When considering the relationship between mental health and work, one phrase often comes to mind: work-life balance. It’s a term that’s been in our vocabulary for about 50 years, representing a separation between an individual’s roles as an employee and as a family member. But can you really separate personal time and professional time?
When you come home from work, your mental state comes with you. On top of this, how you feel in life has an undeniable impact on your career — affecting your daily emotions, job satisfaction, work quality, and team dynamics. In a demanding profession like veterinary medicine, it becomes clear: if we want to maintain animal health and quality of care, we also need to take care of ourselves.
One of the many ways we support wellbeing at the Florida Veterinary Medical Association (FVMA) is through our Wellbeing Champions, a specialized network of veterinary professionals who are trained and certified in wellbeing project development to help prevent psychological distress and facilitate greater career fulfillment within veterinary practices.
In addition to our Wellbeing Champions, the FVMA is also recognizing the everyday heroes among us who initiate and perpetuate positive personal changes across our industry. We all know them—the colleagues who bring kind words, thoughtful suggestions, and, sometimes, simple but effective ideas that help us feel better about ourselves and our workplace. This is your opportunity to help us celebrate the important, but often unrecognized contributions that they make to our collective wellbeing.
Veterinary professionals like you will make the biggest difference in this project, both by supporting wellbeing as a whole and by recognizing the natural leaders who shine in your practice. To participate, take a moment to review our Everyday Heroes thought starters below.
Once you know who you’d like to recognize, visit fvma.org/heroes to submit your nomination. Whether they are FVMA members or not, we’d love to help celebrate them for the incredible influence they have every day.
EVERYDAY HEROES TOUCH OUR LIVES IN MANY WAYS…
- Proactively developing wellbeing projects that increase a sense of peace and fulfillment.
- Supporting wellbeing across individual, team, and organization levels.
- Sharing wellbeing project ideas and examples to be replicated or built upon.
- Showing that “tiny is mighty” by turning simple actions into lasting impact.
- Helping colleagues discover more opportunities for joy and career fulfillment.
- Reducing barriers and embrace accessibility.
- Communicating with sincerity, transparency, and openness to feedback.
- Believing there is more than one right answer, path, and solution.
- Nurturing workplaces with factors like rewards and recognition.
- Encouraging healthy routines and workplace engagement.
Visit fvma.org/heroes to nominate an Everyday Hero today. Thank you for helping us support wellbeing across Florida’s veterinary medicine community.