and student debt.

These statistics caught me by surprise and should be great cause for concern for anyone who cares about the health and future of our profession. It is discouraging to recognize the years of preparation and planning that each veterinary school applicant has experienced, not to mention their hopes and prayers for their own letter of acceptance, and then read these findings, which detail a profession under stress. Correcting these significant challenges to career satisfaction requires a multidimensional approach. Financial, career, and mental health counseling would all serve a positive role, as would guidance for a healthier work-life balance. Or perhaps a change in location or even a totally different branch of veterinary pursuit. Personally, my stress levels plummeted the day I started at a new practice where the large animal work did not include equine medicine. And we all know classmates who switched their employment from clinical to nonclinical, and that can make all the difference. Although these approaches are available and warranted, there remains one more therapeutic piece that might fill the greatest need when striving to increase this level of job satisfaction: mentorship.

Mentorship is nothing new. I would even argue that our profession has relied more than most others on its utilization and delivery. This concept brings with it the ideals and aspirations associated with a variety of characteristics. Perhaps the most shared word when referencing this term would be guidance. For me, however, it goes much deeper. A mentor is one who offers the irreplaceable wisdom of experience, the knowledge of what works and what fails, the learned lessons of confronting and solving the same repetitive dilemmas, the genuine ability to instill confidence and positivity, the coaching that turns the obscure into the obvious, and the sound reasoning that bolsters and restores strength and hope for a successful career.

Our profession and its leadership have already developed a variety of mentorship programs. They are digitally designed and delivered. A few examples would be the AVMA-endorsed MentorVet Connect program, Ready Vet Go, Veterinary Information Network’s Veterinary Mentorship Academy, and a variety of programs offered in-house by corporate practice groups. However, I still see a significant void, which when addressed, might very well boost that “very satisfied” percentage. That would be face-to-face mentorship.

Photo: luckybusiness/Adobe Stock

We, as a profession that cares seriously about its own, need to create more opportunities for our students and our most recent graduates to converse in person with those who have survived and flourished. Our baby boomers, Generation X, and even Millennials have a wealth of knowledge, experience, and sound advice that surpasses any online auto-tutorial, costs nothing, and is infinite in value. There truly is no replacement for such a one-on-one opportunity. Just as we all had that extra set of guiding hands on our very first spay or the astute advice and support of a senior clinician for treating that first diabetic cat, I see no better option for confronting the woes, fears, and challenges facing our youngest members and prospective members than sitting down in the same room with one of the many who have already been there.

To accomplish this hands-on mentorship I suggest the following:

• Create space in the veterinary school curriculum to allow frequent mentoring sessions with alumni and invited practitioners. These occasions may be organized as part of the business courses offered or simply as stand-alone events.
• Do the same for our national, state, associations at their conventions, meetings, and continuing education (CE) gatherings as well as other CE conventions and events held by veterinary college alumni associations.
• Our larger veterinary facilities, which have a staff of 20 or more veterinarians, should hold and encourage frequent in-house mentoring events.
• The guidelines for veterinary school externships should encourage mentoring, internships, and residencies. Postgraduate veterinary medicine is not all about diagnosis, treatment, and surgery.

The format of these mentoring events should be structured as small groups of 1 to 5 attendees per mentor. Depending on the attendance there are several different paths at this point. Where the number of mentees is small it might work best to have groups of 1 or 2 who sit down with a mentor and converse for an hour or longer on numerous topics. Where the turnout is larger, a preferred option might be to have a number of tables, each with a different topic posted, and have the mentees rotate every 15 minutes to a new table of their choice, limiting the number per table to 4 or 5 individuals. The mentors will need to decide among themselves how to delegate the topics. Examples for discussion might be stress, family and work-life balance, staff issues, feelings of incompetence, career transition, practice ownership, finding a mentor, mental health, client disputes, and so on.

Prior to the event, it would be advisable to have some guidelines provided to the mentors. These might take the form of a handout, online education, or simply a sit-down presentation. There are many excellent guides for best practices in mentorship. A recommended example would be found in the 2023 American Animal Hospital Association Mentoring Guidelines.³ I will add, however, that from my experience mentoring is more an art than a science. There is no single format that would serve as the gold standard. What is universal are the key words and phrases which each mentor should express during their conversations. The mentee needs to hear: “How are you doing?” “What are your challenges?” “How might I help you?” “I understand,” “I know what you are feeling,” “There is a solution,” and “Here is my advice.” As these events conclude, they must not end. It is important to exchange contact information and encourage continued communication and support. During the sessions there will be questions that need some form of follow-up. The mentor should anticipate this occurrence and assure the mentee that he/she will send along the proper answers in short order. This usually takes the form of a link to a website or the email address of someone who may provide the requested information.

What about the online approach to mentoring? Wouldn’t this work just as well? I cannot dispute the convenience of such a format. And, yes, digital delivery allows true professionals in this field to participate. However, for online mentoring to succeed, you must rely upon the prospective mentee to take that first step and assume the experience, and sound advice that surpasses any online auto-tutorial, costs nothing, and is infinite in value. There truly is no replacement for such a one-on-one opportunity. Just as we all had that extra set of guiding hands on our very first spay or the astute advice and support of a senior clinician for treating that first diabetic cat, I see no better option for confronting the woes, fears, and challenges facing our youngest members and prospective members than sitting down in the same room with one of the many who initiative for searching out such programs. On the other hand, when face-to-face events happen at veterinary meetings, other organized veterinary events, in-house veterinary facilities, and veterinary colleges, we have the ability to reach out directly and individually to our prospective mentees. Those in charge at these gatherings should make every effort to grab these younger attendees by the hand and personally persuade and encourage them to attend. We have the opportunity to truly extend happiness and career satisfaction to so many through mentoring. We just cannot wait and hope for them to take the initial step. We must be proactive.

Another obstacle that some of the online courses cannot avoid is a fee. We must keep the face-to-face mentorship cost-free. Additionally, the in-person events allow the mentee to converse and learn from a number of different mentors during the same hour or two. Advice takes many forms. The ability to gather a variety of opinions from a single session only boosts the value and advantages of this personal experience.

There are challenges to any mentorship program. Signing up the participants on both sides of the table will take time and effort. The value and rewards for each group must be advertised and promoted. The mentors should be knowledgeable, energetic, generous, and supportive. The mentees should be excited, curious, and receptive. The time commitment for mentee and mentor may pose an obstacle. Fortunately, our profession is one steeped in the tradition of giving and supporting our own. It is also one which finds its members constantly striving for improvement and seeking answers. These qualities should serve to bring both groups together.

Early in my career I worked as an associate at 2 different animal hospitals. They were quite representative of the 1970s and 1980s in that they both were small, independent facilities and each was owned by a solo veterinarian. The environment was warm and friendly. All the employees regarded each other as family. As I was new to the profession, the owners of these hospitals continually went out of their way to bolster my confidence and instill a sense of positivity and fulfillment. They were always by my side offering advice and wisdom. You could tell that they were genuinely interested in my well-being and my professional growth. They were true mentors. Perhaps they wanted to nurture my success and hope that one day I would buy into ownership. But there was more than that. I honestly felt that they each had experienced their own local, and affiliated veterinary fragility and insecurity upon graduation and now felt obligated to foster my happiness and success.

But that was then. Our profession is changing. We need to ensure that as the corporate sector grows, so does this same personal and supportive mentorship. Regardless of the practice type, the problems facing the recent graduate remain the same. In fact, the present growth of corporate ownership provides a new opportunity and an additional pathway for delivering in-house and hands-on mentorship.

One final observation. Another look at the Chart of the Month reveals that the percentage of “unhappiness” for our support staff is even greater than that of the veterinarians. Our technicians, receptionists, and administrative employees are experiencing their own set of challenges. Our support staff is vital to our profession and cannot be overlooked. Although I have not addressed this deficiency, we must not forget them either when it comes to mentoring and support. We need to include the whole workforce in this process.

In summary, our profession is fortunate in that so many of us have the wisdom and experience to advise and support others who might be struggling and who might be questioning themselves and their choice of this dream career. The 56% of individuals in our profession who have obviously figured it out, and who have expelled the demons, are an untapped potential that we must bring on board if we are to pass on and bequeath to others the well-being and happiness that so many of us have already found.

REFERENCES

1. Chart of the month: veterinary teams and job satisfaction. American Veterinary Medical Association. Published August 20, 2024. Accessed November 11, 2024. https://www.avma.org/blog/chart-month-veterinary-teams-and-job-satisfaction
2. Volk JO, Schimmack U, Strand EB, et al. Work-life balance is essential to reducing burnout, improving well-being. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2024;262(7):950-957. doi:10.2460/javma.24.02.0135
3. 2023 AAHA mentoring guidelines. American Animal Hospital Association. June 27, 2023. Accessed November 11, 2024. https://www.aaha.org/resources/2023-aaha-mentoring-guidelines/