Compassion Fatigue – Page 2

Simple Tips to Stop Compartmentalizing Your Day

So often in my day I have to move from 1 appointment to the next with barely time to catch my breath.

I used to feel like I had to hide the stress or sadness of the previous appt from the next one. But I realized that as I did that, I was also stuffing down and ignoring my emotional needs and by the end of the day I was exhausted and depressed. I would go home and binge eat, or not eat at all, and yet never really let go of the emotional stresses of my day.

That is what leads to burnout and compassion fatigue.

What I have found is that spending just 30 seconds on dealing with the emotions I am feeling in the moment helps me feel better throughout the day.

Here are several ways I release tension and emotions throughout the day so they don’t build up and overwhelm me, especially if I am crazy busy or running late with appointments:

I will pause before opening the exam room door, take a couple deep breaths in through my nose and out through my mouth. I feel the breath in bringing in peace and happiness, knowledge and confidence. I feel the breath out releasing any negative emotions I might be feeling-stress, anger, sadness.
I will tell the client of the next patient a 1 sentence explanation of why I might have run late, such as “I am sorry to keep you waiting, the last client had some difficult decisions to make and I could not rush them. I appreciate your understanding. Now, I see that Fluffy is very excited to be here today.” Telling them that I respect their time and that I am only human has been well received. Most clients respond with “when it is my pet, I know you will do the same for us.”
I “shake it off.” Literally, just like the Taylor Swift song says. I do a full body shiver, shake or jump around for 5-10 seconds. It releases tension, can be a source of laughter for my staff, and it allows me to feel brighter and lighter moving forward. If you can’t do a full body shake, try swinging your arms or bouncing on your toes.

Seeing new clients and pets every 15 minutes or so can be very draining if there is no effort to stay centered and balanced throughout the day. In the coming weeks, we will explore ways of releasing negative emotions by reframing your thoughts and honoring your feelings.

If you like what you just read, or if you have other ways of releasing negative emotions during your work day, I would love to hear from you. Please visit calendly.com/healthyselfdvm to schedule a free, 1 hour phone call with me to explore ways that work for you.

Have a fantastic day!!

What if grief and anger over euthanasias was easily avoided?

We are so often tasked with taking the lives of our patients. It can be depressing and overwhelming at times.

Recently I heard Dani Mcvety, DVM the CEO and founder of Lap of Love speak, and she put into words how I feel every time I perform a euthanasia. She tells clients that ask how she can do euthanasias day in and day out, that it is an honor to perform this task.

How much better would you feel if you could come to the place that it is an honor to perform a euthanasia? Not that you won’t be sad, and not that you would perform one that you did not agree with, but overall, how much stress would that mindset relieve?

To get to that point, one thing to consider is that no experience has meaning until you assign it one.

For example: we all know that some people meet the personal diagnosis of cancer with acceptance and the belief that their life still has meaning and go on to achieve great things. Others can never move past the anger, hurt and fear of it. The diagnosis of cancer was the same, but the meaning assigned to it was different.

The end result of the euthanasia is the same, but how you frame it allows you to move forward with serenity and calmness vs grief and anger.

I use this tenant “no experience has meaning until you assign it one” often in my day. When I diagnose a terminal disease in a patient, I am sad and upset for awhile. Realizing that I cannot change the diagnosis, but only try and make the best of it, I try and find a way in which this experience might be of value for me or the client. Such as: I get to learn about recent advancements in the treatment of this disease, I might meet new doctors that will become part of my “go-to referral team” in the future, I might have dealt with this personally with one of my own pets and so have a chance to heal that experience a bit, I get to allow the clients to find their way through the process with dignity, grace and as much serenity as they can. The client gets to heal previous experiences with terminally ill pets, or maybe even family.

It is all in how you can frame the experience.

Euthanasias do not have to be a sad, overwhelming stress on us. We can chose how we think about them and how we allow the clients to experience them. It is all in the meaning we assign to the experience.

Try this idea on for size as you go through your day. Email me your questions or experiences with it, I’d love to hear from you.

Support for Veterinarians has Arrived

Over the past year, several articles have been published — in the Boston Globe and various trade journals — about how stressful it is to be a veterinarian. Each one highlights the fact that 1 in 6 veterinarians have considered suicide. Many people might be surprised by that statistic, but to veterinarians who face the daily challenges of exhausting hours, financial strain, and compassion fatigue, we know it all too well.

Our profession is in the midst of a mental health crisis. What has been done to address it?

My name is Pamela Datsko and at times during my 26 year career as a veterinarian, I have struggled with depression myself. But I thought I was just one of a small group of veterinarians who were having trouble. That changed with the suicide of veterinarian Sophia Yin in 2014. Dr. Yin created the Low Stress Handling™ program about how to make our pets’ time in the clinic low stress. Even though I’d never met her, I admired her work and her death broke my heart.

The tragic irony that she was so passionate about reducing stress in the clinic, and yet took her own life, hit me hard. From the outside, it looked like she had everything going for her, which made me realize that far more of my colleagues may be suffering in silence than I’d previously recognized.

I knew I could not stay silent and allow my colleagues to struggle any longer. That same year, I started mentoring through Veterinary Information Network (VIN). I found it fulfilling for what it was, but since it only involved emailing mentees, I wanted to do more.

There are a handful of veterinarians with other advanced degrees, like psychology, with online presences for counseling veterinarians. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has an online self-assessment tool for veterinary wellbeing, and they provide some resources. Some of the pharmaceutical companies provide a similar service, with personal wellness modules on a free online learning platform. All of these are much-needed services, but I have the strong feeling that veterinarians also need deeper and more personal support.

I know I wanted personal, individual interactions when I needed help. Online support alone just would not have cut it for me. I began my personal healing journey in 2013 and it has transformed my life.

I created Heal ThySELF DVM™ because it’s time to stop suffering—because I want other veterinarians to be able to enjoy their lives and careers again. I want to do my part in helping to end the mental health crisis.

On Wednesday March 22, 2017, I will be hosting a free online interactive webinar called Veterinarians, Heal ThySELF! where you can join me and other like-minded colleagues in exploring some of the transformational techniques that have made such a difference in my own life—including a powerful guided visualization.

You can expect to walk away feeling uplifted and energized with a more positive outlook on your future. I look forward to seeing you there!

*And if you know someone who might benefit from this information, please forward this article to them. Thank you.