Veterinary Medicine/ Vet work-life balance

Vet med is definitely a career that you really have to love in order to succeed. As you say, there is horrible work-life balance and we are overworked, underpaid and underappreciated. This is all evidenced by the retention crisis occurring in the profession. I saw a statistic recently that showed the average new grad vet lasts 6 years in the profession before leaving. Additionally, veterinary surgeons have the highest suicide rate of any other career. The work is stressful - as with all healthcare professions. But the clients can be awful and hurtful. Many do not understand that you are on their side and will accuse you of only wanting their money etc. People will blame you if they cannot afford medical care for their pets.

Are things improving? Ehh... Work-life balance is getting a bit better as 4 day working weeks for vets are becoming common, however you may still find that you regularly have to stay behind after your shift finishes. Pay is ever so slightly creeping up due to the shortage of vets, however this isn't by much at all and you can still only expect to get paid £30-60k in general practice (not great considering you do similar work to a doctor and have high work stresses and risks, alongside out-of-hours shifts).


Does this mean you shouldn't be a vet? I don't know. It depends on who you are.
For me, I acknowledge that I am going into a stressful, underpaid career. But it's worth it because I get to help animals and their humans daily, and contribute to society in a meaningful way. I also just love the job: communicating with owners, working up a case, the problem solving. I can't imagine myself doing anything else, no matter how hard it is.
As a vet student, I am constantly building my hobbies and assessing my work-life balance, to ensure that when I start work as a vet I will be able to focus on my mental health and (hopefully) be more resilient when facing these problems with the career. I also know that if I get burnt-out, a veterinary degree is highly useful in many other industries and research, should I wish for a career change, or some time away from clinical practice.

One of the biggest problems at the moment is people entering the vet course with rose-tinted glasses, not quite understanding what they're getting into. By asking questions like these, you're doing the right thing to prepare yourself.

P.S. not all vets regret the job. I know quite a few who love it.

Thank you so much for your reply, I’m quite similar in that I couldn’t imagine myself doing much else and I think I have many hobbies and sports etc that make me love life even more and couldn’t imagine not doing them. The 4 day week is defo something I would consider if I become a vet. From the work experience I have done I loved every second of it but a lot of the vets in the clinics said ‘if you have any other interests then go for those interests’ which I thought was fair enough but also strange. I just want to be prepared going into it as I know it is going to be difficult, but like for me before going into a levels for example everyone in the year above me told me not to do the subjects I chose because they are so difficult and will ruin my life etc, I’m so glad I didn’t listen to them as I love my a levels and sixth form life. So I don’t want to just listen to the people telling me not to as I think I will regret it but I also don’t want to go into a career knowing I may be miserable (a bit extreme but u get it ) 😂