The Wellbeing of your Practice Team
Wellbeing is central to the success of a team, allowing team members to undertake their work in safe, welcoming and fulfilling environments. Workplace wellbeing combines various factors that support the mental and physical health of all team members – all contributing to their ability to thrive in practice. Wellbeing can be a difficult concept to deconstruct and improve, as it can mean different things to different people. Luckily, there are several veterinary specific resource hubs to support you in upholding the wellbeing of your teams. Here, we have compiled links facilitate easy access to them, as well as signposting to ways you can assess your own workplace’s wellbeing measures and ways in which you can celebrate your businesses’ dedication to improving veterinary wellbeing through the annual BVA Wellbeing Awards.
Life in a veterinary practice is incredibly rewarding but can also be very challenging.
Here are some key contacts, should you need to seek help immediately.
Wellbeing Resources for you and your Practice Team
If you want to improve wellbeing in your workplace, and don’t know where to start, the best people to ask are those within your team. It can be difficult to start a conversation about wellbeing, as it can mean admitting vulnerability, which some people find difficult. Consider making it a rolling agenda point in practice meetings, or better yet, having a wellbeing focused meeting where people are encouraged to feed back with ideas for improvement in a non-judgemental setting. Feedback could be in person, or if preferred, via an anonymous suggestion box. It’s important to set priorities and affirm your practice’s plan as a team. Here are some tips for conversation starters…
Resources from Wellbeing specialists and SPVS partners
Ohana Animal Charity
Ohana is a UK-registered charity founded in October 2024 with two core missions: improving the welfare of stray animals; improving mental wellbeing within the veterinary community.
After witnessing so many colleagues struggling, it became vital to Ohana to improve mental health in our community. They organise ‘Learn & Travel’ courses and missions (such as sterilisation campaigns) for vets, vet nurses, techs and students in beautiful places around the world with all profits going to animal welfare, helping street and shelter animals, through working together with local animal charities.
Details of the courses running in 2025 can be found on their website https://ohana-animalcharity.com
Ohana are kindly offering SPVS members £100 discount on their courses – please email Carolina on hello@ohana-animal.charity.com to arrange for the discount to be applied to your booking.
BVA Good Workplace Guide
The Good Workplace Guide from BVA serves to recognise the importance of a positive workplace culture, with resources to promote awareness of potential barriers to good experiences at work, as well as tips on how to overcome them. There is a voluntary code that veterinary workplaces can sign up to, as well as an accreditation scheme (Great Workplaces) that aims to recognise and reward efforts to create excellent workplaces.
