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Practice and people well-being
Stressed vet
Veterinary professionals tend to have a mindset that says 'we are intelligent and therefore must always succeed.'

Setting up a practice environment for well-being

In the second management lecture at BSAVA Congress, Anne-Marie Svendsen-Aylott talked about setting up a practice environment for well-being.

Opening the lecture, Anne-Marie looked at the state of the veterinary profession and gave delegates the following facts:

  • One in four people in the general population experienced mental health problems within the last year

  • Vets are three to four times more likely to commit suicide than the people in the general population

  • Almost 40 per cent of veterinary students have had thoughts of suicide

  • The RCVS State of the Profession Survey showed that 9.3 per cent of vets were thinking of leaving their jobs as were 15 per cent of veterinary nurses.


Veterinary professionals tend to have a mindset that says 'we are intelligent and therefore must always succeed.' This means that when things do not go so well, and this is common in everyday work-in-practice in terms of terminal illness and euthanasia, the vet considers that that have failed and that they are not good enough. This mindset seriously affects mental health and well being.

Anne -Marie talked about what practices and practice managers could do to help overcome this mindset among staff and described the three key values that practices should develop for this support system.

The three values that practices need to help retain and keep happy employees are:

1. Trust - this is safety, job security, consistency and listening to staff
2. Warmth - this is engagement,taking time for people, setting examples and displaying good emotional intelligence
3. Strength - this is competence, providing an atmosphere of learning, standing up for the team, asking for feedback and good management

Providing these values will create an environment of better well being for staff but it is also important that with everything the manager does with regard to staff they should change the emphasis from outcome to journey. Showing their staff that it's not so much about who a person is - i.e. 'I have failed' but more about how 'I can change perceptions 'so that the bad can be seen not so much as failure, but as something that will inevitably happen in practice.

It is important to recognise the warning signs of depression such as, change of behaviour, sleep problems, lack of energy, expressions of hopelessness and poor diet or weight loss of gain. If you recognise any of these warning signs act today and not tomorrow.

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Vets to run marathon for World Animal Protection

News Story 1
 Two recently graduated veterinary surgeons will be running the London Marathon in April to raise money for the charity World Animal Protection.

Alex Bartlett and Maeve O'Neill plan to run the race together if they are given the same start times.

Dr O'Neill said: "You're always limited in what you can do to help animals, so it is nice to raise money for a charity that helps animals around the world."

Dr Bartlett added: "I have never run a marathon before and am excited to run my first one for such a good cause!"

Both Dr Bartlett and Dr O'Neill have fundraising pages online. 

Click here for more...
News Shorts
BSAVA releases new Guide to Procedures

The British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) has published a new edition of its Guide to Procedures for Small Animal Practice.

It has added four new procedures; cystostomy tube placement, endotracheal intubation, point-of-care ultrasound and wet-to-dry dressings.

BSAVA says that it is an essential step-by-step guide to diagnostic and therapeutic procedures performed in practice. The textbook includes new images and illustrations, as well as high-definition videos for use prior to procedures.

Nick Bexfield and Julia Riggs, editors of the new edition, said: "We have built upon the success of the previous editions by responding to the feedback received from the BSAVA readership, and hope this new guide helps to further increase the confidence and accuracy with which these procedures are performed."

Print copies are available in the BSAVA store, with a digital version in the BSAVA library.