Relief veterinarians now represent one in ten private practice DVMs

Nearly one in ten veterinarians in private practice now work relief or contract roles, according to 2025 data cited in Veterinary Practice News. That share has climbed steadily over the past decade.

Most practices still treat relief veterinarians as temporary support, a stopgap when an associate takes parental leave or summer appointment volume spikes. That framing worked when relief work was rare, but it no longer matches the workforce clinics are hiring from, and it costs them.

Relief work has its own burnout curve now

According to the 2026 Serenity Vet study, "burnout among relief veterinarians [is] at its highest level in five years, a 25 percent increase since 2022." One in three relief veterinarians in the study "reported unstable or unpredictable income, discomfort with rate negotiation, and limited leverage to advocate for themselves," and many "cite lack of protocols, unclear expectations, and poor communication as in-clinic stressors."

Those are not the complaints of transient labor passing through. They are the complaints of a workforce segment that has grown large enough to have its own burnout curve and its own retention problem. Practices that treat relief doctors as disposable are now competing for the same small pool everyone else is calling.

According to the study, "relief practitioners with repeat clients report greater financial stability and lower burnout than those constantly sourcing new work." The relief veterinarian who had a good shift at your clinic last month is fielding offers from three other practices this month, and the one who spent ten minutes hunting for the PIMS login or got surprised by uncompensated overtime is not coming back.

What the transactional model leaves on the table

The article notes that practices face "flat patient volumes, rising operating costs, and tight margins," which means every shift has to perform, relief or not. The article frames relief doctors as an investment that needs to be planned for, structured, and supported to protect its return. According to Veterinary Practice News, the conditions relief veterinarians encounter, "how they are welcomed, equipped, and treated during a shift," directly affect "how they deliver, how they feel about the work, and whether they accept shifts from your clinic again."

The study found that "nearly one in four relief veterinarians report difficulty managing their schedules," so advance planning and early booking help both parties. The article recommends that "if you have good experiences with certain relief veterinarians," practices should create a go-to network and offer first right of refusal on open shifts. Keeping consistent relationships improves fill rates, "reduces training time and ensures continuity of care," per the article.

According to the study, "more than 28 percent of relief vets report difficulty finding shifts that are well-paid, well-scheduled, or aligned with their preferred type of work." The article states that transparency about expected caseload, support staff availability, special procedures, and policies makes it more likely "you [will] find someone whose expectations and skills align with your needs."

The protocol

The article lays out a framework for turning relief shifts into repeat relationships:

1. Plan relief needs in advance. The article notes that "vacations, parental leave, and seasonal peaks can all be anticipated."
2. Build a preferred relief network. Offer first right of refusal on open shifts to doctors you've worked with successfully.
3. Share key details upfront. Date, time, pay, expected caseload, support staff availability, special procedures, and policies.
4. Clarify compensation terms before the shift. Overtime, undertime, time tracking, and payment methods.
5. Acknowledge when expectations shift mid-day. Emergencies happen, and compensation should reflect added hours or procedures. The article recommends "a hybrid pay model that combines a flat rate with a production bonus, especially" for ER or urgent care clinics. According to the study, "more than 17 percent of relief vets said they would welcome this" structure.
6. Walk them through the clinic on arrival. Staff lounge, work process, workstation specifics. The study found that "survey respondents frequently cited the absence of an onboarding protocol and" lack of team integration as stressors.
7. Cover PIMS shortcuts and recordkeeping policies. Controlled substances, communication expectations, a quick refresher to reduce friction.
8. Provide login credentials and software cheat sheets ahead of time. The study reports that "nearly 29 percent of relief vets say they are more likely to accept shifts at clinics with AI scribe support," and "those who use them report higher fulfillment and slightly lower burnout scores."
9. Say thank you. A verbal acknowledgment or a quick email makes relief vets feel seen and more likely to return.
10. Ask for feedback. According to the article, "relief vets work across many clinics and spot patterns others miss."

The protocol is not complex. Most of it is communication you would give a new associate on their first day, compressed into the minutes before a relief doctor's first appointment. The article claims the return: "better patient care, stronger staff morale, higher shift fill rates, and improved business performance."

If you're the owner-DVM competing for the same relief doctors as the three practices within ten miles, subscribe to VeterinaryPracticeNow.

Who benefits from the consensus being believed

Practices that have already built repeatable onboarding systems and locked in preferred relief doctors benefit when competitors continue to treat relief work as transactional. The relief veterinarian who had a seamless shift at your competitor's clinic, credentials ready, expectations clear, overtime acknowledged, is less available to you.

The article's author, identified as "Andrew Ciccolini, DVM, MSOL, is a relief veterinarian and co-founder of Serenity Vet, a subscription-based veterinary relief management platform," so the framing serves a commercial interest. That does not make the workforce data wrong or the protocol useless, but it does mean the list is also a sales argument for systematizing relief work through a paid platform.

Our read

The one-in-ten figure is new and it changes the calculation. Relief work is no longer a niche arrangement. It is a workforce segment large enough to have its own retention curve, and practices that treat it as temporary labor are now competing at a disadvantage for the same doctors.

The protocol is not revolutionary. It is onboarding, compressed. The value is in recognizing that onboarding a relief doctor is worth doing at all, because the alternative is burning through the available pool and wondering why your fill rates dropped.

We'd watch whether relief work continues to grow as a share of the workforce. If it does, the leverage shifts further toward the relief doctor, and practices that invested early in repeatable systems and preferred networks will have locked in capacity that others cannot buy at any rate. If relief work plateaus or reverses, if debt loads fall, if corporate employment becomes more attractive, if the associate-to-owner pipeline reopens, then the investment in relief infrastructure was a hedge that did not pay off. Our read is the former is more likely.

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