Zoetis Benelux’s Post

Transcript

My name is Jerome Ingo. I'm veterinary dermatologist and cofounder with four other partners of the veterinary center Caladrius in in Belgium. My name is Doctor Modesto. I'm an exotic pets veterinarians. What do you believe is causing the high levels of stress and burnout amongst vets? I would say current society. First of all, I would say yeah, expectations of people's expectations of of the clients. We are not trained for like all the different side face of our job. We are trained to take care about animals. We are trained to save animals. We are trained to do surgery and to diagnose disease. But it's not all about that. Veterinary medicine is that you have to, you have to deal every day, every hour is to different emotions. The thing is that we have a lot of frustration in this job because you know that you can save an animal, you know how to do it, but you don't have sometimes the opportunity. It's very confronting because we have a lot of pressure from the owner, from the society. Also, especially now with the social media, we saw a lot of different things people are criticizing. Very easily also on what you do, it's a difficult job. You have to think every day. But if you Add all the other information, I think after a few months or a few years, if you're not prepared, it's, it's like if you were like swimming, but you were swimming in an ocean with a lot of ways. And so you think at some point you, you will join in our center. We, we've had a few already a few cases of colleagues who said of. This is too much the, the people are asking too much of me. And so we have to, we have to toggle that through and, and just say, you know, it's OK to, to sometimes just tell the owner you don't know it. More and more the vets are just saying to their clients, oh, I don't know. And the clients do not accept that answer. I but I think it's a general thing of, of our society currently. We have to deal with deaths every day almost. We are not prepared for the emotional sphere around that. At some point it's it's very mentally draining. One thing is that during your day a veterinarian is confronted to many situations like you have to announce a cancer to an owner, you have to see a puppy for do a vaccination. So you have to deal in sometimes 1530 minutes to so different emotion that it can be very draining. Amount of information we have is sometimes very difficult to deal with. And it's not like good vibes information all the time. It's a very confronting information. So that's why it's sometimes it can lead to a burnout or a very difficult mental situation. Are you able to talk to any personal experiences of dealing with stress and burnout? I, I think I was close to a burnout at some point in my life. I had good people who had me at at that moment to avoid that. It was a moment where where I. Was a mentally very drained because when you you you're very involved in your job and you want to do it like the most perfectly. You want you take a lot of time. You will learn you are already learning about your fields and you take a lot of time to answer to the owner. I'm seeing a psychologist every week to help me deal with all that. I think it's super helpful. It's it should be almost mandatory. For me it's the gym and the shrink those are the two things that make me feel much better I think yeah you those small things that can help you cope with with dealing with being perfect at home, perfect at work, perfect with friends. You need some stuff to make make that pressure go away. The days only 24 hours so if you have 4 cases in a day or 10K's, the more people you have the more emotions you have and so you think you can deal with all these emotions but. At some point after weeks, after months, it started to be too much. And so that's the moment it's critical, dangerous because you forget yourself in in that moment. An you don't have to be a slave of your job and you can be passionate about it, but you have to put boundaries, limits for the mental health. It's it's like very important here. If you were given. Full power to create some industry wide change to protect the mental health and and balance of vets. What do you think needs to be done there? There should be an awareness of of how how complicated the studies are, how stressful the those that that job is. I would say teach to be able to say no. For example, learn to say no to a client. Learn to set your boundaries, learn to talk. Um, those, those what we call soft skills, I don't think they're so soft thing. There should be a lot more important for even just for our personal life. I think those that would be very, very helpful. Everything changed very fastly. And so we have to adapt and also with the new generation and also with our colleagues. So first, it's, it's more easy in bigger structure or bigger clinic because the fact that you have many people. It's always more it's it's easier than for a veterinarian that is alone so. One thing that we can say is first to create social moments, we have to share about the different case we see about life moments. So that's why here in in Caladrius, we we create moments and we also have, for example, the well-being line. It's just here and when you cross this line, you don't talk about job and you don't talk about bad things about people that were difficult with you. We just talk about life. About trouble, about where you go, I have a, a culture in your, in your practice where you can talk freely because I think the those things that are not said that are just kept keep growing and growing and increased stress and increased pressure, etcetera. So being able to just talk to your colleagues. I would say on a higher level, you know, some companies with, with resources could be we have a, someone, a professional help that would come, I don't know, once a month to the clinic. To, to help you just talk and things like that. Because if you have a difficulty at some point, if you are, if you are a veterinary instructure, you have a difficulty, you have to know that there is someone in the clinic that is a reference to talk about it. It's important to offer this opportunity to the employees, to the people who are working with us and we all the time ask them if you're OK, if we can change or or adapt. I think in this kind of new structure, we open in 2024 and we have the mentality of. 2024 So it means that we adapt all the time, we change all the time. For rent, starting out in their careers, so very new graduates, what would be your top tips for managing stress and avoiding burnout? Do not forget that we have the best profession in the world. We take care about animals and we save lives. So do not forget that because our job is so difficult that you forget why you're here. At some point, what helped me a lot is to find a mentor, some kind of a mentor, you know, someone who you look up to someone. Were you? Yeah, They're they're values you, you appreciate or their, their career or their even their personal life. I know that my mentor is the one who taught me a dermatology. I was not only amazed by his professional professional life, sorry, but also by his personal life. And I thought, oh, I would like something like that. And so get inspired by that and and obviously do not. Close yourself, you know, in, in, in work, etcetera. It's, it's important to have people around and not live in your cocoon or I don't think we're made to be alone. We're social species. And so we have to have social social network and that's very important for our for our balance equilibrium. I started to learn how to be more organized and to have a more balanced life. All the student who started do it not for money. We do it for the passion of this job, the medicine, the animals. My advice to young veterinarians is directly find your balance. You put some boundaries and you you have other activities that help your mind, you don't think about it and to help you to relativize this job. At that time you will succeed in your job. I have all the purpose in my day. Oh, OK, I have to go to CrossFit, I have to go to do some musical scene, digital art. And when you know that you are, you have other rendezvous, other appointment in the day that are not that you design your debt totally differently and you have your mentor that is like focused on other things. Also, you have to know that in Belgium, for example, 40% of students will stop veterinary medicine in the two years. It's a lot. So it means that we we have a problem currently. And so that's why I think that if you organize your, your life, you, you create your the moment where you don't think about that medicine, you have a real balance with different activities. I think that you will succeed. It's OK to not know the answer because nobody's perfect. Everybody can learn from another's mistake. And I think it's something that. We should focus on to be OK. Like I said, we're not gods and we'll never be and and we'll just have to accept at some point that we're just humans.