Equine & Livestock Product & Promotions Guide

4 Covetrus | 855.724.3461 | northamerica.covetrus.com Develop resiliency and avoid burnout The following are some habits of "stress-resilient" practitioners that support the body, mind, and spirit: • Hydration, nourishment, and movement are important to physical and mental well-being. • Press "pause" or "reset" by taking breaks. Practice breathing in to the count of four, pausing, then exhaling to the count of six to cue a relaxation response in your body. • Think positively. This doesn't mean ignoring problems or issues but learning to maintain a positive outlook in the face of stress. Resilience comes from focusing on what is going well and having more positive thoughts than negative thoughts. Being able to maintain a positive outlook in the face of stress is highly correlated with lower levels of compassion fatigue and higher levels of compassion satisfaction. • Stay attuned to what matters. Live and work in alignment with your values. Our values are the ideals that define how we want to live and work, and they are often the yardstick by which we measure our own happiness. • Make time for connections. Voice-to-voice contact is good, eye-to-eye contact is better. Research indicates that veterinary professionals are less likely than other professionals to reach outside their informal/professional networks for support. Yet creating and maintaining supportive connections—both at work and at home— is critical for well-being. Take-home message Activities that bolster personal resilience tend to buffer the stressors inherent to working in veterinary medicine. While veterinary practice carries with it routine exposure to stress and suffering, disciplined attention to self-care, healthy work-life boundaries, and interpersonal support can help practitioners counteract chronic stress and achieve satisfying, engaging careers over the long haul. Resilience is the ability to withstand, bounce back from and even pre-empt stressful situations. Resilience is characterized by—and is a result of—being able to master your own cognitive, emotional, and physical responses to stress. In other words, you can learn to recognize and moderate your response to any given situation to allow you to effectively handle unpredictable and uncontrollable situations. This allows you to maintain focus and engage your capacity for hope and joy. The added benefit is that as you successfully navigate stressful situations, you build neural pathways that benefit future flexibility and stability. Research in neuropsychology shows that how we pre-empt, respond to and make meaning out of the stressors that arise in the course of our professional and personal lives can make or break our sense of well-being. Therefore, developing habits that lead to resiliency can help veterinarians cope with the compassion fatigue, burnout, and moral distress that are common complaints in veterinary medicine. Adapted from an EquiManagement article by Jeannine Moga, MA, MSW, LCSW

• Cover