Compassion Fatigue and Communication

Healthy People, Healthy Practices: Optimizing Resilience, Managing Conflict, and Reducing Compassion Fatigue

Are you feeling burnt out? Do you have less energy and enthusiasm for our profession than you used to? Are you worried that your empathy has suffered due to the stresses of our profession? Compassion fatigue is a common experience in veterinary medicine for both doctors and staff and can have devastating psychological and physical effects. Join us in this session on how to cope with and prevent compassion fatigue and learn stress-coping mechanisms you can use for yourself and each other.

Dr. Jennifer Brandt is leading the effort to provide veterinary professionals with the communication, interpersonal and teamwork skills essential to quality veterinary care and veterinary career success. Her professional coaching, consultation and mediation services offer applied learning opportunities to increase self-awareness, improve wellness and resilience, resolve conflict, and enhance veterinary team communication.

Dr. Brandt is a nationally and internationally acclaimed guest lecturer at veterinary colleges and conferences and has served as a master trainer and facilitator for the Institute for Healthcare Communication since 2003.

Dr. Brandt previously served as a medical social worker, educator and researcher specializing in work with survivors of crime and trauma and bereavement facilitation. She received her bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of Indianapolis and her master’s and doctoral degrees in social work from The Ohio State University.