Burnout occurs when passionate, committed people become disillusioned with a job or career from which they have previously derived a lot of their identity and meaning. That’s quite an important distinction because the World Health Organisation definition of BURNOUT directly links it to work and the workplace.   It comes as the things that inspire passion and enthusiasm in your job are stripped away, become tedious or sometimes unpleasant things start to crowd in. 

The key prerequisites therefore are previous passion and enthusiasm. You can't burnout unless you were alight in the first place. 

Now having defined what burnout is- you can start to see why veterinary professionals like you guys- passionate, committed people- are very vulnerable to burnout and that’s why it's so important that, even if you are not experiencing burnout right now- you know how to recognise it and have strategies to tackle it. 

The tricky thing about Burnout is that it's very...