Practical approaches and skills to navigate stress in the veterinary profession

Join Dr Sonja Olson for three webinars that will spark your innate curiosity, examine caregiving challenges, and explore strategic approaches to managing stress in the veterinary profession.

Webinar 1 - 7.30pm, Wednesday 8 November 2023

Stress First Aid for self-care and peer support: effectively meeting stress in the moment 

Stress First Aid (SFA) is a framework to improve recovery from stress reactions. The model includes practical actions that can help you identify and address early signs of stress in yourself and others. These actions are helpful during critical events as well as for ongoing care. SFA is an evidence-based approach that complements other similar initiatives such as Mental Health First Aid.

This webinar is designed to help you and your team:
• become more comfortable with the language and emotions around stress reactions and mental health challenges
• cultivate an environment of safety that decreases stigma and increases ethical resourcing for people in need of support
• learn more about your own relationship to, beliefs about, and strategies for coping with stress
• recognise that stress in our personal and professional lives is inevitable• meet stress in the moment with more awareness and less distress.

Webinar 2 - 7.30pm, Wednesday 22 November 2023

Financial concerns around providing veterinary care: understanding moral injury and distress

Veterinary medicine involves big emotions and complex cases. As a veterinary professional, you may experience moral stressors or ethical conflicts in a variety of situations, including conversations with clients around financial constraints. 

In this webinar, we will clarify what moral distress and ethical conflict means in the veterinary environment, and why it is essential to understand these terms during conversations around finances. With more awareness and understanding of these challenges, you and your team will be better prepared to navigate these scenarios compassionately, and create practical coping strategies.

In this webinar, you will learn how to:
• identify the origin of stressful feelings that may arise on the job
• manage challenging conversations with clients and colleagues• cope more effectively with stressors
• get support from your collegial community.

Webinar 3 - 7.30pm, Wednesday 6 December 2023

Trauma-informed care: a key to sustaining compassion and offering high quality care in veterinary practice 

A career in veterinary medicine involves deeply meaningful work, professional development and growth, and positive contributions to the lives of animals and people. It can also involve high emotions, work-related stress, and the potential for secondary traumatic stress.

The key to fortifying a healthy, engaged veterinary team is to acknowledge these challenges and cultivate protective factors and skill-building. Becoming trauma-informed normalises the experiences of individuals in veterinary medicine and helps individuals and teams be better prepared.

This webinar will cover the six pillars of trauma-informed care:
• Safety (including psychological safety)
• Trustworthiness and transparency
• Peer support
• Collaboration and mutuality
• Empowerment and choice
• Cultural competency.

You will learn initial skill-building and approaches to build your confidence and increase stress-regulation so you can bring these concepts to your professional role, team and work environment.