Good evening everybody, and welcome to tonight's webinar. My name is Amelia Sherwood and I'm the key account manager here at the webinar bet. I'd like to welcome you to this evening's session, Beating Veterinary Burnout, which has been kindly sponsored by the warrior vet.
If you have any questions for our speaker during the session, then please pop them in the Q&A box, and provided we have time, we will run through them at the end. You should also have received a workbook by email to accompany this evening's session, but if you haven't received it, don't panic, we will also add the link to the email following on from tonight's webinar. So we're very pleased to welcome Doctor CD Gardiner as our speaker tonight.
City is a life coach who specialises in mindset mentorship and wellness coaching for veterinary and medical professionals. She has been qualified for over 18 years as a veterinary surgeon, and works in first opinion practise and is also a proud mom of two boys. CD currently holds a postgraduate certificate in small animal surgery, life coaching diploma, and nutrition coaching certification.
In 2018, she went on a mission to figure out how to really help make changes for people and studied personal growth, psychology, NLP, and many other behavioural science techniques. City has worn many hats throughout her career, including clinical director, practise, and business owner, clinical coach, examiner for Duchy College, and guest lecturer for Bicton College and Bristol University. She spends her spare time collaborating with and working on several working groups and subcommittees on ethnic diversity, equality and inclusion.
And in July 2021, she began her four year term as RCVS council member, representing her veterinary colleagues. So CD, over to you. Hi everyone.
I just did to quickly send a message and I'm off the set now. This is so lovely. Thank you all for taking time, to join us tonight.
. I think it's so important for everybody to remember that the most valuable, possession we all have is time because we can never get it back. So you guys are streets ahead of your colleagues just by taking the time out to, make sure that you attend this live. Today, we're gonna speak about, Veterinary burnout, OK?
And I just want to quickly identify all of, just the warning signs of burnout and give you some useful tips, and principles that you can implement. I'll also promise to show you the strategies to prevent employee burnout. And I'll also use the 4 different factors, just for overall well-being, that are used.
I also, I'm gonna share the biggest mistakes that practise management can make, and then some specific initiatives that we can take. But let me know if this sounds familiar at all, OK? Are you tired, of just feeling really overwhelmed, overworked and exhausted?
Well, everybody else around you just kind of seems to be coping. And, you're not too sure that they're coping, but they seem to be coping. You know, are you really Struggling to break free from what feels like, personally, it's like a hamster wheel, you know, and you're just trying to move forward in your life, whether you've got rotations, a business that you own or run, you're a, you know, a partner, or, you know, just working to just keep your head above water.
Feel any of these things, guys. I want to let you know that it is not your fault that you ended up here, and that is the 100% truth. We always find reasons to blame ourselves in the profession, but You know what the real problem is, OK.
Stress and burnout are not actually the problem. Mainly because problems have solutions. OK?
My son asks me all the time, Mom, can you help me with my maths? And we figure out where this Problem that he has in front of us and how to figure out what the solutions are. OK.
Burnout people is a challenge. It's an obstacle. It's an omnipresent risk to every single one of us.
And we need to just make sure we are in a clear understanding of what that is. But first of all, why should you listen to me? I, I always ask this when I watch these.
The truth is, guys, If you haven't, had a classmate or a colleague commit suicide, you probably know somebody who has. That's a very sobering thought, because I work with people from all walks of life, and none of them who don't work in veterinary. Have said yes to this question.
OK? So studies have repeatedly found that significantly higher rates of burnout, depression, Suicide and suicidal ideas in the veterinary professionals when compared to the general population in the US as well as the UK. OK.
So the most recent studies showed that depending on their gender, veterinary surgeons are between 1.2 to 2.5 times more likely to die by suicide than the general population.
We hear these figures bandied about to the point where we're almost numb to them. These are significant. Veterinary nurses are 2.3 to 5 times more likely to die by suicide than the general population.
As Amelia has said, You know, my name is Tshidi. I, I'm a founder of Gardener Coaching, Academy. I provide wellness coaching, for veterinary professionals, and I'm also, a well-being mentor.
And I have a precision nutrition coaching certificate, and I really enjoy what I do. I am not a psychiatrist. I'm not a psychologist, even though I do use psychological, methods.
I'm not a mental health expert, even though I have taken mental health training, and QPR training, for suicide prevention, because I'm so passionate about it. You know, I'm not a psychotherapist or anybody who has mental health, care professional, you know, training either medicine or psychology, or nursing or social, but I don't have to be to care about what my colleagues are getting on with. OK?
As a trained life coach, I provide drive and guidance, you know, when you need to improve either your career, your relationship, or your life. Help you focus on goals, help you move past challenges that stand in the way of these goals, because that's easy for that to happen. You just stumble.
But you also need to just be clear on some visions. As a wellness coach, as well as a nutrition coach, I really help to motivate, you know, help find you those motivations and tools to get you physically and emotionally, you know, up to where you want to be in your health goals. So whether you want to lose a few pounds, choices, lower your stress, or have an acceptable work-life balance.
This is where I come in. All right. So if you're ready to get started, please.
Let me know if any of this resonates with you, so just pop in the chat if anything is like, yeah, that's me, or if you have any questions, just go. Hopefully You will find this interesting. This is an interactive, session.
So there's a workbook, and you can use, either with audio or video later on when you relook at this. So you can download this later if you haven't done so already. It should be in your email.
But I want you guys to think about this. How do you take time out? Just think about it.
How do you take time off, time out? You know, pop it in the chat if you want to, and see if anybody else is similar to you. This might be your version of time out, binge watching Netflix, maybe with a couple of drinks and some crisps.
There is no wrong or right answer. But just think about how it is that you actually take time out of your day after a busy time. We're gonna discuss what stress is.
I'm gonna also discuss some of the predictors of burnout. And also the warning signs of burnout. The second part is just gonna cover the strategies, fundamental principles, and the initiatives that you're able to use within the practise.
Right. So first of all, what is stress? We all use this word all the time.
What is stress? And there are a lot of different definitions, but in reality, guys, stress is basically standard neurobiology. OK?
The more fear enters into a situation, or into the equation, the more norepinephrine and cortisol, which is the main neurochemicals that underpins fear, enters the equation. So we have a big database of information that we have available to us. This size of database literally just shrinks.
The brain's pattern recognition system absolutely shrinks down to just a couple of binary. Decisions, which usually end up with you thinking, am I gonna fight here or am I going to run? All right.
And we know this, this, this system can, you know, we know it as the amygdala hijack. You've heard this before, I know, several times. But here's the truth, guys.
You know, there's so many areas, in life where we found out that there's just new record highs of stress being experienced by just the world over, you know, it's, it's actually jumped up to 40%. This is a 5% jump from 2019, and really represents over 190 million extra highly stressed people. I suspect that this group of people, probably some of us are in that group, all right?
In that, estimation. Also, along with this, we've got about 20% of the world's population being sleep deprived. That says something.
You know, the lack of sleep really wrecks absolute havoc with your body systems, and it will impact everything from your relationships, concentration, and your cognitive capacity. So don't think that having poor nutrition or being unfit really because it does Once acute stress or that threat that you feel passes, the body tends to return to normal. But, when the body is really exposed to long-term chronic stress, negative, effects start happening.
All right. Whether it's your immune system, gastrointestinal health, inflammation, heart condition, diabetes, all of those things are related. Now, I know this is a little bit of a graphic example, but honestly, I didn't realise how badly stress affected my brain.
OK? Just cause we can't see it doesn't mean that it isn't affecting us negatively. It actually causes changes in your brain structure.
Stress will kill brain cells. It'll shrink the size of your brain, long-term stress, and it definitely hurts your memory and increases, increases the chances of mental health, . You know, I think all of us experience this kind of, you know, this feeling that this person has in this picture.
You know, you just want everything to stop. You know, and it feels like that, you know, those constant sleep disruptions. You just are worried all the time.
You're thinking about things and ruminating on them. You have increased heart rate, increased blood pressure. And you have these memory impairments.
I, I remember I used to stand, walk into rooms. We do this all the time, don't we? Walk into a room, stand there, think, I don't know why I'm here.
Walk out, walk in again, and think, Oh, well, maybe I'm just, it's an age-related thing. But actually, it's probably the memory impairments of, stress. OK.
And you've got this reduced ability to learn the problem if you are trying to study. And this segues beautifully into the burnout triad. OK?
There's specific symptoms for burnout. And sometimes people think, Oh, no, I need to have all three. You do not need to have all 3 for you to be actually experiencing burnout.
Number one is emotional and physical exhaustion. Number 2 is depersonalization and cynicism. What does that sound like?
I couldn't care less. They don't care why should I? If any of these kind of things, you know, start, these, these, these patterns start occurring, you start thinking, oh, am I getting a little bit more cynical than I was?
And then this reduced sense of personal accomplishment. You know, no matter how well you do stuff. You just kind of question yourself and you think, well, I don't know if this is actually any good.
In the section of your workbook, you're going to find, something that is basically under the stress. So at the end of each of the sections, you'll have a little, you know, worksheet or something to use. So, This is How to deal with stress, basically.
So it's a quick crib sheet, really. And it's got some expensive things, some low-cost stress release, behaviours. You can do some no cost, some traditional methods, and also some toxic and probably not so good ones.
I suggest you start with the no-cost ones. All right? Don't try to do everything, just pick one.
All right? That is, that is the plan. Just pick one.
All right, so the low cost ones includes exercise, some breathing techniques, try power naps, whatever it is. Have a look at that and see which ones resonate with you. Why don't you guys, just pop in the chat and see what everybody else is doing?
Which ones of these things are you currently doing to reduce your stress? Because If you're not doing any of them, you're probably doing something else. But think of the stuff that you are doing that work for you.
OK? Let's move on to the predictors of burnout. You know, I think it's important to understand that there are many early predictors, indicators, and manifestations of stress that really contribute to burnout.
At this Involves them. But, here are the six factors that are recognised as early predictors of burnout, OK? Workbook, you will have, one of the pages that looks like this.
I need you to just think about this as I'm talking, as I'm speaking about the early predictors. Maybe you can just jot down or make a note of in your head, what are the things that affect you. So there's you.
There's your environment, and then there's the job demands and the role. Those three things are interlinked, but they are not one. You're not one with your job.
You're not one with the role. You're not one with your environment. They're all separate things, but they all get kind of melded into one.
So have a little think about which one of these areas you can control best. So the predictors of burnout are. Number one, your job demands that exceed human limits, OK?
What does this look like? I work in small practise. I have worked in next practise before.
I've worked in equine. I have worked out of hours. So it, it, it can mean anything.
But imagine you work in a practise that is a full vet practise. And today you have 3 consult rooms full. One of the vets is doing the surgeries.
And somebody calls him sick, one of the vets calls him sick. To expect the 3 remaining vets to do that same amount of work that you wanted 4 vets to do. Is exceeding the human limitations for those three people.
When the job demands that. It's, it definitely will predicate getting burned out, if that continues. If your role Really conflicts.
With what it is, you know, you just basically feel like you have no control of what's happening, which sometimes happens when the situation in number one happens, when you're told, guys, you just have to get on with it. If you're feeling really under pressure from several areas, you know, often it's, you know, it's like demands, just, they compete with each other. You're expected to make sure that you take your lunches, but there's so many consults, there is no way you're gonna take lunch or even go to the toilet.
And, it's just that constant feeling of overwhelming expectation. This is definitely a predictor. Number 3.
Insufficient reward and lack of recognition for the work that is performed. Nobody minds seeing a waiting room that looks like this. Nobody minds seeing a book with loads of visits, you know, whether you've got equine visits or you've got farm visits, whatever it is.
Nobody minds that, except when you feel like there is just that lack of recognition that you've gone over and above, or even just done your job, and there isn't in like, just, there's not enough reward for what it is that you're doing. Because the reason it really is divisive is that it devalues the value of what the work was that was done, and also the worker themselves. So, be careful in those instances, you know?
This is a real problem. Number 4. Is very much linked to number 3, and lack of support from the manager with the team.
If this happens consistently, people feel exhausted. They just don't feel like they're able to keep going. Number 5.
If the work is perceived as unfair or inequitable, There will be this effort, reward, and balance. You can't have a situation where I just described, where somebody hasn't come in for whatever reason, and the work remains, the workload then is either needs to be shared through by everybody, or 1 or 2 people take the brunt of the work, and 1 or 2 people tend to just have the same day, whether there's extra work or not. It happens in all practises.
Make sure this doesn't happen. If work is perceived as being unfair, this is a serious problem because it's will be there as an undercurrent throughout the entire team, and everybody will be aware of it. Number 6.
The relationship between the individual and the environment. Remember the three things I was speaking about in the worksheet. It starts leading to feelings of imbalance, or maybe a bad fit.
You just feel like This isn't a great fit. And such incongruity really. Connect back to the whole job demands and, and fairness at work.
It all kind of wraps into one. These 6 predictors of burnout. I need you to just think about your own situation.
And see if, if you've experienced burnout. This was obvious in hindsight. Or if you think, hm, I might be in the throes of this, I might be in the messy middle.
Think about that, OK? And when you use the sheet, that's what I need you to think about. The next part, really important.
The warning signs. So that's 10 warning signs, OK? While burnout is totally unique for everybody.
It can be spotted, and you can avoid it. And I'm talking about you for yourself. And also for your colleagues and your team members.
You know, prolonged stress really operates. On your brain in a similar way to post-traumatic stress disorder does. You know, it floods the mind with cortisol as well as norepinephrine.
And, this really, you know, Christopher Berglund explains that how this can really, provide. These triggers that actually damage stem cells and cause them to malfunction. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't want my stem cells getting damaged.
I'll give you a quick story. All right. So this is me.
All right. Before, I felt really positive, you know, and there was nothing wrong with this. And I was happy.
I was struggling. Just managing my personal time around my business, my work, my family. I had two young boys, I had friends.
I seemed really together on the outside, but I was silently crying on the inside because I just felt so overwhelmed with what I had to do, but I kept doing what I knew I thought I needed to do. When I, when I got a team, I just felt really underqualified to manage my team. So every little spare bit of time, I shoved in a postgraduate surgical certificate.
I did leadership programmes. I did everything I felt I needed to do so that I could feel good enough, because impostor syndrome definitely pops in the more responsibility you have. OK, but here are the signs I started to feel and see in myself.
I was overwhelmed at work and I would I would definitely feel that. And I was working late, often. OK, and This obviously started interrupting with my sleep because I wasn't having sufficient sleep or any good, you know, sleep patterns at all.
I was on call. For 5 years. I think I might have had 20, if not 30 days off in those 5 years, but I was on call all the others.
This is, this is not something that was sustainable. I started engaging in more fights. People I loved.
But I was in such a high alert state all the time. The first time I actually started experiencing panic attacks, I didn't know that that's what it was that I was experiencing. I just couldn't walk into work.
I sat outside in the car, heavy breathing, and I couldn't get into the, into the practise. Eventually, I realised that my first client was there and I needed to get in. And that's the only impetus that pushed me to actually get over it.
And again, admonishing myself, saying, sort yourself out, get in there. I felt really, really sad about the fact that I felt like I had gotten everything I wanted, and here I was. Having suicidal thoughts.
I, I literally felt so guilty about feeling that way. One night I had a vomiting attack. And I didn't know why.
I just kept vomiting. You know, I, I'd always offer to stay late, come in early, because I thought I had to, you know? I was pretty much burning the candle at both ends.
And guys, this never ends well, you know? And I tried everything. And, I started drinking green smoothies.
I started meditating, because they tell you to meditate, don't they? Because it's a good thing. I started meditating.
I started, trying to do all these little, like, tricks. But guess what? I hadn't stopped my other behaviours.
I hadn't stopped stressing myself out by the excessive amount that I had on my plate. But You know what happened? Honestly, This is actually what happened.
The gravity of my people pleasing, my poor boundaries, excessive stress, and constantly putting myself last just resulted in me having 4 hospital visits, very much similar to this in 6 months. OK? I ended up having to have surgery.
And I, I just reached the end of the line. I had to figure out how to find peace whilst doing my job, without sacrificing my mental health, as well as just destroying my physical health as well. The picture before this, the one at the top left, is when my doctor actually signed me off.
It was, I went to an, surgery, just basically, just just just during the day, during the normal. I said, Look, guys, I'm gonna pop out for lunch. When she saw me, she signed me off for 2 weeks.
I went back to work. But guys, this is my life today. All right?
I pretty much love to help my community, whether it's active online with, just helping create really inclusive workplaces. Definitely cuddling puppies, because that's all we do as veterinary professionals, of course. And just talking about burnout and making sure that people understand that there are things that we can do, OK?
It isn't your fault. Remember what I said at the beginning. It really is not your fault.
The warning signs worksheet is pretty easy to work through, and you just need to look at, just follow how you feel, all right? Think about the feelings, physical complaints, any thought patterns, and The stress that accompanies all of those, these things will manifest within the workplace, you know, so you could be saying stuff like, Oh, people are just so useless. Do I have to do everything?
I don't know why I bother sometimes. These are thought patterns that sometimes we have. Indicating that you are actually under quite a lot of pressure.
So now, this is for you guys. This is for you directly, not your team member, not anybody else you're here for, just for you. Have you ever felt really tired?
Irrittable. Distracted. Inadequate or incompetent in the setting that you have been employed to.
To get on with whatever it is you're supposed to do. Have you felt these? Have you ever felt physically Pain, muscular pain, just headaches, change in appetite.
You know, weight change, nausea, has this ever happened when you're whizzing about trying to do. In this crazy world. What about your thought patterns?
Are you feeling a bit trapped? Hopeless, maybe feeling a little bit depressed and thinking, oh. I can't tell anyone.
If you're feeling a little bit muddled and your decision-making capabilities start. This is a personal thing that you would be feeling, but what about the rest of your team? So there's you, but then there's everybody else.
Stress in the workplace. Is more generalised, but you can pick it up. From a team member who hasn't always behaved like this, but starts behaving like this.
So if you are a mental health, first aider, if you're somebody who's mentoring people or a coach, or part of the VET GDP, these are the types of things that could really, really help you if you have a list. You might know this instinctually yourself, but people who are regularly arriving late to work. Absenteeism As well as presenteeism.
These go hand in hand. Reduce goals, aspirations or commitments, just wanting to do something before and then thinking. You know, I want to do this certificate, but I actually I can't, can't do it.
Increase cynicism and apathy. Poor treatment of And the thing is, relationships start becoming difficult when you're expressing or feeling those kinds of workplace stresses. I say increase in smoking and alcohol consumption, but it could be anything, any kind of behaviour that is actually not productive for you.
Making really careless mistakes. You know, It would, it could be something as simple as signing off medication, and you haven't properly checked if it is the medication you're supposed to be signing off. And that isn't deliberate.
It's just a careless mistake because you're so exhausted and your brain isn't functioning in an optimal way. If people are obstructive or uncooperative, and you think that's, that's just bizarre, why they behaving like that. And overspending.
And you know, because End of the month. So, I hope this kind of wraps up this first half, which is just what are you looking for, OK? When you're looking for the signs and the symptoms, you know, of within yourself and also, the Looking at the chat and there's loads of people you're saying, yeah, sorry, we're just getting quite a bit of sound disruption.
I think it might be ideal if you try just turning off the video and seeing if that helps. No problem. Perfect.
Bear with me a sec. Good. I can hear you fine now.
Hey. So we'll just move on to the strategies, guys. And this just really looks at.
Moving on how to prevent employee burnout, OK? Whether we're balancing, you know, what is it that we'd like to do? And well-being is about balancing all of these things.
Now, I've got these in, you know, I did this slide over and over, but actually, this kind of helps you see what it is that kind of makes up employee well-being. So, work satisfaction. Organisational respect.
Employer care as well as a work-life integration. Now you decide 12, and 3 and 4, what it is that they stand for. And what size of the pie each of these need to be.
And by the way, they don't need to be an equal size. But these are the ways that a lot of employers, when they work out what strategies they need, those are the basics that they go for. So in your workbook, you will have strategies to prevent employee burnout.
And it's divided into 8 of them. I'll go into these, but you are able to write these out in your workbook and decide which strategy will work best for your team. And also your own workplace.
Not everything is gonna be the same for everybody. So how much workload? Are people currently under?
Just assess how you're doing in these activities. Are you able to plan your own work? Delegating your tasks, are you able to delegate tasks?
Are you saying no? Or are you saying yes when you really should be saying no? We need to really let go of perfectionism.
A real proactive effort to reduce workload can really be highly effective at removing some of these stresses that are impacting burnout in our team members and guys in yourself. 2. How can you gain back control?
Think about it. How can you gain back control if you feel like you've started losing control of what's happening on a day to day basis in your life? You know, can you agree a timetable for when you're available and what resources you need?
You know, are you able to actually increase your sense of autonomy? Because this is a very, very important thing. Number 3 is fairness.
I talked about this before when we were talking about the predictors, but a sense of fairness at work can really. You know, be helped by feeling valued and recognised for any contributions that you make. So don't underestimate the need for people to to be acknowledged.
But also put yourself forward for these kinds of acknowledgements. A sense of community. It's essential to feel supported.
I don't care who you are. When you feel as if you're in it on your own, it is the most difficult feeling to get past. You know, you don't choose who it is that you work with, but you can bond with some of those people that you work with.
And a very good positive group morale. You really can rely on each other. And it doesn't mean that the entire team has to have this beautiful cohesiveness.
But that is, you know, that's the Shangri-La. That's where we all wanna be. You don't have to love everybody, but you can really be respectful of all your team members and feel that you're in it together.
Number 5 is a value mismatch. When your values cannot align with those of your organisation. The reality is, guys, you may need to consider whether it is time to look for new opportunities.
And it might not be leaving that employer. You might want to move to another branch. You might want to move to another practise.
You might wanna move within now, some of us, you know, a lot of us work within bigger, organisations where you can actually move within the organisation. However, if your values and that of the organisation, do not align at all, it might mean that you might move right out of the organisation. Because Burnout is usually associated with the actual place of work.
You can love your job and still get burnt out from it. But once you move, you can improve the situation completely. Task balancing is #6.
You know, after you deliver really highly demanding, whether it's cognitively or emotionally, physically, in demanding tasks, it is a very good idea for you to swap out and do something else. So if you have somebody who's doing smallies, for instance, and has had 2 or 3 Difficult morning consults with maybe a couple of euthanasias, for heaven's sake, you know, don't give them any more that day. Make sure that they've got some puppies or something else, you know, to do later on in the evening.
You can swap it on a daily basis, a weekly basis, or a monthly basis. But it's an excellent way to regain that balance and give yourself a break. But this means that you're in conversation with your managers, your practise managers, and your colleagues so that everybody gets a fair share.
Number 7 is try take some mental breaks. OK, so use some spare time to read a book, listen to music, talk to a friend. Run through breathing exercises, or just plan your goals and journal your thoughts.
And I'm talking 5, 10 minutes here. We're not talking, go off for an hour's break, because that's not realistic. Take physical breaks, OK?
When you notice that your shoulders are getting tight, and, you just start to recognise at times when you're just getting really stressed and anxious, and you speak faster, and you have just almost like a short non-existent fuse. Find that moment, take time to just slow down, slow your breath. Go for a walk.
OK. If you're not into mindfulness, that's fine. You don't need to be.
But you need to have some sort of technique to reduce the stress in the moment. OK. So we've got some fundamental principles I'll talk about now.
I won't go into a lot of detail here because this is a complete talk on its own. So I will just give you just A flying glance of it, OK. The details are in the workbook, so you're able to see them there.
But this is what I was speaking about. Just find a method of microdosing necessary time off, with lasting habit transformation, so that you can really improve your cognitive function and help with mental clarity. The eight, fundamentals of, Burnout prevention, you know, and I'm talking gratitude, good eating, having cognitive clarity, reducing your stress, sleep.
But I'm just gonna stop here for a second and say, guys, understand something. We talk to ourselves quite often every day. And be aware that negative self-talk releases dopamine.
OK, and dopamine is involved in habit forming and addictive behaviours. As a result, there's a cycle of this negative self-talk. You feel really bad about yourself after having a right go at yourself.
And then you have these unproductive coping mechanisms. And then you feel bad about it. And then you continue to have this little self-talk and say, well, what did you do that for?
Remember, when this is happening, You are releasing dopamine, which is why you keep doing it. I never understood this before because I was my worst enemy. But just remember that that's what's happening when you're doing it.
So you'll find a sheet. That looks similar to this. It's just a wellness toolkit.
It's all very busy. But I just need you to choose one. OK, just the one thing.
And when you actually, download the sheet, you'll find that the meditation has a live link to it. If you've got 5 minutes, that's all. That's how long it is.
You just click on it and you're able to use it. Use no noise cancelling headphones, they work beautifully, and you can crack on. But for tonight, I suggest you just Rest and recharge.
All you have to do is just choose one. OK? This is, healthy brain food that, I love food.
I just need you to understand that there's an extensive list of different foods you can have. But, These are the ones, if you're gonna pick, pick these, right? They are documented to really help with your cognitive function.
So, if you are choosing between this and a doughnut, yeah, definitely go for these. So if you're trying to pick which of, those you wanna use, this principal worksheet helps you choose it. So you can decide how long you wanna take, whatever it is that you're gonna do.
Do you wanna do 5 minutes or 45 minutes? How often do you wanna do it? And also, how do you want to feel at the end.
So this literally takes you in a step by step fashion as to how to pick the things that you're gonna use. OK? Some quick wins and hacks that I use.
I, I use a stress relax tablet, and it's basically got magnesium in it, which is nature's Valium. It's brilliant, and it's got vitamin B6. And I definitely have my twinings tea.
I am not in any way related to twinings, and I do not get paid for them to tell you this. And then I also use a sleep, rest. And this just helps.
If you are struggling this to fall asleep or have insomnia, this doesn't solve it, but it definitely puts your mind in a better place. Last section, guys, is what initiatives can start, OK? And please understand that you need to actually start thinking about your mindset about things, because only with a new mindset can you have new results.
We have to build positive stress reducing environments at work, so that we can integrate them with day to day working habits. Otherwise, we're gonna be in the same place. And this is probably not a great place for us to end up being.
I need you to think about these things. What challenges are you currently struggling with at the moment? Think about when I'm talking about these, just, I need you to think about these questions.
What challenges are you currently struggling with? And if you don't change them, If you don't change anything after this webinar, you go away. What will it be like in 5 years' time if you do nothing?
If after you listen to this and you take some notes and you think that was interesting, what will happen if you go back to work and you do absolutely nothing 5 years from now, what will happen if nothing changes? OK? So think about that.
So, here are the initiatives. But not necessarily easy, but Here they are. Increase the psychological safety of your team.
Give your staff clear goals. Stop assuming they know what it is that you want from them. Because they want to make sure that they can feel heard by management.
So make sure that, you know, the work is challenging, but it mustn't be threatening. OK, people don't want to be bored at work. They don't want to have so little work that there's nothing to do, but they don't want to be so overwhelmed that they feel threatened on a daily basis.
Number 2, make sure you've got regular breaks. People's attention dropped significantly after 2 hours of doing the same monotonous work. It is not reasonable to have people booked out solid for a 4 hour period, because that's, you know, that's what the clients expect.
You need to stop that. Encourage colleagues to take breaks without feeling guilty about it. Make sure you place breaks within a diary.
You know, it's really vital. If somebody's on ambulatory work, make sure you give them a break between the calls so that they have an, you know, driving all day is stressful. So don't expect them to be driving from call to call to call and fit as many in as possible.
It is not reasonable. Make sure people have some private space to do their work. You know, it's just it can be uninterrupted and just respect this time.
You know, this is one of the places people do not follow you into to to try to have a conversation with you. Treat that private time in the same way. When you say, I'm doing work upstairs, I'll be there for an hour, just leave them to it.
Do not say, Mrs. So and so's on the phone. That's something, just respect them.
And this kind of goes on to the whole setting boundaries. Set some boundaries, OK. Agree upon your workday expectations and just stick to them.
Honestly, expecting people to be everywhere all the time is not reasonable. And it actually increases employee anxiety, you know, a sense of never leaving work. It's like being the second on call.
Someone else is on call, but actually you're on call, and it's that same kind of thing. So, If this isn't sorted out, it really is followed by resentment. It's not that difficult to see how that can happen.
So this is a quick way for you to kind of, I'm sure some of you thinking, how how do I do that? Identify what your desired boundary is. Communicated to the people who need to know.
And don't overexplain. You don't have to explain yourself. I have to leave at 5 o'clock next Wednesday, guys.
If you, if you're close and you need to tell them, oh, it's because I've got my son's recital or whatever it is, that's great, but you do not need to overexplain, but set consequences for what happens if you don't own boundaries. You set the consequences. It's not other people.
Now think of the employee engagement. By improving the connection with our workplaces, colleagues can really heighten the job satisfaction while reducing stress. So, make sure there's transparency in the work.
Recognise people for what it is they're doing. Especially for their strengths and talents, and pointed out to them. Make sure that they've got some sort of autonomy and a sense of purpose for what they're doing.
This is so important for employee engagement. Number 6, Hire better bosses. Good leaders need to be hired or actively created.
You need to shield your employees from stress. You know, they, these guys need to be, empathetic, have high emotional intelligence, ability to perform under pressure. You know, your boss is supposed to be the person who reduces your stress, but actually, what happens, more likely than not, is they are the source of stress, especially if they don't deal with certain things in a certain way.
Now, I've only got this picture here because The truth is, it doesn't need to be a veterinary surgeon. It just needs to be somebody who has these qualities and is able to lead the team. So, as I wrap up, I just want to ask you guys, are you happy with your current state of affairs?
Are you happy, you know. Do you have good, robust, burnout prevention strategies in place at work? Which ones are quick wins.
What have you done to solve the problems that are there? Who's gonna be affected? If not, Can you make it happen all on your own?
Are you able to do this? There are two camps, guys. The ones who know what they're doing, and it's all good, and they've sorted all the strategies and everything I've spoken about today is sorted, and they've got it.
And then there's a camp where it's like, right, I've got a bit of work to do. So just think about which can. It is simple.
You know, we were never taught how to reduce stress, practise self-reflection. And have just creative ways of having a really good work-life balance. I'll show you exactly how to do this without quitting your chosen profession or worse yet your life.
It's, it's called a blueprint, OK? But for now, all I can offer you is really good resources for you to access. These are all free.
And if you want to just go to The website And just click on the free resources, these are accessible for you guys today. And for your entire team, if you scan that QR code, you will be able to access them. And if you need me at all, you are able to contact me via email.
But Any questions? Thank you, CD, for tonight's presentation. It was really fantastic and so thought provoking and really resonated both with myself and with so many of our attendees tonight, based on the comments in the chat box.
So, as CD mentioned, we're going to open the floor to any questions that haven't already been added. So now is your chance to pop any questions in the Q&A box. If you have any.
And as CD has mentioned, you can also access her resources via the information on the slides available. So, I think it's such a powerful subject and the session will be available on demand from tomorrow if anybody would like to use the workbook and revisit tonight's session. So we have a couple of questions come through, so.
How can you get a practise owner to recognise her own burnout and actively make changes? She's the only vet in the practise, so there is no one to take anything off her shoulders, and she can't even take a day off. That is an amazing question, really, really thought provoking, and unfortunately, I was that practise owner.
And when you're in it, you can't see it. It's like telling a fish they're in water. But I promise you.
I wish I had somebody like me telling me, these are the signs. Look at yourself, because had I been told, like, verbally by one of my employees that, I don't think you're doing that well, I would have been fairly annoyed. But there's subtle things you can do.
Print off some of these, tool kits, you know, say, oh, I was listening to this really interesting webinar. Do you want me to send you the workbook? It's really cool.
And the link to the replay. You can do really subtle things. You can do things like, we're going outside for a break.
Do you want to come outside with us? No, no, no, I can't possibly. I've got too much work, which was my standard response.
But showing you and showing her that you care about them, and showing your boss, you know, Look, we're here for you. Please help us offload some of the tasks that you don't need to do. Really, really helpful.
So it depends on the person. But I would, you know, if that person who who responds to more subtle kind of interventions or wants you need to have something printed off and left on her desk. It depends on the person.
But there are things that you can do. But definitely, that is something I needed when I was in that place. And if somebody had said to me, Ti, can you read this?
I would have appreciated it. Great. Thanks, CD, for that answer.
So the next question we have is, how do you know if it's time to move to a new practise or even leave the profession? So, the comment says that they keep, that they're on the fence, but there's no other local practises that are hiring, and they're in a position where they feel trapped. Thank you for that question.
This is quite common. It's, it's very common when you first of all, are thinking, I need to go. Where do I go?
I can't go anywhere. You are restricting yourself. Once you start having those thoughts about, I need to leave, I probably am not going to get another job anywhere.
And it's, it's the negative self-talk I was, I was that slide I was talking about. They're not always true, the comments that you have in your head, and try not to always listen to some of those comments. There isn't a right answer for everybody, but if you are thinking, I want to leave, in fact, I think I want to leave the profession.
Those are two different things you're trying to leave. When you decide the job where you're at is so stressful, I want to leave the profession. It's throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Find another position where you will be happier. Start by writing down all the things you want. Not all the things you don't want.
Just write them down. It's like going for a house. When you're looking for a house, you write down, you want a 3-bedroom house with a drive.
Is it a detached or not? You don't just go look for everything. So find out what you want from your job.
By writing it down. That is the best first step I can give you, but please don't be afraid. To put in your resignation, if you've already been looking for other jobs and you've found something else.
There is, there's plenty of jobs, guys. Don't stress yourself about not being able to find a job, because this is something that can play on your mind and play on your mind, and keep you in a job you shouldn't be in for far too long. Such good advice there CD.
I think it's important to determine your non-negotiables as well, isn't it? You mentioned. So the next question is, how do you suggest sharing out work better?
So it So there's different groups of people within a practise. So you've got your, veterinary team, you've got your nurses, and you've got your reception, you've got your practise management. It depends which team you're in.
Sometimes in a smaller team, you find the vet nurses, the vets, and the reception all sharing the work. But the biggest thing is having communication with the team. As a whole And ask people what help they need.
Sometimes we think we know what everybody needs, but we haven't asked them. Ask the team members what they need. Write down what you need, and then in that way, get everybody to say, Guys, this is, this is where I need help.
And you'll find somebody's thinking, Oh, I like doing that. I'll take that on. But open the lines of communication, definitely.
But write down what it is you need, and encourage other people to also write down what it is they need. Great, communication is so important here, isn't it? It is vital.
And then the next question I have through is, as a 1984 graduate, I feel that the stresses have increased rapidly recently with more corporates. Would you agree? Yes and no, yes and no, because I have worked for Independent, I have worked for corporates, I have worked for multiple corporates.
And When you're in the wheel, in the hamster wheel. It's stressful, and I think probably. Different stress.
I've been qualified for 19 years now. So it is definitely the landscape has changed with regards to the types of stress I experienced 15 years ago to now. They were all stressful, but it's a different kind of stress.
And I think the clientele has changed. The expectations are a lot higher. And, we have a new thing where we have trolling our vets online, which we didn't experience to that extent 15 years ago.
So our new graduates are coming out with a very different landscape to what we had. I don't No, specifically, if any, . Evidence has been garnered about whether being in a, a practise that is, corporate owned causes more stress.
But in my experience, I've experienced stress in both. And it's of a different type of stress, and it's easy to say it's because it's a corporate, it's just a different type of stress, but it's present. And, I think everybody will have a slightly different story.
But yes, I, yeah, I think there, there is that kind of feeling that there is that constant hum of concern, regardless of where you work. OK, so the next question is, stating that it's a bit off topic, but how do you deal emotionally with a boss that doesn't trust you because you're a newly graduate? How you.
How new. I think that's, you know, I've been a new graduate, and it, it's difficult to actually garner that kind of trust. But I think the main thing is, you need to start trusting yourself, you know?
And maybe have the, have the confidence to ask them. What can I do better? I enjoy doing this, can I do more of this?
You, you know, trust is earned, but it's a two-way thing. It's not just the boss trusting you. You need to trust yourself and then trust him or her.
Well then But be confident enough to actually. Say what you want. They will respect you so much more for that.
Trust and respect kind of go hand in hand. Perfect. And the final question come through is if you are the, the one doing all of the work, how do you get all of the others to help out more?
Stop doing all the work. It sounds really simplistic. I am so sorry to say it, but you need to stop.
Loads of people, lots of freebies, more. OK? So if you're letting your teammates basically do as little as possible and you're doing all the work, you, it is that same loop of negative stuff, cause you get actually, you do get a dopamine hit from it.
You don't realise this, but you are getting something from it. And You need to actually acknowledge that about your own behaviour and then say, Guys, so we've got X amount of surgeries. I've done 90% of them.
There's 4 of us in the team. I would like you to help out more. You've got to be as blunt as that.
But you have to have that conversation with yourself first. If you're doing all the work, why are you doing that? Yeah, great answer.
So, we just had a final question pop through from Anika that says I feel being a general, general practitioner for small animals, the expectations of owners and myself are getting higher and higher. Being a perfectionist doesn't really help either. Do you have any suggestions how to deal with this best?
I think, honestly, it depends on the kind of environment you are. You know how I said, it's you, the environment, the job, and the role. So it's those three things together.
And I think I know exactly how you feel, but I learned by saying, I don't know when clients ask me really complicated questions, or when I didn't know the answer to something. But I'll find out. Actually gets a lot better response than trying to be all and know all.
And give yourself some space and some time. And yes, you're right. There is a much higher expectation now from clients, because they see a lot of interesting things on TV and a lot of interesting series that I'm not exactly like real life.
But don't pressurise yourself into being something and somebody that you don't feel comfortable doing. Definitely don't. Great.
Thank you so much for the insightful presentation, Z, and answering all of the questions we've had come through. And I think that's the end of our questions, that have come through for now. So on behalf of all of us here at the webinar vet, I would like to give a huge thank you to our speaker, CD for a wonderful presentation, and this session will be available on demand from tomorrow.
And once again, a big thank you to the Warrior vet for sponsoring tonight's webinar. That's been amazing. Thanks everybody.
You guys have had just amazing comments. I haven't had have a lovely evening. Thank you so much for joining me.
Thanks all. Good night.
