03/30/2023
Shout out to all veterinary practice owners, medical directors, and practice managers --
Want to know how staff are doing regarding workplace wellbeing? The Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) Survey can be very helpful and doesn’t take a big investment. AVMA members can take the ProQOL online (https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/wellbeing/assess-your-wellbeing), where they will get scores for compassion fatigue comprising burnout and secondary trauma. After I took the ProQOL on the AVMA site I was pleasantly surprised to see this link come up, (https://www.dvm360.com/view/compassion-fatigue-and-burnout-history-definitions-and-assessment?p=2), a dated, but still relevant resource I authored in 2017 “Compassion Fatigue and Burnout: History, Definitions and Assessment.” You may want to check it out if you want an overview.
For technicians, assistants, and front-line customer service representatives (CSRs) a recently developed ProQOL version for healthcare workers is ideal (https://proqol.org/proqol-health-measure). It is freely available and provides scores for perceived support and moral distress as well as compassion fatigue, burnout, and secondary trauma.
At a recent all-staff meeting we discussed our scores and the particular circumstances that impacted our results. The perceived support score factored in backing from family as well as co-workers and management. I was surprised that the CSRs had such comparatively high scores for compassion fatigue until they explained how upsetting it was watching frustrated clients weep as they settled their bill while coming to grips with the reality of their pet’s situation. Moral distress was high when clients were upset because they could not afford care that they wanted to get for their pets or when euthanasia was requested for relatively healthy pets. That frontline job is extremely challenging. No wonder I find myself retreating from the waiting room when clients walk in!
As a result of our meeting I’ve renewed efforts to provide clients with advice about pet insurance and wellness programs that are available. I’d love to hear your experiences with these options or any other suggestions.
