Lower stress and safer work in a veterinary practice come from the same place: a team that can speak up, leaders who share responsibility for how the day runs, and routine checks of physical hazards rather than checks after someone gets hurt. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) frames sustained wellbeing as a workplace culture shift, not a task for one employee to manage alone.
This article is about the people who work in veterinary settings, including owners, managers, veterinarians, technicians, assistants, and other team members. It does not cover low-stress handling of animals in the clinic, which the sources behind this article do not address. Pet owners sometimes ask whether a strained team affects their animal’s care; that link is discussed at the end, under what the evidence does not settle.
Stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue are different problems
These three terms are often used interchangeably, but they call for different responses. AVMA’s educational session on stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue treats them as related but distinct, each with its own signs and sources. The session is a teaching resource; it does not provide diagnostic criteria, so a team member whose symptoms are worrying should be referred to a clinician.
Stress
Stress is the response to demands that feel greater than a person’s capacity to meet them. In a clinic it is often tied to a specific shift, a difficult case, or a schedule that leaves no recovery time. It can usually be reduced by changing the conditions that produce it.
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Burnout
Burnout is a state of exhaustion and reduced effectiveness that builds up over time when workplace demands are chronic. Because it accumulates, it tends to reflect the structure of work over months rather than a single bad day, which is why AVMA’s wellbeing materials point to workplace-level change.
Compassion fatigue
Compassion fatigue is the strain of repeatedly caring for people or animals who are suffering. It can show up as emotional withdrawal or numbness toward the work. Teams in emergency, euthanasia, and end-of-life care may recognize it more readily than others, but the AVMA session does not rank roles by risk.
How big is the burnout problem in the profession?
The AVMA’s 2025 report lists an average veterinarian burnout score of 26.4 out of 50 for both 2023 and 2024. The 2025 report is the most recent edition covered here; check AVMA for later editions before citing newer figures.
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| Year | Average veterinarian burnout score (out of 50) | Status in the AVMA 2025 report |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 26.4 | Corrected in the 2025 report after an analysis error had artificially increased the earlier score |
| 2024 | 26.4 | Reported in the 2025 report |
Three limits matter when reading this number. First, it is an average score based on ProQOL self-report questions in the AVMA Census of Veterinarians, not the share of veterinarians who have burnout. Second, it describes veterinarians only; the report does not establish the same figure for technicians, assistants, or managers. Third, the 2022 and 2023 scores were corrected because an earlier analysis error had inflated them, so figures for those years published before the correction should not be used.
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What psychological safety means
AVMA’s psychological safety course describes the concept in one sentence that is useful as a working definition:
“Psychologically safe workplaces—where every team member believes it’s safe to ask for help, voice concerns, and acknowledge errors without fear of embarrassment or reprisal—allow teams to adapt and excel.”
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This is AVMA course-page wording, not a quotation from an individual presenter.
The behaviors that show it
The definition translates into three observable habits that a team can check for:
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- An assistant or new hire asks for help without first trying to hide that they are stuck.
- A technician raises a concern about a drug, a procedure, or a staffing gap before it becomes an incident.
- A team member says “I made that mistake” and the response is about fixing the process, not punishing the person.
Building it into daily routines
The sources do not measure which routines work best, so the following are practical suggestions rather than tested interventions:
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- Open a short huddle by asking what would make the day harder, and write down the answers so they are acted on.
- After a difficult case or a near-miss, hold a brief debrief that focuses on the sequence of events, not on who was at fault.
- When a mistake happens, a manager or senior clinician states their own error first, which lowers the cost of speaking up for everyone else.
- Make sure concerns can reach someone other than a direct supervisor, especially for staff who are newer or work part-time.
Which wellbeing supports does AVMA offer?
Workplace wellbeing 1: Setting the foundation
This is a five-module certificate for veterinary professionals and team members. Its listed subject areas are feedback, workplace conflict, QPR suicide prevention training, and diversity and inclusion. The program description emphasizes consistent habits and a workplace culture shift rather than one-off wellness activities. Course price and eligibility can change, so confirm both directly with AVMA before enrolling.
Stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue session
This session covers sources of stress, effects on personal and professional life, and topics on recognition and management. It was originally presented at AVMA Convention 2022, so treat it as an educational resource rather than current clinical guidance.
Journey for Teams
This AVMA resource includes learning on psychological safety and microaggressions, which makes it a basis for team discussion. It also lists collaborating and educational partners, but the listing alone does not describe what those partners contributed.
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Belonging and engagement
AVMA’s belonging and engagement resource links team respect and support to retention, wellbeing, client relationships, and patient care. The material makes those connections in principle but does not attach a quantified effect to any of them.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Choosing where to start: four ways to sort options
When a team is deciding between interventions, four comparison axes help organize the choice. They are useful for sorting options, not a ranking of which approach works best.
| Axis | One end | Other end | Question to ask |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individual or organizational | Support for one person under strain | Changes to schedules, communication norms, or leadership behavior | Does the problem sit in one person’s routine or in how the team works? |
| Emotional wellbeing or physical hazard | Support for stress, burnout, or compassion fatigue | Control of physical hazards through a safety program | Is the risk psychological, physical, or both? |
| Preventive or responsive | Routines that run before problems occur | Action taken after an incident, complaint, or injury | Are we building habits, or only reacting? |
| Universal or role-specific | Practice-wide habits that apply to everyone | Support tailored to a role or need, such as new assistants or managers | Does this apply to the whole team, or to one group? |
Physical safety belongs in the same conversation
Stress and physical risk are often handled by different people in a clinic, but AVMA’s occupational safety education treats them as part of one workplace discussion. Its course on OSHA compliance and veterinary workplace safety covers employer and team responsibilities, hazard self-audits, violations, and evaluation of a safety and health program. The course describes U.S. OSHA. Outside the United States, identify the national or regional occupational safety authority that applies to your practice.
A practical audit sequence looks like this:
- Confirm which rules apply to your location and practice type, and note the authority responsible for enforcing them.
- Walk the clinic with staff from several roles, not only managers. Check restraint and lifting areas, sharps handling, anesthetic gas and chemical storage, and exit routes.
- Record each hazard, the person responsible for fixing it, and a target date.
- Review recent incidents, near-misses, and any violations for repeated patterns, especially those that involve the same room or task.
- Evaluate the safety and health program at set intervals and again after staffing or equipment changes.
This sequence is a general audit approach, not a legal checklist; the requirements that apply to your practice come from your local authority.
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What the evidence does not settle
- The sources do not rank interventions by how effectively they reduce stress, and they report no study effect sizes for any of them.
- No causal link between psychological safety and patient outcomes is established. Teams that communicate well are described as more able to adapt, but the sources do not measure how that affects individual animals.
- Legal safety requirements vary by jurisdiction and by type of practice, so no single set of rules applies everywhere.
- The 26.4 burnout score describes veterinarians in one survey and cannot be applied to other roles or to the wider workforce.
- AVMA course availability, eligibility, and pricing change over time and should be checked on AVMA’s own pages before a team commits to a program.
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