dvm360 podcast reframes veterinary burnout around values
A new dvm360 installment, “From ‘I should’ to ‘Why?’: A different approach to burnout,” takes aim at a familiar paradox in veterinary medicine: burnout remains widespread even though the profession has no shortage of CE sessions, wellness talks, and mental health messaging. In the episode, Aaron Shaw and Jennifer Edwards argue that the gap may not be one of awareness, but of approach, encouraging veterinary professionals to question the internal rules and assumptions that drive stress in the first place. (dvm360.com)
That framing reflects a broader evolution in how veterinary burnout is being discussed. For years, the conversation often centered on individual resilience, self-care, and recognizing symptoms. More recent reporting and guidance across the profession have widened the lens to include organizational culture, moral distress, team communication, workload design, and the mismatch between personal values and workplace realities. A recent AAHA wellbeing guide, for example, points practices toward structured support around communication, moral distress, and access to mental health resources, while a recent systematic review on veterinary nurses highlighted organizational risk factors across workload, control, reward, community, fairness, and values. (aaha.org)
The backdrop is a workforce that remains under pressure, even if some indicators have improved. AVMA’s 2025 economic report shows burnout scores for associate veterinarians rose sharply in 2020 and then trended downward, while relief veterinarians moved in the opposite direction after 2021. The same report found that veterinarians were generally satisfied with their jobs, compensation, and lifestyle, but only about 51.9% were satisfied or very satisfied with the profession as a whole. That disconnect matters because dissatisfaction with the profession can coexist with day-to-day job satisfaction, and it may help explain why burnout remains a strategic workforce issue rather than just an individual wellness concern. (ebusiness.avma.org)
The AVMA-Merck wellbeing data add another layer. In the 2023 survey published in JAVMA in July 2024, nearly 54% of veterinarians were classified as flourishing, 36% as getting by, and 10% as suffering. The study also found that younger veterinarians reported lower job satisfaction than older peers, and that treatment for mental health issues had increased from 15% in 2019 to 25% in 2023. Importantly for the dvm360 episode’s thesis, the research tied better wellbeing to intrinsic meaning and workplace connection, including feeling that one’s work contributes to others’ lives and perceiving open, candid communication among team members. (brakkeconsulting.com)
Industry and academic commentary increasingly supports the idea that burnout is not just about long hours or emotional intensity. A recent narrative review in Frontiers in Veterinary Science concluded that healthy work culture predicts higher wellbeing, lower burnout, and less serious psychological distress, while also noting how complex practice settings can reward individualistic behavior over teamwork. The AAVMC’s latest workforce analysis goes further, describing burnout as a supply issue for the profession because it can reduce efficiency, compromise care, and accelerate attrition. That report cites earlier AVMA survey findings showing 44% of private-practice veterinarians were considering leaving the profession before retirement, with mental health and work-life balance among the leading reasons. (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, the practical takeaway is that burnout interventions may need to go beyond telling individuals to be more resilient. If the stressor is an internalized “I should” that’s reinforced by clinic norms, staffing shortages, unclear priorities, or perfectionism, then education alone won’t fix it. Practices may need to examine how expectations are communicated, whether teams have permission to question inherited workflows, and how leaders address the moral and emotional load of care delivery. That’s especially relevant as employers compete for talent in a market where younger clinicians may be less willing to stay in organizations that don’t align with their values. (dvm360.com)
The episode itself doesn’t announce a policy change or new dataset, but it does capture where the burnout conversation appears to be heading: away from generic wellness messaging and toward deeper questions about identity, purpose, and systems. For clinics, that could translate into more deliberate conversations about boundaries, communication, schedule design, and what standards are truly necessary versus simply inherited. For educators and leaders, it reinforces that retention may depend as much on meaning and culture as on compensation. (dvm360.com)
What to watch: The next phase of this discussion will likely focus on whether practices and veterinary organizations turn values-based burnout conversations into operational changes, especially around team communication, moral distress support, and retention of early-career professionals. (aaha.org)