International Day of Veterinary Medicine: Celebrating the People Who Make This Profession Extraordinary

Walk into any veterinary hospital on any given day and you’ll see it immediately. The flow. The rhythm. The quiet choreography of a team that communicates in glances, half sentences, and instinct. If International Day of Veterinary Medicine, which we celebrate every December 9th, teaches us anything, it is that this profession has never been about veterinarians alone. It has always been a team sport.

Yes, today honors veterinarians. But the truth is that veterinary medicine is carried on the backs of an entire ecosystem. The CSR who notices a worried client before they say a word. The assistant who holds a pet just right so the exam feels a little less scary. The technician who anticipates a doctor’s next step before it is spoken. The practice manager who holds the stress that no one else sees. The kennel team who shows up early, stays late, and loves every patient as if they were their own.

International Day of Veterinary Medicine is not simply about the doctor in the exam room. It is about the entire network of people who make the medicine possible. No one succeeds in this profession alone. And no one should have to.

Burnout and the myth of individual failure

When we talk about burnout in veterinary medicine, we talk about it like it is something that happens inside a single person. As if one person simply ran out of resilience. But burnout is rarely a solo problem. Much like in sports, it is usually a sign that a team is carrying too much weight unevenly, or that someone has been asked to shoulder more than any one person reasonably can.

Think about a football kicker who misses a field goal. At that moment, under the brightest and harshest spotlight, he knows he let his team down. His teammates know it too. Yet what happens on the most successful teams? They walk over. They pat his helmet. They offer a few words. They close ranks around him. No one turns away. No one cold-shoulders him. They remind him that one moment does not define him, and it does not negate everything else he brings to the team.

Veterinary medicine becomes its best self when we practice that same instinctive, collective compassion within our own teams.

Because the truth is that vet med is not a profession of solo performances. It is not the doctor’s burden, or the tech’s burden, or the CSR’s burden. It is shared. It is carried together. Burnout is not something you “fix” with more training or more internal grit. It is something prevented by teams who look out for each other, lift each other up, and refuse to let anyone carry more than they can safely hold.

If you want to dive deeper into this, we recently teamed up with Not One More Vet (NOMV) and hosted a webinar. This webinar focuses on burnout and stressors specific to veterinary medicine, how our bodies instinctively respond to those stressors, and most importantly how to complete stress cycles and create your own personal plan to battle burnout. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzQMmpIYwng

Team-based strategies to reduce burnout and celebrate vet med

While no list can capture the full complexity of well-being in veterinary medicine, here are a few team-centered practices that help create healthier, more supportive workplaces. These strategies honor the truth this day represents: veterinary medicine thrives when its people do.

• Create “buddy check-ins” after stressful cases
  After any heavy or emotionally challenging case, have a quick check-in (5 minutes) with another team member - not to discuss medicine, but to simply ask, “How are you doing?” Even short emotional check-ins can prevent accumulated stress.
• Rotate emotional load among team members
  Instead of one person always handling the hardest cases - euthanasia, anxious clients, emergencies - rotate them among the team, so no one bears them constantly. Sharing those burdens makes the load lighter for everyone.
• Encourage small breaks and moments of decompression
  Build in short, intentional pauses (a deep breath, a walk, a few minutes away from the computer) after difficult appointments or long shifts. These breaks are restorative and remind team members they aren’t alone.
• Normalize “it’s okay to need help” conversations
  Foster a culture where admitting emotional stress, asking for support, or simply “needing a minute” isn’t shameful. It’s part of being human in vet med. Mental health is as important as medical health.
• Celebrate the unseen wins - emotionally and administratively
  Recognize and verbally acknowledge the tasks people often take for granted: charting, calming clients, after-hours follow-up calls, inventory management, and clean-up. A thank-you goes a long way.
• Use tools and software that reduce mental strain, not add to it
  Inefficient systems are a major source of veterinary burnout. With intuitive practice management software like Shepherd, your team can automate repetitive tasks like SOAPs, billing, discharge instructions, and reminders – making the workday smoother and less draining.
• Promote work-life balance collectively (not just individually)
  Instead of expecting each vet or tech to “take care of themselves,” embed work-life protections in scheduling, expectations, and policies – so self-care becomes a team standard, not a personal luxury.
• Provide spaces (literal or figurative) for debrief and decompress
  After crises, long days, or emergencies, offer a “safe space” – even a quick huddle, a pause room, or virtual chat – where team members can decompress, share feelings, or just breathe.
• Reframe “mistakes” as team learning, not individual failure
  When something goes wrong – a missed diagnosis, miscommunication, emotional slip – treat it like a team issue, not a personal indictment. That reduces guilt, defensiveness, and emotional fatigue.
• Lead by example – show vulnerability and admit when you’re tired
  When leadership acknowledges the strain, takes breaks, and invites support, it gives the team permission to do the same. Leadership behavior shapes culture

The magic of a team in sync

When a veterinary hospital is working well, it feels effortless. But that ease is built from thousands of tiny acts of support. No one notices these things at the moment, but everyone feels the difference they make. This is the heartbeat of veterinary medicine. 

So today, on the International Day of Veterinary Medicine, we celebrate every person who gives a piece of themselves to this work. Whether you are a veterinarian, technician, assistant, CSR, manager, kennel caregiver, or any role in between, you are part of something extraordinary – an interconnected team of veterinary professionals around the world, all woven into the fabric of this beautiful and deeply challenging profession.

On this day and every day, we honor you. The whole team. The whole ecosystem. The people behind the medicine who make veterinary care not only possible, but profoundly meaningful.

Take a moment to remind yourself and your team: Your work matters. Your presence matters. Your kindness matters. Your steadiness on hard days matters. And the way you show up for each other matters more than you may ever realize.