Scheduling study puts veterinary wellbeing into operations

CURRENT BRIEF VERSION: A new article in Today’s Veterinary Nurse translates findings from a 2025 mixed-methods pilot study of 51 veterinary professionals into a practical argument for schedule redesign, not just resilience training. The piece reports that 72% of respondents preferred consecutive 3- to 4-day work blocks with equivalent recovery time, 73% said flexible scheduling would improve their mental health and work-life balance, and 85% to 90% linked regular breaks with better mental clarity, fewer mistakes, and stronger team communication. The article also highlights that scheduling strain lands unevenly across roles, with veterinary nurses often absorbing late-running doctor schedules and losing control over their day. (todaysveterinarynurse.com)

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, this adds to a growing body of evidence that burnout risk is tied to operational design, not only individual coping. The 2025 AVMA economic report found average weekly hours for all veterinarians fell to 42.4 in 2024 from pandemic highs, but full-time veterinarians still averaged 48.3 hours, suggesting many teams remain stretched even as the acute surge eases. Separate published research has also found many veterinarians frequently work past rostered shifts, miss breaks, and have little control over the structure of their workday, all factors associated with intent to leave roles or the profession. And newer practice guidance from NOMV argues that sustainable scheduling should include protected administrative blocks and lunch, not just packed appointment grids, especially for early-career veterinarians trying to leave on time. In other words, better scheduling may be one of the few retention tools practices can act on quickly. (ebusiness.avma.org; nomv.org)

What to watch: Expect more practices to test predictable blocks, protected break coverage, role-specific scheduling rules, and psychologically safer team systems as they look for retention gains without simply asking teams to work harder. That broader push may also include more open discussion of mental health at team meetings and simple resource-sharing steps, since outside guidance suggests many practices still rarely talk about mental health in a meaningful way. (todaysveterinarynurse.com; petmd.com)