If you spend enough time in the veterinary field, you start to develop a “Spidey sense” for what’s changing (and what’s not). Eventually, the data catches up. There are two reasons I always look forward to digging into survey results:
- While they sometimes tell us something totally new, they confirm what many of us are already seeing in our teams and hearing in conversations across the profession.
- Occasionally, they reveal something completely unexpected that forces us to think about where everything’s heading.
In partnership with UserEvidence, our team at Instinct recently conducted two surveys (with input from 959 veterinary professionals and practitioners) on perceptions among veterinary teams in general practice, specialty care, emergency medicine, and urgent care.
We were intrigued by the results. Some data confirmed what we already knew, and other data was more surprising. Taken together, the data point to a profession recalibrating how we work and deliver patient care.
The Staffing Problem Update
One of the clearest signals from the GP data is that the traditional model of work is disappearing. In fact, only 10% of practices have veterinarians working full-time. If you’ve been hiring or managing a team recently, this probably doesn’t surprise you too much. We’re seeing that flexibility has evolved from being a perk to being an expectation. Part-time roles, four-day workweeks, and other alternative scheduling models are common in the surveyed practices. They’re a big key to staff retention, where a ton of the pressure lies right now.
Turnover, interestingly, appears manageable in many GPs. But that doesn’t mean things are stable. Practice managers and leaders are working harder than ever to keep the teams they have. In conversations with them, we hear the same thing over and over: “We just can’t afford to lose our people.”
In specialty and emergency settings, the data tells a slightly different (but equally important) story: More than half of practices hired additional full-time staff last year, but nearly a third still reported working more hours. This gap tells us that hiring, while necessary, is not keeping pace with demand. The volume and complexity of cases and the expectations placed on our teams continue to grow faster than current staffing models can handle. This will have consequences for patient care and business sustainability, not just for our teams.
For years, staffing shortages have been the headline issue in veterinary medicine. We’ve all felt this at some point or another. In GP, 60% of respondents said it’s the biggest barrier to offering more flexible scheduling. In emergency and specialty, 85% cited it as their top challenge. However, what’s becoming increasingly clear is that staffing alone isn’t the solution; we have to think more holistically about how work gets done.
A Complicated Picture: Financial Strain and Lower Burnout
One of the more striking findings was the rise of client financial limitations as a major concern: Nearly 80% of specialty and emergency respondents identified it as a key pressure point. This is something many vets (including myself) have felt on the ground for quite some time now. Practices are reporting seeing more and more cases where medical recommendations and financial realities don’t align. This strain can negatively impact clinical decision-making and team morale, and add yet another layer of complexity to our already demanding caseloads.
I’ll admit, this is not a problem with an easy fix. But acknowledging it and understanding how prevalent it has become are important steps toward addressing it more effectively as an industry.
Not all of our findings were doom and gloom. One of the more encouraging trends is that reported stress, compassion fatigue, and mental health challenges have decreased from their peak in 2023. While it doesn’t mean this problem is completely solved, it does suggest that some of the interventions that practices have implemented over the past few years — perhaps better scheduling, more intentional team support, or workflow optimization — are starting to make a difference.
How and Why Tech Is Becoming Essential for Modern Practices
Perhaps the most significant (but least surprising) shift is the role technology now plays across all types of practices. Nearly half of GPs are already using artificial intelligence in some capacity. That number would have been difficult to imagine even a few years ago.
What’s notable isn’t adoption. Vets are telling us that tools like AI-driven medical records (think scribing!), cloud-based systems, and digital treatment sheets are making them more efficient, reducing errors, and improving patient care. In specialty and emergency settings, we’re seeing similar results, even with measurable revenue gains. Technology is becoming something practices increasingly rely on day to day. It’s even helping address long-standing challenges we’ve faced for decades, such as workload, staffing strain, and operational complexity.
What’s also clear from this year’s data is just how widespread this shift has become. Across GPs, 91% of respondents reported adopting or changing at least one technology system in the past year alone.
We’re also seeing a continued shift toward cloud-based systems. In general practice, 26% of respondents said cloud-based software had the most positive impact on their daily work, compared with just 13% for on-premise software. That gap says quite a bit, showing just how practices are gravitating toward solutions that are more flexible and better suited to how their teams actually operate.
And while AI tends to get the spotlight and headlines, it’s often the more foundational tools that are delivering the most immediate value. In specialty and emergency settings, digital treatment sheets were cited as having the greatest impact on efficiency, followed by cloud-based software/electronic medical records. These changes may seem subtle on the surface, but they’re fundamentally improving how information flows through a practice, and that has downstream effects on everything from patient care to team workload.
Taken together, these findings reinforce that our industry is finding ways to build a more functional, sustainable way of working.
Thriving in the Next Phase of Veterinary Medicine
If there’s a single takeaway from this year’s data, it’s that hiring more people is not enough. We have to rethink how the work itself gets done. The practices that will thrive in this next phase aren’t just the ones that hire more people or see more cases. They’re the ones that:
- Leverage AI and technology to reduce friction and improve patient care
- Embrace flexibility as a core part of their culture
- Rethink how work is distributed across their teams
- Stay grounded in supporting the people doing the work
None of this is easy. Far from it. But in many ways, these findings reflect a profession in the middle of significant change. From where I sit, that’s one of the most encouraging signals of all. While the challenges are real, so is the progress. And I firmly believe that’s what will shape what comes next for us.