I follow Firstline Magazine on Twitter and they posted a "Personal Stress Test Straight Outta Fetch," which is referring to a publication by DVM360.
The test can be applied to veterinarians and veterinary nurses, or any other type of professional for that matter. It takes into account your Compassion Satisfaction, Burnout, and Secondary Traumatic Stress as you score various areas of your life on a 1-5 scale.
Note that this is asking for answers regarding the past 30 days and read the directions carefully. The article above discusses how they applied this test to veterinary conference attendees and shows some charts of the results from their responses. How do you think they scored?
Here is the link to take it yourself; I found it easiest to print it out so I could write down my scores:
Now what? Identifying the areas that are causing your stress, burnout, or fatigue can help you to make a plan about your future career goals and how you can better manage these areas.
Our profession as a whole has really been bringing to light the compassion fatigue and burnout that we see so commonly in our line of work. I can see that my levels of burnout have likely changed over the years, and learning how to manage the stress that comes with providing veterinary medical care is essential in order to survive and also thrive in this profession!
