Burnout in VetMed: Not just a 'you problem'

Let's start here.

Burnout is not a personal fault.

It's not because you're not tough enough, not resilient enough, not good enough at looking after yourself.

The World Health Organisation classifies burnout as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed (WHO, 2019).

Read that carefully. The stress was not managed. Not by you personally, but by the system, the structures, the environment, and the culture around you. That's not you failing to cope, that's the asks outweighing your capacity.

That distinction changes a lot. Because so often, what we see is people blaming themselves. "I should have meditated more." "I should have set better boundaries." "Maybe I'm just not cut out for this." No. That's not what's happening here. You didn't burn out because you weren't resilient enough. You burnt out because the environment around you asked for more than it gave back, for longer than anyone could sustain.

That said, there are absolutely things within your control that can make a real difference, and we'll get into those throughout this post. Building self-awareness, self-compassion, understanding your patterns, learning to regulate your stress response, setting boundaries that actually hold and having conversations about your needs. All of that matters. But none of it works if the only plan is to step out, rest, and walk right back into the same system that depleted you in the first place. Recovery needs both: the inner work and something in the environment shifting too.

If you're reading this and you're in it, whether you're a vet, a nurse, a technician, a practice manager, or anywhere else in the team, we see you. You're not alone in this. A meta-analysis of nearly 23,000 medical and surgical residents found burnout prevalence rates as high as 51% (Low et al., 2019). In our profession specifically, the picture is no better, with high levels reported across vets, veterinary nurses, and the wider veterinary team (Hayes et al., 2020; Kogan et al., 2020; Pohl et al., 2022).

And here's what we really want you to hear: burnout is not a permanent state. People move through it. Not by pretending it isn't happening, and not by white-knuckling their way through, but by understanding what's actually driving it and starting, even in small ways, to change what can be changed. There is a way through this. You being here, reading this, is already part of it.

More than just a bad week

Everyone has tiring times in practice sometimes. A wild run on call, a week of difficult conversations, a stretch where the team is two people down. We've been there, and we know you have too. That kind of tired makes sense. You rest, you recover, your energy returns and you bounce forward. And let's be honest, not every week should be like that.

Burnout is the thing that doesn't bounce back in that way. You take the holiday. You might even feel better while you're away. The shoulders drop, you sleep properly, you start to feel like yourself again. Then you go back. And within days, sometimes hours, it's all right there. The heaviness. The flatness. The dread. That's not because the break didn't work. It's because the same system that drained you is still there, unchanged.

Burnout shows up in three ways, measured through the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Cohen et al., 2023):

• Emotional exhaustion, that bone-deep depletion where even the things you used to love feel like effort.

• Depersonalisation, where you catch yourself being cynical or detached in ways you don't recognise.

• And a reduced sense of accomplishment, where nothing you do feels like it matters any more.

It can show up in your body too. The headaches. The 3am wake-ups. The clenched jaw. The immune system that's under strain (Steffey et al., 2023a). That's your body trying to tell you something. Loudly. Repeatedly. In the only language it has. And most of us have become brilliant at overriding that signal.

It's also worth knowing that what you're experiencing might not be burnout at all. Moral injury, that gut-deep distress when you're involved in something that goes against everything you believe in, and compassion fatigue, the cumulative weight of absorbing everyone else's suffering, are distinct experiences that are common in veterinary life (Williamson, Murphy and Greenberg, 2022; Figley and Roop, 2006).

They can overlap with burnout, and they often do. Equally, physical signs can have other explanations too, so if you're experiencing signs of anything similar to any of the above, there is real value in reaching out to your GP.

You don't have to figure that out alone, and again testament to reaching out for support if you find yourself here.

It can creep up on us, and some of us might experience it more than others

Burnout doesn't often announce itself loudly. Many times, it builds slowly.

Often starting in the honeymoon phase, that stage where you're full of fire and saying yes to everything and setting a pace that feels like passion but quietly becomes your unsustainable normal.

From there it moves through the slow creep of unmanaged stress, into presenteeism and psychological distress, and eventually into more of a system shutdown (Maresca et al., 2022; Steffey et al., 2023a).

The earlier you clock where you are, the sooner you can make changes and seek support.

A large-scale systematic review by Angelini (2023), which analysed 83 studies and over 36,000 participants across professions and cultures, found consistent patterns using the Five-Factor Model of personality. And before you read this and start pathologising yourself, this section is about understanding your wiring so you can work with it, not against it.

If you tend toward anxiety and emotional sensitivity

People who score higher in what psychologists call neuroticism (a terrible word for a very normal trait) are consistently at greater risk of burnout. This finding holds across professions, cultures, and study designs. A meta-analysis of teacher burnout by Roloff and colleagues (2022), drawing on over 4,700 participants, confirmed that neuroticism is the single strongest personality predictor of emotional exhaustion. In nursing, Ang and colleagues (2016) found the same pattern in a study of over 1,800 nurses.

This doesn't mean anxious people are weak. It means their nervous system processes negative experiences more intensely and for longer. If that's you, you probably already know that you replay difficult consultations, absorb others' distress more deeply, and find it harder to switch off. That's not a flaw in your character. But it does mean you may need different support and recovery strategies than the person next to you. None of these things are faults, they are differences.

If you're the person everyone leans on

Here's one that might surprise you. Agreeableness, the trait associated with warmth, empathy, and being cooperative, is generally protective against burnout. But the research contains an important caveat. In high-stress environments, being "too agreeable" can actually increase your risk of emotional exhaustion (Angelini, 2023). If you're always saying yes, always absorbing everyone else's stress, always being the safe pair of hands, you're giving away resources you don't have spare. The very trait that makes you a wonderful colleague and clinician can quietly deplete you. This isn’t about not using your strengths and your beautiful traits, it is about caring for them.

If you're driven and conscientious

This one is particularly relevant in veterinary medicine, which historically many believe selected heavily for exactly this trait. Conscientiousness, that deep sense of responsibility, discipline and high standards, is usually a buffer against burnout. But when the demands of the environment become excessive, that same drive can become a liability. Angelini's (2023) review found that in overloaded systems, high conscientiousness can actually predict greater exhaustion and depersonalisation, because you keep investing effort into a system that isn't giving anything back. Yao and colleagues (2018), in a study of 860 nurses, found that personality type significantly moderated how stress translated into burnout, reinforcing that it's the interaction between who you are and where you work that matters.

Neurodivergence

If you're neurodivergent, burnout may feel different entirely. The load of masking, managing sensory environments, and navigating systems that weren't built for your brain means you're often starting each day already depleted (Raymaker et al., 2020).

If you carry a history of adverse experiences, your nervous system may run hotter than you'd expect under workplace stress (Hu et al., 2024). None of that is weakness. It's context. And it deserves to be understood, not dismissed.

Both things are true

The evidence is clear: organisational change produces more meaningful and lasting results than individual strategies alone (Panagioti et al., 2017; Cohen et al., 2023).

The system needs to change. Full stop.

But you're not powerless while you wait for that. Your boundaries matter. The work you do on understanding your patterns matters. Building self-awareness, self-compassion, and better stress management genuinely changes how you experience your working life (Maresca et al., 2022; Dyrbye et al., 2019). The problem isn't being told those things are important. The problem is being told they're the whole answer.

Boundaries matter. But you shouldn't have to boundary your way out of a broken system. Both things can be true.

There's a way through

If you need time off, take it. Ditch the guilt. But before you go back, think honestly about what needs to be different, and you can ask for help with that too. You don't have to figure that out alone.

So where do you start?

We could list ten things to try right now. But honestly? The most important first step isn't a breathing exercise or a journaling prompt. It's reaching out.

That might mean booking an appointment with your GP, especially if burnout has started affecting your sleep, your mood, or your physical health. It might mean asking your employer about occupational health support, which more practices have access to than people realise. It might be asking for help or tweaking a system.

It might mean finding a coach, a counsellor, or a therapist who understands the specific pressures of veterinary life. It might just mean telling one person the truth about how you're doing.

The reason we're leading with this rather than a list of strategies is that everyone's situation is different. What you need depends on where you are, what's driving it, and what's available to you. A blog post can point you in the right direction, but it can't replace someone sitting with you and helping you figure out what your next step actually looks like. You deserve more than generic advice. You deserve support that's tailored to you.

If you're struggling, please talk to your GP or primary care provider. If burnout has tipped into depression or anxiety, a clinical assessment can help you get the right support. And if you're in distress right now, there are people who get veterinary life and are ready to help:

• UK: Vetlife, vetlife.org.uk, 0303 040 2551 (24 hours, free, confidential), NHS 111

• US: 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline

  
  

You don't have to be in crisis. They're there for the hard days too.

Three questions worth sitting with:

1. If a colleague or friend described their week to you the way you'd describe yours, what would you say to or do for them?

2. What did your working week look like before it got like this? What's the first thing you lost that you haven't got back?

3. If you could change one thing about your working day tomorrow, just one small thing, what would it be? Now ask yourself, without judgement, what's actually stopping you from asking for it. What could be helpful?

References

Ang, S.Y., Dhaliwal, S.S., Ayre, T.C. et al. (2016) Demographics and personality factors associated with burnout among nurses in a Singapore tertiary hospital. BioMed Research International, 2016, 6960184.

Angelini, G. (2023) Big Five model personality traits and job burnout: a systematic literature review. BMC Psychology, 11(49).

Cohen, C., Pignata, S., Bezak, E., Tie, M. and Childs, J. (2023) Workplace interventions to improve well-being and reduce burnout for nurses, physicians and allied healthcare professionals: a systematic review. BMJ Open, 13(6), p.e071203.

Dyrbye, L.N., Shanafelt, T.D., Gill, P.R. et al. (2019) Effect of a professional coaching intervention on the wellbeing and distress of physicians: a pilot randomized clinical trial. JAMA Internal Medicine, 179(10), pp.1406-1414.

Figley, C.R. and Roop, R.G. (2006) Compassion fatigue in the animal-care community. Washington, DC: Humane Society Press.

Hayes, G.M., LaLonde-Paul, D.F., Perret, J.L. et al. (2020) Investigation of burnout syndrome and job-related risk factors in veterinary technicians in specialty teaching hospitals: a multicenter cross-sectional study. Journal of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care, 30, pp.18-27.

Hu, J., Zhai, M., Fu, D., Duan, Z. and Chen, X. (2024) Mediating role of loneliness and emotional disturbance in the association between childhood trauma and occupational burnout among nurses: a cross-sectional study. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15, p.1394289.

Kogan, L.R., Wallace, J.E., Schoenfeld-Tacher, R., Hellyer, P.W. and Richards, M. (2020) Veterinary technicians and occupational burnout. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 7, p.328.

Low, Z.X., Yeo, K.A., Sharma, V.K. et al. (2019) Prevalence of burnout in medical and surgical residents: a meta-analysis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(9), 1479.

Maresca, G., Corallo, F., Catanese, G., Formica, C. and Lo Buono, V. (2022) Coping strategies of healthcare professionals with burnout syndrome: a systematic review. Medicina, 58(2), p.327.

Panagioti, M., Panagopoulou, E., Bower, P. et al. (2017) Controlled interventions to reduce burnout in physicians: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Internal Medicine, 177(2), pp.195-205.

Pohl, R., Botscharow, J., Böckelmann, I. and Thielmann, B. (2022) Stress and strain among veterinarians: a scoping review. Irish Veterinary Journal, 75, p.15.

Raymaker, D.M., Teo, A.R., Steckler, N.A. et al. (2020) "Having all of your internal resources exhausted beyond measure and being left with no clean-up crew": defining autistic burnout. Autism in Adulthood, 2(2), pp.132-143.

Roloff, J., Kirstges, J., Grund, S. and Klusmann, U. (2022) How strongly is personality associated with burnout among teachers? A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 34, pp.1613-1650.

Steffey, M.A., Griffon, D.J., Risselada, M. et al. (2023a) A narrative review of the physiology and health effects of burnout associated with veterinarian-pertinent occupational stressors. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 10, p.1184525.

Williamson, V., Murphy, D. and Greenberg, N. (2022) Experiences and impact of moral injury in U.K. veterinary professional wellbeing. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 13(1), 2051351.

World Health Organization (2019) Burn-out an "occupational phenomenon": International Classification of Diseases.

Yao, Y., Zhao, S., Gao, X. et al. (2018) General self-efficacy modifies the effect of stress on burnout in nurses with different personality types. BMC Health Services Research, 18(667).