When addressing your wellness, it is important to consider all nine of these pillars in order to ensure that you are giving yourself as much room for self-care, growth & support as you need.
As veterinary professionals, we spend our working days caring for others—patients, clients, and our teammates. It’s crucial that we take time to care for ourselves, too. In fact, our mental and physical wellbeing depend on it. So does our ability to care for patients. Wellbeing is a choice that requires prioritization and accountability. Committing to self-care, and recognizing what we must do to protect and improve our wellbeing, are key steps in taking ownership of our health.
An emotionally well person successfully expresses and manages an entire range of feelings. These feelings may include anger, doubt, hope, joy, as well as many others. An emotionally well person maintains a high self-esteem, positive body-image, and knows how to regulate their feelings. They know where to seek support and help regarding their mental health, not limited to seeking counseling service.
A physically well person actively makes healthy decisions on a daily basis. They eat a nutritionally balanced diet, try to get an adequate amount of sleep and visits the doctor on a routine basis. They make a habit of exercising three to five times per week, has the ability to identify their personal needs and is aware of their body’s limitations. They maintain positive interpersonal relationships and make healthy sexual decisions that are consistent with their personal values and beliefs.
A spiritually well person has identified a core set of beliefs, which guide their decision making, and other faith based endeavors. While firm in their spiritual beliefs, they understand others may have a distinctly different guiding set of principles. They recognize the relationship between spirituality and identity in all individuals.
A financially well person is fully aware of their current financial state. They set long and short-term goals regarding finances that will allow them to reach their personal goals and achieve self-defined financial success.
A culturally well person is aware of their own cultural background, as well as the diversity and richness present in other cultural backgrounds. Cultural wellness implies understanding, awareness and intrinsic respect for aspects of diversity.
An intellectually well person engages in lifelong learning. They seek knowledge and activities that further develop their critical thinking and global awareness. They engage in activities associate with the arts, philosophy, and reasoning.
An environmentally well person appreciates the external cues and stimuli that an environment can provide. They recognize the limits to controlling an environment and seek to understand the role an individual plays in the environment.
A socially well person builds healthy relationships based on interdependence, trust, and respect. A socially well person is aware of the feelings of others. They develop a network of friends and co-workers who share in common purpose, who provide support and validation.
An occupationally well person enjoys the pursuit of a career they believe to be fulfilling on a variety of levels. This person finds satisfaction an enrichment in work, while always in pursuit of opportunities to reach their professional goals.
As a veterinary professional, it is important to understand how to best take care of yourself. Take the wellbeing survey, learn about workplace wellness, 100 healthy tips, how to deal with cyber bullying, battling compassion fatigue, and so much more.
Check Out My Vet Life through the AVMA for Wellness Tips for students
Follow this link to read this study on trends in Veterinary Wellbeing
Health is Wealth
American Veterinary Medical Foundation
While learning to provide the best care for animals, don't forget to take care of yourself. AVMA Axon offers nearly 20 courses (free to SAVMA members) designed to help students build good habits around work/life balance, including a spectrum of topics from team dynamics to suicide prevention.
VetLit: A Free Academic Resource for Veterinary Education
VetLit.org is a free resource that keeps all recent veterinary literature in one place. It automatically updates with recent publications from over 50 journals (for example the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA), the Journal of Small Animal Practice (JSAP), the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine (JVIM), the Journal of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care (JVECC)...) and is organized by specialty including ECC, Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Dentistry, Pathology etc...Checking in every few weeks is a great way of seeing what is new and relevant.
Questions: savma.epdc@gmail.com or kfrett0717@tuskegee.edu
Externship Locator
Externship locator? Check! Wellbeing assessment survey? Check! Financial planning
webinars? Check! Explore these tools and more! MyVeterinaryLife.com is a one-stop resource to help you succeed in veterinary school and prepare for graduation and life as a veterinarian. Check it out now: www.MyVeterinaryLife.com