OPINION: Physician heal thyself

I really hoped that I would not need to be addressing this issue in 2025. However, it appears that providing care and support for veterinary staff is still a secondary issue.

There is more conversation about human issues affecting our job roles, but often the support or advice for staff is the lowest on the scale of “need to know” info.

We are in a profession that has racism, sexism and bullying – often in small teams where getting help can be difficult. We are also being asked to be alert for client issues with mental health, abuse of humans and animals and be trained to spot, support and report issues.

The problem

I am saddened that almost a decade after I raised this as an issue in a blog on abuse and bullying that I could still publish that blog. And it would be just as relevant.

The issue I had then was providing training and support for staff to recognise issues in clients and sign post for support is still lacking. There is the same assumption made that because you are in a ‘good’ job and a stressful one at that then you have not suffered from one of these issues before either in work life or home life.

If you want to hear more you can check the latest Vet Glow podcast with Aoife and myself ‘navigating inappropriate workplace behaviour’.

The solution

In all of the safeguarding training I have experienced, any advice for support or self care is at the end of the session. Usually rushed in with a “we’ll quickly go over…”. Which is shorthand for “we don’t think this really matters”.

In a recent suggestion to change the order of a workshop to ensure the self-care aspects are presented before the content this was dismissed. There was the assurance that as self-care and boundaries were presented. But at the end of the session.

The end. When everyone is overwhelmed. Energy is low as living off Borders Biscuits isn’t the nutritional dream it tastes like. The very triggering content of the safeguarding course has already landed and has been being processed during the day.

So, the new brain pathways of self-care are fighting a hard battle as the existing emotions and coping abilities have been very active all day.

So let’s put us first. Safeguarding begins with making sure your employees are safe and have the correct support. Staff who are happy and supported and have spaces to discuss the stressful aspects of our roles are staff who stay.