Overcoming understaffing

Photo: Home-Stock

The problem

Our staff is missing a team member. Whether it’s a position we can’t fill or a person who calls out unexpectedly, bolts early, or just quits, being down a member of the team creates major rate-limiting steps in our clinic operations. How can we keep our animal hospital adequately staffed?

Causes and solutions

Like snags in the biochemical reactions that we learned about in veterinary school, staff shortages slow up everything: Appointments have to be rescheduled. Owners are left waiting far too long for wellness visits. And care for sick animals gets denied.

“It’s a systemic issue in our industry,” Andrew Heller, DVM, cofounder of IndeVets, said.

Heller, whose Philadelphia, Pennsylvania–based company supplies hourly doctors to its undervetted hospital clients, recalls a South Dakota practice he visited recently that had a waitlist of 30 pets. Because of staff deficits, he pointed out, “veterinarians are leaving money on the table and losing clients.”

In recent years, the demand for veterinary services and bumped up pet-related spending in general.¹

The industry has moved in with vigor: From 2009 to 2021, the number of US veterinary hospitals increased 18.5% to 32,634, according to an American Veterinary Medical Association report.² The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects approximately 4300 new job openings for veterinarians and more than 15,000 for veterinary technicians annually over the next decade.^3,4 However, more job openings don’t mean there are more candidates.

Academia to the rescue! (Maybe.) With increased veterinary class sizes, 3 new veterinary schools graduating inaugural classes in the past few years, and at least another 10 in various stages of development, many more baby vets are being born.^5,6

At least 1 state has tried to address the labor shortfall. Colorado, to much industry consternation, recently passed Proposition 129. This legislation creates the “veterinary professional associate” a midlevel professional with credentials somewhere between a veterinary technician and a veterinarian.⁷

But these efforts might not be enough, Heller said. Experience aside, a new veterinary grad does not equal the retiring Baby Boomer who is accustomed to working long hours. “The new generation wants to work to live,” he explained. “Sometimes you need 2 or 3 new vets to replace the productivity of a retiring vet.”

With insufficient staffing, who has time to properly train newbies? From the client service representatives at the front of the house to the technicians and veterinarians in the back, everyone needs training. Lack thereof leads to frustration.

In an IndeVets survey, 39% of veterinarians moving into the more flexible realm of relief employment expressed burnout.⁸ CDC data from 2018 show suicide among female and male veterinarians, respectively, to be 3.5 and 2.1 times greater than the general population; most of these veterinarians who died by suicide worked in a small animal practice.⁹

How is this possible in a profession whose workers “play with puppies all day”?

“I feel like our profession gets put on a pedestal, and then people see the reality once they work in it,” Jennifer Schneider, VMD, medical director at Clocktower Animal Hospital in Herndon, Virginia, said.

At every level of the operation, there’s burnout—and burnout leads to callouts. Schneider estimates that her hospital weathers a few employee callouts a week, and as many as 3 on a bad day. “Staff shortages require doctors to get more involved in other things, like blood draws, cleaning rooms, etc,” she lamented. “So sometimes I have to stay at work 2 or 3 hours past closing just to finish my notes.”

When someone isn’t there to do their job, it cuts into the morale of those who do show up, Kemba Marshall, DVM, MPH, SHRMCP, who is CEO of KLMDVM Consulting LLC in St. Louis, Missouri, said. “We cannot allow them to stay because they are the people who drag down the culture. Yet in spite of ourselves, we will take the warm body because we hold out hope that sometimes they will contribute.”

Nathan Peterson, DVM, MBE, DACVECC, an associate clinical professor at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine in Ithaca, New York, examined a different problem: how veterinary technicians fare when having to administer futile (or noncurative) therapies to critically ill patients. The study, recently published by the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, found that most participants reported moral despair.¹⁰

“It is distressing for our technicians to not have any agency in these medical decisions,” Peterson said.

Rather than talking privately with clients, writing up treatment plans, and then walking away—leaving technicians to carry out orders without understanding the decisions—veterinarians should hold tough client conversations in the presence of their technicians, even inviting them to participate in dialogues, Peterson said.

Staff well-being is often overlooked by practice leaders but could improve with better hospital culture. Flexible work hours that allow for improved work-life balance, designated break times, encouraging use of paid time off, and staff recognitions can all help boost morale and motivation.

Schneider recommends that hospitals provide employees at all levels with regular one-on-ones, complete with performance improvement plans, opportunities for cross-training to expand their skills, and career mapping to sort out their goals. “Giving responsibility to people motivates them,” she said.

And motivated employees are more likely to “people” their animal hospitals and contribute meaningfully.

REFERENCES

1. Pet owners report spending more on their pets post-COVID. American Pet Products Association. January 9, 2024. Accessed May 21, 2025. https://americanpetproducts.org/blog/pet-ownersreport-spending-more-on-their-pets-post-covid#:~:text=APPA%20Team,in%20the%20past%2012%20months?%E2%80%9D&text=While%20the%20COVID%2D19%20pandemic,during%20this%20time%20of%20recovery.
2. Leech R. 2025 economic state of the veterinary profession: trends and opportunities for your practice. dvm360. April 2, 2025. Accessed May 19, 2025. https://www.dvm360.com/view/2025-economic-state-of-the-veterinary-profession-trends-and-opportunities-for-your-practice
3. Veterinarians. In: Occupational Outlook Handbook. US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Updated April 18, 2025. Accessed May 19, 2025. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/veterinarians.htm#tab-6
4. Veterinary Technologists and Technicians. In: Occupational Outlook Handbook. US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Updated April 18, 2025. Accessed May 19, 2025. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/veterinary-technologists-and-technicians.htm#tab-6
5. Larkin M. US veterinary colleges increase seats at accelerating rate. American Veterinary Medical Association. September 26, 2023. Accessed May 19, 2025. https://www.avma.org/news/us-veterinary-colleges-increase-seats-accelerating-rate#:~:text=From%202018%2D19%20to%202022,125%20veterinary%20students%20each%20August
6. Green EM. The push for new schools in an evolving world. Today’s Veterinary Business. February 1, 2025. Accessed May 19, 2025. https://todaysveterinarybusiness.com/veterinary-college-viewpoint-020725/
7. Midlevel practitioner proposal secures enough votes in Colorado. American Veterinary Medical Association. November 7, 2024. Accessed May 19, 2025. https://www.avma.org/news/midlevel-practitioner-proposal-secures-enough-votes-colorado#:~:text=Colorado%20voters%20have%20approved%20a,licensed%20veterinarians%20in%20the%20state
8. Veterinarian burnout survey. IndeVets. 2024. https://indevets.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/IndeVets-Burnout-Survey-2024.pdf
9. New study finds higher than expected number of suicide deaths among U.S. veterinarians. CDC. December 20, 2018. Accessed May 19, 2025. https://archive.cdc.gov/#/details?url=https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2018/p1220-veterinarians-suicide.html
10. Kogan LR, Rishniw M. Veterinarians and moral distress. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2023;261(5):1-7. doi:10.2460/javma.22.12.0598