Veterinary Resilience: Present Status and Future Needs
Dr Ranjan Kumar Mohanta
Subject Matter Specialist
Krishi Vigyan Kendra
ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack
Globally World Veterinary Day (WVD) is celebrated on the last Saturday of April to promote animal health and welfare as an annual celebration of the veterinary professionals. The event is established and celebrated every year by World Veterinary Association (WVA) to highlight and promote the lifesaving work performed by veterinarians all over the world. It also focuses on the fact that human and animal lives are interconnected with interdependent existence. This WVD falls on April 30. Recognising the role of resilience in the veterinarian lives and their career, the WVA and Health for Animals have aptly chosen ‘Strengthening Veterinary Resilience’ as the theme of WVD-2022 as “Healthy animals require healthy advocates”. It essentially means providing veterinary doctors with all kinds of help, resources they require in their journey. WVD 2022 will celebrate efforts from veterinarians, veterinary associations and others to strengthen veterinary resilience and bring attention to this important cause.
What is resilience?
Resilience can be defined as the capability of thriving after facing hardships or adversity and continuing to move forward optimistically. According to Jackson et al. (2007) resilience is ‘the ability of an individual to adjust to adversity, maintain equilibrium, retain some sense of control over their environment, and continue to move on in a positive manner’. It is an active, dynamic, and ongoing multifaceted process which allows an individual to cope with stressful transitions and manage life events. Resilient capacity and outcome vary with individuals and time depending upon the circumstances, self-confidence level and career experiences.
Resilient Characteristics
In the taxing fields like veterinary sector, developing resilience is of utmost importance to thrive both personally and professionally. Most of the relevant qualities like personal resources, social support, emotional competence, internal motivation, life balance, organisational culture, and wellbeing strategies help to build resilient qualities. Resilient veterinarians are better equipped to handle the daily challenges and crises that may occur in their practices. They have the ability to remain in control of emotions to the situation and the environment they are exposed to no matter what is happening and also retain their performances. They should be able to accept failures and life’s imperfections, and see the positives in every situation, learn from mistakes and move ahead with empathy. They should take sufficient basic self-care measures like taking adequate diet, sleeping sufficient time and doing adequate physical exercise. They should also approach every situation with a positive attitude, open mind with flexible and adaptable approach. Having a proactive, positive, enthusiasm for life and work with futuristic approach and strong determination in thoughts and actions helps to overcome many adversities.
Why veterinary profession is taxing
Veterinarian has to attend a myriad of animals like domestic livestock (cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat, pig etc.), birds (chicken, duck, goose etc.), pets (dog, cat, parrot, pigeon etc.), wild animals (wild pig, tiger, lion, monkey, snake, elephant) and wild birds (peacock, love birds, swan, etc) in terms of housing, feeding, breeding, disease prevention and treatment along with day-to-day care and management. The species diversity along with breed diversity poses different challenges as the feeding and response pattern to medicines vary even breed-wise posing a really challenging situation for the veterinarian. Even they have to move to the doorstep of the owner to deliver the service which not only time consuming but also stressful. In rural and unconnected areas this is a too challenging task. As most of the livestock owners are small and marginal farmers, they expect the treatment to be either free or with marginal cost and even call the veterinarian after doing its own treatment in many cases, where the veterinarian feels hopeless as it may be beyond its reach. In serious cases, many-a-times the owner is not able to afford the treatment and the veterinarian feels the pain in not able to heal the animal and seeing an animal die demands the emotional and professional challenges fuelled by the raw reaction of the owners. They must cope with multiple demands on their time and attention each day, together with the physical and emotional exhaustion of consistently caring for others. Busy consulting schedules with insufficient time per patient, challenging surgeries, demanding clients, competing priorities and unexpected events make workload management difficult. Failures often increases anxiety and pose mental challenges fuelled by financial and physical factors hindering the treatment. Even they have to keep long working hours ethical dilemmas, along with challenging client/pet owners’ relations which affect vets personal, social and emotional life. Perfectionism, caring nature, self-discipline and focus defines a vet. However, unfamiliar with failure, poor coping strategies, a high stress work environment, low self-esteem and a difficulty admitting you are struggling or feeling unwell results in worsening of early mental health issues, depression and anxiety in a vet.
Strengthening Resilience
Resilience in veterinarian can be cultivated by experience and learning about the resilient traits and how to cultivate them. However, to be effective it requires appropriate support by employers, clients, associations, institutions and governments to ensure adequate education, training, mentorship, and collegiality and appropriate behaviour. Every vet should individually do SWOT analysis to identify the threats to own resilience and decide on the considerations for developing a more resilient approach to thrive both personally and professionally under any adverse situations.
Tips for professionals
Remodel yourself
- Do SWOT analysis to identify personal limitations and accept the facts, develop realistic plans
- Love what you do and do what you love: chose your profession and job properly, then love it
- Accept the uncertainty/ failures in treatment, learn and move on
- Discuss the failures with mentors or like-minded friends
- Always take an optimistic approach even in case of conflicts and failure and treat them as stepping stones for success.
- Plan your activities on daily basis along with long term goals
- Invest with own family in priority and with friends
- Learn to say NO with politeness
Take care of yourself
- Set your time limit and keep boundaries around working hours.
- Prioritise both personal and professional works
- Give sufficient quality time for taking rest, adequate sleep and relaxing time with family and friends
- Eat timely, practise healthy eating activities
- Practise yoga, meditation or other relaxing exercise with physical exercise regularly
- Do regular health check up
Nurture insight and positivity
- Discuss about your failures, successes and approaches with mentors and friends and plan accordingly.
- Read positive attitude books or listen to music when free or stressed
- Plan small rewards with family or friends after any success
- In free time devote your quality time to family or children
- Do practice your hobby, whenever you have time or even in stress
- Develop a plan to develop your core values.
- Try to do things in your own way– then do it.
- Go to natural places or religious place or do shopping whatever relaxes you
Improve social life
- Invest in strong relationships, especially family and friends, as they are the backbone of daily life.
- Practise empathy in service
- Keep association with like-minded people
- Join supportive or educative social networks for updating knowledge or relaxing
- Develop a network of supportive colleagues and friends outside of the immediate work area.
- Establish mentors whom you can ask for advice
- Share greetings and thanks with smiling face in everyday life, saves energy and enhances productivity
Tips for new graduates
- Use your periods of unemployment in developing skills by learning, volunteering and building CV
- Look for job you love to do (may be administration or other competitive jobs, if not enjoying field job)
- Consult a mentor about future and discuss how to proceed and deal with rejections
- Associate with mentors, seniors and friends for getting opportunities
- Never ever give up
Action by Govt. and Employers
In addition to the resilience trait development by the vets, the employer needs to strengthen the infrastructure according to the realistic need of the area along with development of both way communication in an effective way. Along with that it should arrange trainings on SWOT analysis, positive attitude spreading in work place and regular small meetings at different levels to address the adversities and difficult situations. As online skill development program is a very effective tool without affecting work, regular trainings on core and critical sectors need to be addressed and given free hand to attend. Besides that, attitude development and dealing with client and to difficult situations can be taught and discussed in training programs for developing and strengthening veterinary resilience.
Some of the action points to be done by employer
- Provide adequate infrastructure according to the work area and need of the immediate environment, i.e., in city area infrastructure on diagnostics and surgery of small animals, in dairy belts large animal related infrastructure
- Diagnostics, surgical, AI related equipment supply should be adequate
- Work environment should be positive and encouraging for the veterinarians and their family members
- Regular discussions on progress and challenges should be held
- Empathy should be the work policy
- The vets should be well equipped with ICT tools
- Flexibility and good work culture should be followed
- Vacancies should be filled to maintain animal: veterinarian ratio minimal for better reach to animals
- Regular positivity and attitude building seminars/workshops should be held for bettering mental fitness and exhaustion
- The newly recruited vets should be adequately taught how to deal with clients and patients in field conditions and accept failures along with resolving conflicts.
- Knowledge updation through online and offline interactions should be frequently conducted
- Posting should also match the veterinarian’s skill, attitude and knowledge
Conclusion
The vets therefore need to take care of themselves, acquire the qualities of resilience and learn to cope with the challenges, setbacks and workplace stressors by developing specific attitudes and perspectives towards work, attention to self-care, developing personal insight and maintaining positivity, and creating and maintaining supportive networks. It will help in keeping us in best of physical, social, mental, spiritual and emotional health, thereby helping us serve our clients in a better and effective way. The Government should also come forward to aid in establishing required infrastructure in challenging areas to strengthen veterinary resilience in addition to providing training on behavioural approach to adverse situations.
References
https://www.in-equilibrium.co.uk/mental-health-resilience-veterinary-profession/
https://www.vetset2go.edu.au/Media/Default/Dissemination/VetEdRes.pdf
https://www.pashudhanpraharee.com/veterinary-profession-significant-than-ever/
https://www.greaterkashmir.com/todays-paper/editorial-page/strengthening-veterinary-resilience
