The short answer
In the cited studies, burnout is repeatedly linked to veterinarians leaving a job, planning to leave clinical work, or cutting their hours.
A 2022 economic model by Cornell University and AVMA authors estimated the annual cost of burnout-related turnover and reduced hours to US practices:
- about $1 billion a year for associate veterinarians
- about $1.9 billion once veterinary technicians are added
The same model put the median turnover cost at about $104,000 per veterinarian and about $59,000 per technician.
The published work, including a 2025 expert panel, points toward organizational changes such as better leadership, workload management, and deliberate retention efforts. The figures are modeled estimates and expert opinion, not measured outcomes from individual practices.
Key takeaways
- A 2022 model by Neill, Hansen and Salois estimated the median cost of turnover at about $104,000 per associate veterinarian and about $59,000 per veterinary technician, in 2020 dollars [1].
- In a 2024 survey of Veterinary Information Network (VIN) members, 61% of respondents planning a change said they intend to reduce clinical work and 31% to stop within five years. Burnout was the strongest predictor after age [3].
- A 2023 narrative review reported that 44% of private practitioners have considered leaving the profession, including more than 40% of those who graduated within the previous 10 years [2].
- A 2025 Delphi expert panel rated improving staff retention (4.57 out of 5) as a more effective answer to high workload than hiring more staff (3.86 out of 5) [4].
- The same panel rated poor management and leadership as the hardest burnout risk factor to address, with a mean ease score of 2.38 out of 5 [4].
- Neill and colleagues found that the cost of turnover was almost twice the cost of lost productivity from reduced working hours [1].
Burnout and the decision to leave or cut hours
Neill, Hansen and Salois, writing in Frontiers in Veterinary Science in 2022, cite survey data in which 86.7% of US veterinarians scored in the moderate or high burnout range on the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL), a 30-item questionnaire covering satisfaction and fatigue in caregiving work [1]. The same paper cites the AVMA as reporting that 40% of veterinarians are considering leaving the profession [1]. The top reason was lack of work-life balance, followed by stress, anxiety, depression and related mental health concerns [1].
A 2023 narrative review in the same journal reported that associate veterinarians are more likely than practice owners to experience burnout [2]. It also reported that practice ownership fell from 45% in 2013 to 36% in 2020 [2]. The review's authors noted that consolidation has moved more clinicians into roles with no ownership stake and less say in decisions, a structure they described as one that may promote work stress [2].
Kogan and Rishniw, at Colorado State University and VIN, surveyed VIN members in March 2024 and analyzed 1,256 responses from clinicians [3]. Of these, 92.2% reported working with small animals 90% or more of the time [3].
Among the 898 who answered the question on future plans over the next five years [3]:
| Group | Plan to decrease clinical work | Plan to stop entirely |
|---|
| All respondents | 60.9% | 30.6% |
| Aged 44 and younger | 34.6% | 7.4% |
The reasons most often selected were [3]:
- more free time for self, family or friends (76.4%)
- maintaining good health (58.6%)
- feeling burned out (50.4%)
About 34% of respondents scored above the burnout cutoff on the Stanford Professional Fulfillment Index, and younger veterinarians scored higher [3].
The authors cautioned that VIN is a paid subscription, and that people already thinking about leaving may have been more likely to respond [3]. This is a self-selected survey of members of one online community for veterinarians.
What turnover costs a practice
The Neill model drew on 5,786 associate veterinarians in private practice from the AVMA Census of Veterinarians, 2016 to 2020, with annual response rates between 11.8% and 22.0% [1]. Burnout was defined as a score of 25 or higher on the ProQOL burnout subscale [1].
Turnover cost combined two parts [1]:
- a replacement cost set at 66% of annual salary, based on Society for Human Resource Management estimates of 6 to 9 months of salary
- the net revenue lost during an average vacancy of 40 days
The cost of reduced hours was based on stated intention to work fewer hours for less pay, not on observed reductions [1].
| Measure, Neill et al. 2022 [1] | Estimate (2020 dollars) |
|---|
| Median turnover cost per associate veterinarian | about $104,000 |
| Cost of reduced clinical hours per veterinarian | about $56,000 |
| Turnover cost per veterinary technician | about $59,000 |
| Industry cost, veterinarians, median inputs | about $997 million |
| Industry cost, veterinarians, mean inputs | $1.075 billion |
| Industry cost, technicians, turnover only | about $933 million |
| Combined industry cost | about $1.930 billion |
| 95% range, veterinarians only | $0.62 to $1.41 billion |
| 95% range, veterinarians and technicians | $1.57 to $2.33 billion |
By practice type, the authors found the highest median cost per veterinarian among food animal practitioners and the lowest among equine practitioners [1]. Companion animal practice, followed by mixed animal practice, contributed most to the industry total [1].
They placed the combined cost at about 3.89% of the veterinary services industry's value [1]. They described their figures as likely a lower bound, since they excluded effects such as lost clients and impacts on other team members [1]. The study was funded by the AVMA and Cornell University with support from Zoetis [1].
For comparison, the 2023 review cites an estimate from human medicine that replacing a physician can cost 2 to 3 times the physician's annual salary [2]. That figure is not veterinary data.
Veterinary technicians
The technician estimate in the Neill model covers turnover only, because data on reduced hours were not available [1]. The authors did not run a sensitivity analysis for technicians [1]. Inputs came from a 2016 National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America demographic survey and Bureau of Labor Statistics figures [1]. Of the roughly $59,000 per-technician cost, about $35,000 was lost income during the vacancy and about $24,000 was replacement cost [1].
Chapman, Bennett and Rohlf, in a 2025 paper in Animals, cite a study finding veterinary nurses and technicians were twice as likely as the general population to report high or very high burnout [4]. In that study, good work-life balance was the strongest predictor of low burnout [4].
Risk factors they list from earlier work include [4]:
- high workloads
- underuse of trained skills
- negative team culture
- poor leadership
- little control over schedules
- poor pay
- few progression opportunities
- abusive clients
The cited sources do not address technician program enrollment or credentialing trends.
Workplace strategies with published support
Neill and colleagues argued for organizational rather than individual fixes. They listed rotational shifts, caps on maximum hours, and a higher technician-to-veterinarian ratio as possible options [1].
Drawing on physician research, they named four learnable leadership behaviors linked to lower burnout [1]:
- keeping people informed
- inviting ideas for improvement
- giving feedback and coaching
- recognizing good work
Both the 2022 and 2023 papers report that only 12% of veterinarians had used available wellbeing resources, a figure the 2022 paper draws from a recent Merck wellbeing study [1][2].
The 2023 review reported four features of a healthy work culture identified in the 2021 Merck Animal Health Veterinarian Wellbeing Study [2]:
- a sense of team belonging
- trust in the organization
- candid communication
- enough time for quality patient care
The review also noted that productivity-based pay has been associated with higher burnout risk [2]. Lower burnout scores appeared in veterinarians earning from $150,000 a year upward [2].
The VIN survey asked those planning to cut back what might keep them at current hours [3]:
- 42.3% chose reduced workload or shorter shifts
- 37.8% chose financial incentives
- roughly a quarter cited less bureaucracy or better working conditions
The Delphi panel included 40 experts with at least five years in technician leadership or wellbeing, recruited from the US, Australia, the UK, Canada and New Zealand [4]. Of these, 32 and 30 completed the two rounds [4]. Consensus was defined as at least 75% agreement [4].
The panel produced 39 solutions. Suggested retention actions included [4]:
- clear goal and progression tracking
- better leader-staff communication
- exit interviews and stay interviews, the latter described by the authors as short, regular check-ins on what is working in a role
Other highly rated solutions covered [4]:
- leadership recruitment and training
- delegation systems with technician-to-patient ratios
- salary banding
- clear break and overtime policies
Panelists described leaders often being promoted for clinical seniority, and one wrote that "Leaders in the vet profession don't routinely get exposed to good leadership" [4]. Unclear technician regulation was named as a barrier in every country represented [4].
Limits of the evidence
The cost figures come from a model with stated assumptions, not audited practice accounts. Turnover was drawn from 2020 data only, which the authors said may have been skewed by COVID-19 [1]. Reduced hours reflect intention rather than observed change [1]. The authors also flagged survey sampling error and the use of a single burnout measure [1].
The VIN data are self-selected [3].
The Delphi results are expert consensus on likely effectiveness, and the authors stated that further research is needed to measure whether the recommendations work [4]. About half the panel was from the US [4].
The 2023 review acknowledged a "relative dearth" of veterinary-specific data and relies heavily on physician studies [2].
Neill and colleagues published an editable burnout cost calculator in their supplementary material for practices that track their own salary and revenue data [1].
