Elevate Your Wellbeing: Perfectionism, Boundaries, Toxic Workplaces, Martyrdom, and Addressing Veterinarian Wellbeing Organizationally

On Demand

Offering Description

This specialized offering features five wellbeing-focused sessions, providing highly applicable content and resources for you to better combat perfectionism, establish boundaries, navigate toxic workplaces, tackle martyrdom, and address veterinarian wellbeing organizationally.

With the foundation of highly acclaimed expert-presented content from recent 吃瓜爆料s, this offering has been elevated to now include new and specialized self-paced interactive course features. You will have the opportunity to reflect and apply new knowledge about how to overcome perfectionism, set boundaries with confidence, recognize toxic workplace dynamics, address veterinary martyrdom and learn about one hospital’s organizational approach to improving veterinarian wellbeing. Relevant for all of us in veterinary medicine, you’ll walk away with actionable steps to create a healthier, more sustainable career.

In alignment with the ACVIMs mission, vision, and values, this new offering has been designed with accessibility and affordability in mind, to ensure this content is approachable for veterinary team members at any stage of their career.

Sessions included in this offering are:

Combating Perfectionism
Identifying a Toxic Workplace
A Survey-Based Organizational Approach to Improving Veterinarian Wellbeing
Agreeableness Run Amok: The Art of Saying No
Martyrdom in Veterinary Medicine

Learning Objectives

Break free from perfectionism by recognizing your maladaptive tendencies and their impact on your wellbeing and job satisfaction.
Master the art of saying "no" and setting boundaries that protect your time, energy, and mental health.
Identify and address toxic workplace behaviors that contribute to a cycle of burnout and turnover.
Recognize the signs of veterinary martyrdom and learn strategies to shift workplace culture away from self-sacrifice and toward sustainability.
Discover data-driven approaches to improving veterinarian wellbeing at both individual and organizational levels.

Registration

Registration will open on May 12th. Registration provides 6 months of access to all course content and accompanying resources.

Session Descriptions

Marie Holowaychuk, DVM, DACVECC

Combating Perfectionism

Recording Duration: 25 minutes
Interactive Course Duration: Approximately 50 minutes

Speaker Intro: Dr. Marie Holowaychuk is a specialist in small animal emergency and critical care, and a passionate advocate for wellness in the veterinary profession. She achieves this by speaking, consultanting, coaching, and facilitating online programs. She recently founded Reviving Veterinary Medicine, a website and podcast dedicated to improving the mental health and wellbeing of veterinary professionals.

Session Description: Perfectionism is a common trait among veterinary specialists. Research demonstrates that veterinarians who exhibit trait perfectionism have a higher risk of moral distress, which impacts professional wellbeing. This session will focus on practical strategies to help cope with and reduce perfectionism long term.

Danielle DeCormier, LVT, VTS (Oncology), CFE

Martyrdom in Veterinary Medicine

Recording Duration: 50 minutes
Interactive Course Duration: Approximately 75-90 minutes

Speaker Introduction: Danielle is an esteemed veterinary professional excelling in oncology and education. She has been a licensed veterinary technician for over 10 years and obtained her VTS in oncology in 2018. As the Director of Clinical Services Education at MedVet, Danielle shapes the future of veterinary technicians, overseeing learning initiatives and training programs. She is the current Director-at-Large for Oncology in AIMVT and lectures nationally on various topics, including chemotherapy, wellbeing, training, and leadership.

Session Description: Veterinary professionals are used to working long hours without breaks due to increased caseloads and short staffing. It is often chalked up to our passion for this profession. This has led to our ability to withstand these circumstances being worn like a badge of honor. Martyrdom is “a display of feigned or exaggerated suffering to obtain sympathy or admiration.” Many of those in practice have learned phrases and behaviors that promote the creation of more martyrs. In this session, you will learn how to recognize those words and actions and change your culture.

Marie Holowaychuk, DVM, DACVECC

Identifying a Toxic Workplace

Recording Duration: 25 minutes
Interactive Course Duration: Approximately 50 minutes

Session Description: With the shortage of veterinary staff and higher than ever caseload, team members are struggling with burnout. Unfortunately, workplace toxicity contributes to employee burnout and dissatisfaction, which can lead to a vicious cycle of turnover and burnout for those team members left behind. Recent studies and focus groups have served to highlight the components of a toxic workplace, in which toxic attitudes are ignored or not addressed. This session will describe the causes and consequences of a toxic veterinary work environment.

Laura Motschenbacher, DVM, DACVIM (SAIM)

Agreeableness Run Amok: The Art of Saying No

Recording Duration: 25 minutes
Interactive Course Duration: Approximately 50 minutes

Speaker Intro: Dr. Laura Motschenbacher is a small animal internal medicine specialist practicing at the University of Minnesota where she is an assistant professor. She enjoys training residents and students and has a special passion for communication and leadership subjects. When not working, she enjoys gardening and traveling with her family.

Session Description: Have you ever said yes to something when you really want to say no? Or do you find yourself saying yes to too many commitments and becoming exhausted? If the answer to these questions is yes, this session is for you! In this session we will dive into the art of boundary setting and how to set them to promote your personal and professional wellbeing.

Michael Podell, DVM, DACVIM (Neurology)

A Survey-Based Organizational Approach to Improving Veterinarian Wellbeing

Recording Duration: 50 minutes
Interactive Course Duration: Approximately 75-90 minutes

Speaker Intro: Michael Podell, DVM, MSc, Diplomate, ACVIM (Neurology) serves as Senior Vice President of Healthcare for MedVet where he was previously Chief Medical Officer. He received BA degrees in Biology and Psychology with Honors at the University of North Carolina, a Masters of Science in Physiology at Tel-Aviv University, and a DVM degree from Tufts University. Post-graduate education included an internship at The Animal Medical Center followed by a residency in neurology at The Ohio State University. He then served as a Full Professor at The Ohio State University before starting the first veterinary neurology and neurosurgery private practice in Chicago. Dr. Podell is passionate and committed to improving the overall wellbeing of our veterinary healthcare providers.

Session Description: We created a unique Doctor Wellbeing Survey intended to gain insights to develop initiatives in three key areas of wellbeing: Workplace, Personal & Professional, and Financial Wellbeing. A modified version of the Physician Wellness Inventory, a survey leveraged in human healthcare, was also included, resulting in 37 total items. All items were rated on a 5-point agreement scale (1-strongly disagree, 5-strongly agree) and participants had the option to add a comment after each section of the survey. The survey was delivered in 2020 (n=278, 62% response rate) and again in 2022(n=266, 46% response rate) to evaluate the effectiveness of wellbeing initiatives taken. Analyses of mean comparisons from 2020 to 2022 were conducted through independent samples t-tests. Results showed significant increases in 14 items, most notably in the areas of Workplace and Personal & Professional Wellbeing. There were significant decreases in 3 items, particularly in response to the impact of educational debt on wellbeing. Finally, comparisons of Specialty and ER Department doctors were conducted and showed significant differences with lower scores of ER doctor wellbeing on 11 questions. ER doctors scored significantly lower in medical record efficiency, workflow efficiency, feelings of job satisfaction, and overall feelings of pleasure outside of the workplace. This study demonstrates that an organizational, systematic approach based on doctor input can have a positive overall influence of doctor wellbeing.

Course Information

Date: On Demand
Location: Virtual
Audience: ACVIM Diplomates and Candidates, ECVIM Diplomates and Candidates, Affiliate Diplomates and Candidates, Veterinarians, Veterinary Technicians, Veterinary Assistants, Students and Allied Professionals
Specialty: Multispecialty