Better scheduling may be a practical fix for veterinary burnout

A new article in Today’s Veterinary Nurse argues that veterinary scheduling deserves more attention as a driver of staff wellbeing and career satisfaction, and not simply as a daily logistics problem. Drawing on a mixed-methods pilot and primary study of 51 veterinary professionals, the piece says small scheduling changes can reduce burnout pressure, improve communication, and support safer patient care. (todaysveterinarynurse.com)

The backdrop is a profession still working through the aftereffects of pandemic-era demand and longstanding workforce strain. According to the AVMA’s 2025 economic report, veterinarians’ average weekly hours have been falling from their 2021 peak, but they remained above prepandemic levels in 2024. Full-time veterinarians averaged 48.3 hours per week in 2024, and some segments, including equine, mixed animal, food animal, university, and advanced education roles, reported averages above 50 hours. (ebusiness.avma.org)

Within that context, the scheduling findings are practical. The Today’s Veterinary Nurse article reports that 72% of respondents preferred consecutive workdays, most often in 3- to 4-day blocks followed by equivalent rest periods, because scattered shifts made meaningful recovery harder. Another 73% said flexible scheduling would help their mental health and work-life balance, but respondents framed “flexibility” as structured input and predictable boundaries, not constant last-minute changes. Regular breaks also stood out: 85% to 90% of respondents associated them with better mental clarity, fewer mistakes, and better team communication. (todaysveterinarynurse.com)

The article also points to a familiar friction point in practice operations: flexibility is not experienced evenly across roles. Veterinary nurses, in particular, described having less control over their hours because their day expands with doctor flow, which can turn one clinician’s overbooked schedule into everyone else’s late evening. That aligns with guidance from Not One More Vet, which has urged early-career veterinarians to look for schedules that include administrative blocks and protected lunch periods, specifically so patient care, recordkeeping, and callbacks don’t spill into unpaid overtime. (todaysveterinarynurse.com)

Industry and expert commentary increasingly treats these issues as system design problems rather than individual resilience failures. In a recent dvm360 interview, veterinary anesthesiologist Lydia Love said mistakes in veterinary medicine should prompt teams to examine the systems behind them, and emphasized psychological safety and human-factors tools, such as checklists, to help teams function under pressure. That perspective matters here because overloaded, interruption-heavy schedules can undermine both communication and error trapping. Separately, NOMV’s CLEAR Blueprint positions workplace wellbeing as something practices can build through structured policies and culture, not just informal support. (dvm360.com)

Why it matters: For practices trying to recruit and retain veterinarians, technicians, and nurses, scheduling may be one of the more actionable levers available. A narrative review in Frontiers in Veterinary Science found burnout is tied to turnover, reduced hours, and organizational losses, citing estimates of $2 billion in lost veterinary revenue annually and median turnover costs of $104,000 per veterinarian and $59,000 per veterinary technician. The same review noted that flexible scheduling can influence whether clinicians enter or remain in high-intensity settings, including emergency practice. In other words, schedule design affects not only morale, but also staffing stability, continuity of care, and business performance. (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

For veterinary leaders, the operational takeaway is less about offering abstract “flexibility” and more about engineering workable coverage: consecutive recovery time, real break protection, admin blocks, and role-aware policies that don’t push the burden of schedule slippage onto the same team members every day. AVMA has also highlighted that aligning team members’ tasks with their strengths can improve job satisfaction and decrease burnout, suggesting that schedule optimization and role optimization should be addressed together. (todaysveterinarynurse.com)

What to watch: The next question is whether these ideas move from commentary into standard practice benchmarks, especially as hospitals revisit staffing models built for pandemic demand and look for retention strategies that are measurable, affordable, and visible to clinicians day to day. (ebusiness.avma.org)