VetSpan: Extending your veterinary career without burning out or breaking down

In Episode 4 of The Resilient Vet: Mind and Body Strategies for Success, hosts Aaron Shaw, OTR/L, CHT, CSCS, and Jennifer Edwards, DVM, ACC, CPC, ELI-MP, delve into the concept of “VetSpan,” a term coined by Shaw, that describes the years veterinary professionals can thrive in their careers. Shaw starts off the episode by sharing some startling statistics: 50% of veterinarians feel burned out by the end of the week and nearly 75% experience job-related physical pain.

To address this, Shaw and Edwards outline the 5 pillars of VetSpan: exercise, nutrition, sleep, emotional wellbeing, and preventative care. Together, they offer actionable tips veterinary professionals can implement into their daily lives to extend their career.

Partial transcript:

Shaw: If you're in veterinary medicine, here's the hard truth: 50% of you feel burned out by Friday, and almost three quarters of you have some sort of physical pain related to your job. [However], this isn't just about being tired, it's really about your career clock that's ticking down.

But what if you could add years, or even decades, to the time you can do your best work? That's exactly what we're going to talk about today.

Welcome to The Resilient Vet podcast. My name is Aaron Shaw. I'm a healthspan coach, occupational therapist, and strength and conditioning specialist, and today we're going to dive into a concept I believe can really change how vet professionals think about their careers. This is a concept called “VetSpan.” It's kind of a cousin of lifespan or healthspan.

VetSpan isn't just about how many years you can stay in this profession. It's really about how many years you can thrive in it—being physically capable, emotionally resilient, and really feeling fulfilled. It's almost like being anti-burnout.

I created VetSpan because I've seen the toll this profession takes on people, people I care about the most [and it doesn't have to be that way]. My wife is a vet and a lot of my friends and colleagues are vets and vet techs. So, we're going to break this down today, and lucky for you, the listener, you're not just stuck with me. I have a great co-host, Dr Jennifer Edwards. She brings the other half of the resilience equation. She works with vet professionals on leadership and the mental and emotional interpersonal challenges in this field, and she's going to bring the passion and give us even more in-depth knowledge so you can really protect the career that you love so much.

Edwards: Thanks, Aaron, for that wonderful introduction. I'm so excited for today's topic because, boy, having been in this profession for so long, I know and [have] personally experienced what it's like to burn out in many ways.

There's a lot of talk about burnout in the field right now, and I think most of it is centered around emotional and mental burnout, but the physical burnout part of the equation is equally important. And as you are going to dive in today with our listeners, there are 5 major categories that are important. So, I'm excited for this. It's important information and can really start to make a difference in people's lives and their careers.

Shaw: Yeah, and the more research I've done on the injury rate and the burnout rate and what seems to be, at times, like an exodus from the field is really heartbreaking. I'm an occupational therapist by practice, and so I'm also a provider. The human healthcare field has similar challenges sometimes, where very capable, passionate people end up leaving because of the demands of the practice—the demands of the career.

So, we're going to see if we can help build some resilience in the people who are listening. We're going to do it through the following agenda:

• First, we're going to define what VetSpan is. We're going to talk about these pillars—there are 5 pillars to VetSpan that will help extend your career.
• We'll dive in a little into the risks of ignoring these.
• And then, I think the most important part is that we're going to leave you with some very specific action steps—very specific things that you can start [doing] today to build some resilience.

Transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and cohesion.