Strengthening Veterinary Resilience
Saravanan N , II B.V.Sc &A.H ,Veterinary College and Research Institute, Tirunelveli,
Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University- Chennai.
Abstract:
Strengthening resilience will help the veterinarian to offer proper treatment. There are many ways to strengthen resilience in order to thrive stronger in the field of veterinary. Stress and compassion fatigue are inevitable in the veterinary profession and it is taxing both physically and mentally. In order to overcome hardships, resilience strengthening is the only way to attain it. Boosting self-confidence, self-care, finding and preaching positivity, ., joining or organizing social groups and practicing mindfulness techniques such as meditation, yoga, breathing exercises, etc are the ways to build a strong foundation for resilience in the field of veterinary.
Key Words: resilience, veterinarian, stress, burnout, strengthening.
Introduction :
First of all, we all must be glad that the term ‘resilience’ has entered the least concerned veterinary world in order to speak up about the problems that the veterinarian has been going through in the present days and also aim to make the veterinarian physically and mentally strong, which help to thrive the occupational burnout and stress. Surprisingly, the World Veterinary Association (WVA) has also announced that the theme for 2022 world veterinary day is ‘strengthening veterinary resilience’. This article stresses relieving the occupational stress, burnout and compassion fatigue faced by veterinarians in order to strengthen their resilience.
What is resilience? :
Resilience is an implausible quality. Resilience can be defined as the capability of thriving after facing hardships or adversity and continuing to move forward optimistically. It may also define as the ability to recover quickly from suffering. But this quality is not the same in all human beings, it differs from person to person based on their career, their self-confidence and also the circumstances. Developing resilience will enable us to thrive both professionally and also personally. This quality is required for the people who have been working in the physically and mentally taxing fields of health care, veterinary medicine, etc.
Key factors of resilience :
There are seven key factors of resilience. They are
- Controlling the emotion: controlling or not expressing our feelings during adversity.
- Impulse control: controlling oneself, especially one’s desires and emotions.
- Solving the problems: analysing the cause and finding the solution for the problems.
- Self-confidence: believing themselves that they have enough potential to grow stronger.
- Befriending: being friendly towards someone and helping them when they need help.
- Empathy: concern towards others’ suffering.
- Realistic optimism: looking for positive outcomes with reality as its basis.
These are the key factors of resilience which has to be understood and practiced by veterinarians in order to thrive during adverse conditions.
Hardships faced by veterinarians:
The things that the veterinarian has been going through are severe compared to other professions. Some of them are long and anti-social working hours along with challenging client/pet owners’ relations. Since veterinarians are animal lovers, the clients expect the veterinarian to offer reduced treatment charges or even treat their animals free of cost. The clients are not worried about the household expenses of the veterinarians to lead a healthy life. Accessibility to drugs and veterinarians’ pharmacologic knowledge force them to use them as anti-stressing agents. Since euthanasia is permitted in the field of veterinary to relieve the animal from continual suffering has led them to imply this practice in their own life to relieve permanently from all kinds of stress and burnout. These are the things that have been taxing veterinarians both physically and mentally.
Need for resilience in the veterinary profession:
About one in twenty veterinarians are suffering from severe psychological and physiological stress. Only half of them are seeking help to thrive the adversity and have the courage to come back stronger with resilience. As a matter of fact, the veterinarian is experiencing lower well-being than other human beings. To cope with stress and compassion fatigue, resilience is needed most in veterinary medicine.
Strengthening resilience:
In order to help the veterinarian in finding the ingredients to balance their professional and personal life, resilience building and strengthening the same is important. Resilience can be strengthened especially; career resilience can be anchored strongly like the ship anchored in the harbour. Strong resilience can be accomplished through some strategies which are aimed at reducing the stress during adversity. The strategies which have to be practiced to strengthen resilience are
- Cultivating specific characteristics and perspectives
- Self-care
- Nurturing insight and positivity
- Forming or participating in social groups
These are some of the ways to build resilience with the strongest foundation.
Cultivating specific qualities and perspectives:
Analysing themselves and focussing on the qualities which they are lacking and which are pulling them behind in the journey of attaining resilience will help them to overcome adversity by cultivating specific qualities . Changing the perspectives in handling the situation will lend a helping hand to overcome the obstacles.
Self-care:
In addition to loving and taking care of animals, self-care and self-love are the most important essence which is added to make the strong elixir of resilience to get permanent relief from stress and occupational burnout . Eating healthy at right time, quality sleep at the available time, practicing yoga, spending time with family, friends or scheduling me-time and making a journal of themself should be practiced to strengthen resilience of themself.
Nurturing insight and positivity:
Deeply understanding the factors which are responsible for the disappointments and disputes that had happened earlier with clients while treating their animals and identifying the value and also their true potential will help them in formulating a plan to reach the top to feel high. Practicing mindfulness techniques relaxes the soul, relieves the stress and fills their minds with positive thoughts.
Forming or participating in social groups:
Socializing is one of the best ways to keep oneself free from stress acquired through their profession. Either organizing or participating in social groups will help them to get some piece of quality advice to implement in their own life. Not everyone will like social groups to share what they have gone through. If they are feeling so, they can seek advice individually from mentors. Thus, these groups will enlighten the right part to find resilience in their journey.
Conclusion:
“Resilience is the quality which is not innate; it is the quality which is acquired late.”
As above mentioned, resilience is a quality that can be acquired and gets stronger during different phases of life and it strictly depends on the individual.
To sum up, everything that has been stated that it becomes more obvious that the more you take care of yourself, the better service they are going to provide their clients. This paves the way for a win-win situation for both veterinarian and their clients. Ultimately, surviving without resilience, especially in the field of veterinary is far better than thriving with strong resilience which is acquired.
References :
- Mental health and resilience in the veterinary profession – In Equilibrium (in-equilibrium.co.uk)
- Jenny Moffett, Susan Matthew & Anne Fawcett.[2015] Building career resilience, Inpractice 37, 38-41.
