Ep. 43: The Emotional Cost of Working in Emergency Veterinary Medicine with Dr. Marie Holowaychuk

About this episode

Dr. Marie Holowaychuk discusses the emotional challenges faced by emergency veterinary professionals and the factors contributing to compassion fatigue.

In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Marie Holowaychuk, who will take us on a deep dive into compassion fatigue in the ER setting, where life-or-death decisions, intense client emotions, and relentless urgency collide. She shares what compassion fatigue looks like specifically in emergency veterinary medicine, how it differs from other areas of practice, and why ER clinicians are at such high risk for emotional exhaustion, secondary traumatic stress, and burnout. Together, we explore both the personal and systemic factors that shape this experience—and what actually helps.

People in this episode

Host: Jen Blough

Guest: Dr. Marie Holowaychuk

Topics covered

• compassion fatigue
• emergency veterinary medicine
• emotional exhaustion
• burnout
• secondary traumatic stress

Keywords

• compassion fatigue
• emergency veterinary
• emotional exhaustion
• burnout
• trauma

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