QUARTERLY BEAT / OCTOBER 2025
BALANCE MATTERS: HOW TO IMPROVE
IN VETERINARY MEDICINE
WORK-LIFE BALANCE
Struggling to find balance between long hours, demanding cases, and your personal life? You’re not alone. In this VETgirl blog, Dr. Justine Lee, DACVECC, DABT, shares practical tips on improving work-life balance in veterinary medicine - from time management and healthy habits, to boundaries and support systems. Read on for strategies to help you stay happy, healthy, and thriving in this challenging profession!
Dr. Justine Lee, DACVECC, DABT Director of Medicine / Co-founder, VETgirl
It’s no secret that our veterinary profession started as a boundless love for animals. As a veterinarian or veterinary technician, our job comes long hours, tireless effort, demanding clients/pet owners, and high stress. When it comes to our amazing veterinary technicians, tech assistants (TA) and CSR/CSC, it also comes with way too low of a salary. It’s a profession full of joy and stress, passion and burnout. But finding balance between your personal life and career is essential to maintain happiness, promotion, and health. We all know that the veterinary profession ranks high when it comes to dramatic rates of burnout and suicide ideation. It’s imperative that we find ways to keep ourselves happy and healthy. In this VETgirl blog, we share some tips on how to improve your work-life balance in veterinary medicine. (BTW, if you haven't downloaded our free "Put Your Mental Health First" e-book, make sure to get it HERE ).
can read all about how to be more efficient as a veterinarian HERE in our blog from 2015. (And that's before COVID, when our profession got even less efficient due to curbside, higher pet populations, quarantine requirements, and home schooling!). Allocate the right number of "minutes" to the task too. If you think it's going to take 2 hours for inventory, actually set a timer and calculate it, so you know that the next time you do inventory, it actually takes 14 hours. Then schedule and block that time off for you appropriately!
2. EMBRACE HEALTHY HABITS Physical exercise, a healthy diet, and emotional wellness are vital. Nurturing your physical, mental, and emotional health helps increase productivity and your ability to handle stress. Make time for exercise, prioritize a balanced diet plan (See Dr. Mike Tokiwa's healthy food tips HERE ), manage your emotions, live in the present, try to cultivate gratitude in your life, engage with your hobbies, and spend time with your family and friends. You can even pick up some tips on happiness here with Dr. Mike Tokiwa.
1. FOCUS ON TIME MANAGEMENT Time is the most precious resource, especially in veterinary medicine where emergencies may cause you to work beyond the scheduled hours. But time management is crucial for achieving the coveted work-life balance. You need to plan out your activities, prioritize them and manage your time appropriately. For example, setting boundaries with clients and colleagues, such as being firm with your lunch breaks or leaving work on time and delegating as much as possible, are essential. It may take some time, but with practice and habit, you can become more efficient with your time. You
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