“I am working more than ever but less burned out than I have been in the past. Owning this business is not where I thought I would end up but I think it shows the importance of following your values.” – Dr. Addie Reinhard, Owner and Founder of MentorVet
Burnout is an issue that is discussed frequently in our profession. While many people are studying and talking about this issue, Dr. Addie Reinhard is taking action. Her organization, MentorVet just celebrated its one-year anniversary and is using the power of mentorship and professional development for early career veterinarians to address and prevent burnout. I recently had the pleasure of talking with Dr. Reinhard. Here is her story.
Entering Veterinary Medicine and Early Career
Reinhard grew up on a small farm in Tennessee. Her mom is a nurse and her dad is an entrepreneur who has owned both a music business and now a health and wellness business. While she loved science and biology, she did not think of veterinary medicine as a possible career until college. During college, she met a veterinarian working at a wildlife center and recognized the care veterinarians could provide to different species and the way teaching and education could be part of a veterinary career.
She attended University of Tennessee for veterinary school, graduated in 2015, and moved to Lexington, Kentucky. In her first job, a primary care small animal practice, she was the second veterinarian. At the end of 8 months, despite wonderful support and mentorship from her boss, Dr. Reinhard was beginning to experience burnout.
She then joined a larger but more rural practice. It was a supportive practice with a great culture. However, she experienced significant moral stress as she was regularly working with clients with limited financial resources. After 3 years, she was starting to again be burned out. This time, she asked for support from her mentors and was able to reduce her levels of burnout. When speaking with other classmates, she realized that burnout and mental health challenges were an industry-wide issue. She wanted to be part of the solution to help other veterinarians and decided to make a change.
Back to School
In deciding on change, she opted to really focus on what she valued most – teaching, research, and learning. She was admitted to a master’s program at University of Kentucky in Community and Leadership Development. Based on her experience as an early career veterinarian, she proposed developing a pilot mentorship program as her project. She did focus group interviews of early career veterinarians who graduated from multiple veterinary schools. Her objective was to identify the non-technical skills recent veterinary graduates felt were most important for success in practice. The most important skills identified included client communication, conflict management, self-care.
Based on the results of these interviews and other research around mentorship, a pilot program was developed. This pilot involved monthly online learning content and peer group discussions over a 5-month period. Topics included self-care, ethical issues, client finances and incremental care, conflict management and leadership. Seven new graduates went through the pilot and were then compared to thirty one new graduates who did not go through the program. Burnout levels were measured before and after the program, and over time, the mean exhaustion and cynicism levels, two measures of burnout, significantly increased for new graduates who did not participate in the program. The average exhaustion and cynicism levels decreased over time for those who went through the program. This means that this program may prevent early-career burnout from getting worse over time.
MentorVet: An Evidence-Based Business
The potentials of this program were recognized by Merck Animal Health, and they became a founding sponsor. With sponsorship from Merck, the program has been able to expand and support more veterinarians. MentorVet evolved into a business entity in March, 2021 and currently has around 150 veterinarians enrolled in the program. The program now includes an optional financial coaching session, optional mental health coaching session, and individual mentor pairing. In addition, the program provides 10 RACE approved CE credits.
The potential of this business was recently recognized when MentorVet won the fifth annual VMX Pet Pitch competition.
Lessons Learned
Dr. Reinhard never thought she would be a business owner. The path to entrepreneurship developed after seeing a need and realizing that she was uniquely qualified to take action. Business ownership has not been a walk in the park and Dr. Reinhard is currently working more than ever. However, by following her values and pursuing work that feels meaningful, she is energized by the challenge. Self-care and boundaries are also critical for business owners but the power of making a difference should not be underestimated.
I’m excited to watch MentorVet as it grows. This veterinary centric, veterinary led, and evidence based business is a bright spot for our profession.
How can I help?
Interested in learning more or volunteering to be a mentor? Click here.
