In my first year, my supervisors were my contacts. I was partly afraid of them, and therefore I definitely didn't ask everything. I did get feedback, but mostly negative. What I would have liked? Regular updates on where I actually stand and how I am doing.
Now the FU Berlin has published a survey of veterinarians in their first year of professional life. Those who had a supervising veterinarian were significantly more satisfied, and more feedback also went along with more satisfaction. Overtime, on the other hand, was not measurably related to satisfaction.
You just have to get through the first year?
That's how it's often told. The first year is hard, many hours, emergency service, thrown into the deep end, and whoever survives that is a veterinarian afterwards. Some of that is also true, and I don't want to downplay that at all.
In the Berlin survey, 52.6 percent worked more than 40 hours per week, including overtime, and half already did emergency service in their first year. Another 17 percent planned to do so.
If hours were the only thing it depended on, there would only be two options: work less or endure more. On Monday morning in the treatment room, neither of these really helps you.
What the Berlin study found
Wetter and colleagues from the Free University of Berlin surveyed veterinarians at the end of 2024 who had been in the profession for at most one year (BMC Veterinary Research, 21.09.2026). 196 responses were included in the evaluation, 184 of them from Germany, 11 from Austria and Switzerland. It was measured with the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire, an established questionnaire on working conditions, which also exists for many other professions.
The new entrants were more satisfied with their work and more strongly connected to their practice than the average in the German comparison group of the questionnaire, which covers many professions.
And what is this satisfaction related to? Those who had a supervising veterinarian scored 11.4 points higher on job satisfaction and even 17.9 points higher on connection to the practice (on a scale up to 100). More feedback went along with more satisfaction and more connection, support in the team with more connection, and good leadership with more satisfaction.
Regarding overtime, the researchers found no measurable correlation with satisfaction. Also workload and emotional demands were not measurably related to either satisfaction or connection.
Nevertheless, the stress is not irrelevant. Those who did emergency service were on average 5.1 points less satisfied, and those who had to hide their feelings at work or felt treated unfairly, too.
However, support is surprisingly often missing. Only 64.5 percent had a supervising person at all. Regarding feedback, the new entrants were only at the level of the comparison group, although feedback was precisely so closely linked to satisfaction and connection. 34 percent had a structured induction plan – however, no independent correlation with satisfaction or connection could be proven for this in the model.
What the study cannot show
It was a voluntary online survey and a snapshot, so cause and effect cannot be read from it. In addition, graduates from Munich are overrepresented. The authors themselves mention both possible biases: highly stressed people may have participated less often, people with bad experiences perhaps more often. They want to publish results on burnout, anxiety, and psychological resources in a second part.
A contact person is not the same as support
I did have a contact person. Nevertheless, I didn't dare to ask everything out of fear, and the feedback that came was mostly negative.
Supervisors often see it differently – and often mean well. Two studies fit this. In small and medium-sized practices in the Netherlands, 94 employed veterinarians and 54 supervisors answered the same questions about support. In all areas, the employees rated the support lower than their bosses (Sonneveld et al., American Journal of Veterinary Research, 14.10.2026).
And that it depends on the team's perspective is also supported by an evaluation from the USA with 2,037 employed veterinarians in private practices. Those who experienced that their own manager regularly shows that their own work counts, and conveys clear expectations, were more likely to want to stay for the next five years. Those who experienced that they would be held accountable for a mistake were less likely to want to (McKay & Vaisman, Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 2023).
So if your boss doesn't contact you on their own, it doesn't have to be a lack of interest. Maybe the person simply assumes that you are well taken care of. If you yourself are currently training someone, it's better to ask once more what the other person needs from you. The data from the Netherlands speak for the fact that your support might otherwise be received quite differently than you think.
How to get feedback, even if you don't dare
As a new entrant, you can change little about the structure of your practice, but you can change the way you ask for feedback. The easiest way is with a fixed appointment. Don't ask between doors whether everything is okay, but ask for 15 minutes every two to four weeks. Such an appointment takes the pressure off both sides, and then it's no longer just about mistakes.
For the conversation itself, concrete questions help much more than "How am I doing?", for example these:
- What worked well in the last few weeks?
- What should I be able to do confidently next?
- In which cases should I definitely bring you in?
It becomes even easier if you bring a real patient from the week with whom you were unsure.
And if you only get criticism, ask for an example: "Can you give me a situation? What would you have done in my place?" In the end, briefly summarize, as in the anamnesis conversation ("Did I understand that correctly ...?"), then you both leave with the same picture.
If you are afraid of the person, that is of course easier said than done. Especially then, the fixed appointment helps, because asking becomes normal and doesn't cost courage every time.
If your practice does not offer support
Not every practice has the time or structure for a good induction. Then look for additional support outside the practice – colleagues from university, a mentoring program, or a group where you can talk openly about difficult cases.
That is exactly what we built Vetstarter for. In the Vetstarter Program for Veterinarians, you meet online live every two weeks with veterinarians who know what it feels like to have a new beginning, and work on real cases. For a trial run, there is a free trial month or a non-binding initial conversation. And if you have just finished, you will find here what steps are ahead after the state exam.
The first year remains exhausting, and even this study does not change that. But it shows quite well where you can start, and that is something you can initiate yourself. Veterinary medicine is still the most beautiful profession in the world for me, and I would think it would be nice if no one had to get through the first year alone!
How was it with you? Who accompanied you in your first year, and what was missing for you?
About the author
Frauke Bünsow is a small animal veterinarian. After her license in 2017 in Munich, she worked for seven years in large clinics and referral practices, among other things as a senior veterinary assistant, and trained junior assistants and interns there. Her specialties were internal medicine, sonography, and echocardiography. Today she is responsible for Vetstarter at Inuvet Campus.
Sources
Wetter A, Lorenz T, Doherr MG, Jensen KC. Part I of "Navigating the transition": early-career working conditions, psychosocial demands, and job satisfaction among German, Austrian, and Swiss veterinarians – a first-year survey. BMC Veterinary Research, 2026;22:553. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12917-026-05923-9. Full text at PubMed Central, accessed on 16.10.2026.
Sonneveld DC, Bougie R, Langelaar M, Bok HGJ. Supervisor-employee perception differences in a survey of Dutch veterinary small- and medium-sized practices. American Journal of Veterinary Research, online 14.10.2026. https://doi.org/10.2460/ajvr.26.07.0322. PubMed, accessed on 16.10.2026.
McKay CH, Vaisman JM. Psychological safety, purpose, path, and partnership reduce associate veterinarian desire to leave current employment. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 2023;261(10). https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.23.03.0158
Cover image: "Close-up of a veterinarian examining a maltese dog with a stethoscope" by Nenad Stojkovic, Wikimedia Commons [LINK], license CC BY 2.0, cropped.