Wellness Tip of the Week: Setting boundaries at work

For this Wellness Tip of the Week, Healthspan coach Aaron Shaw, OTR/L, CHT, CSCS, is sharing advice on setting boundaries at work to support a healthy and long career. In his video, Shaw encourages veterinary professionals to practice setting at least one boundary, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing emotional wellbeing to continue caring effectively for patients and loved ones.

Below is a partial transcript, which has been lightly edited for clarity:

Aaron Shaw, OTR/L, CHT, CSCS: Hey everyone, this is Aaron Shaw with another Wellness Tip of the Week. Today, I want to talk about boundaries, and I don't mean setting boundaries like I'm walking out the front door and saying “forget it” with this career. I'm talking about setting realistic boundaries that can help you be more resilient and durable for a long, healthy, vibrant career—what we call vetspan.

So, we know that chronic stress without recovery will really kind of keep our nervous system in overdrive. We know that your baseline cortisol levels will stay elevated if you’re in a constant state of stress—it'll mess up your sleep, it'll mess up your concentration, your immune system.

So, setting boundaries can help really protect this, protect yourself, protect your emotional wellbeing. And we really need to be clear that you're not struggling because you're not tough enough. It's really, the struggle is not having an opportunity to reset, to reset your body, to reset your nervous system, and this is done in no small part by learning how to set boundaries.

And some examples of boundaries could be saying no to an extra shift. It could be setting a boundary for yourself. That could mean saying, “I'm going to choose to go outside for 10 minutes during my lunch break and get some fresh air and leave my phone inside.” Give yourself a little bit of discipline and set your own boundaries for your own mental health and your own emotional wellbeing.

But we need to also be clear that setting boundaries isn't a sign of weakness, it’s actually a sign of strength. So, if you want to practice toughness if you will, and protect your peace of mind, your time, your long-term health, your long-term personal physical health and also your long-term resilience for this career, setting boundaries is essential. And I know it can be so challenging for those of us that are in caregiving fields. The default is often to take care of everybody else first and second and third and fifth and 10th, and then put ourselves at the very, very back of the list, if at all, if we have time at all for that.

But ultimately, we don't want to be sabotaging our own wellbeing and sabotaging our ability to take care of our clients and take care of the people that we love or the animals that we love...