Mental Health in Veterinary Medicine Part Five: Creating a Culture of Wellbeing with Dr. Jen Brandt

This excerpt is from the final episode in a three-part podcast series on mental health in veterinary medicine from the Tails From the Lab podcast, hosted by Brad Ryan (MSC, DVM, MPH), Senior Professional Services Veterinarian at Antech, in conversation with Jen Brandt (LISW-S, PhD), Director of Member Wellbeing Initiatives at the AVMA. 

In this episode, Drs. Brad and Jen talk about how to create a culture of mental wellbeing in your workplace.

You can listen to the full conversation here.

Dr. Brad Ryan: Dr. Jen Brandt has been working with veterinary students and veterinarians throughout her entire career. She’s currently AVMA Director of Member Wellbeing Initiatives and, previously, served as Director of Student Services at the Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine, which was the era of her life in which I first knocked on her door and we met face to face. Almost a decade and a half later the conversations are changing, getting well-deserved time in the spotlight. I hope that by the time this segment is done, we’ll have a much better idea of not only what a culture of wellbeing looks like, but what it isn’t, the benefits of being cognizant of wellbeing, and what we can do both as individuals and in hospitals as teams to ensure that we maintain a culture of wellbeing.

So let’s start off talking about workplace culture. What is workplace culture and how do you know if you’re working in a culture of wellbeing?

Docteur Jen : When I think about workplace culture in the simplest terms, it’s: “How do we do things around here?” Culture is shaped through organizational patterns of behavior—how we communicate, lead, make decisions, handle mistakes and conflict, welcome new team members, and support healthy boundaries.

People often assume culture lives in mission statements, policies, or posters on the wall. Those play a role, but culture is more reliably revealed in the gap between what we say matters and what our behaviors actually show matters—what gets rewarded or ignored, what people feel safe naming, and how concerns are handled.

For example, when key decisions are made at the top, without input from the people most affected by them, power is being concentrated upward. That’s hierarchical decision-making, regardless of how the organization describes itself. Mission statements express values, but behavior reveals structure. When information flows in one direction and decisions are made in silos, the system functions hierarchically—even if it uses language like inclusive or collaborative.

Dr Brad : So often it shows up in the small stuff, so it’s almost like death by a thousand cuts. Little things that are status quo in the way meetings are handled and the way problems are escalated, and we don’t even realize that these norms perhaps are counterproductive to and, in some cases, damaging.

Docteur Jen : I love that phrase, “death by a thousand cuts,” because that’s exactly how culture works. When I used to do a lot of consulting, what I’d often hear first were the values the organization wanted to communicate externally “We value respect.” “We value accountability.” “We value teamwork.” And sometimes those values really did show up consistently in organizational patterns of behavior.

But it wasn’t uncommon to see mismatches. For example, a workplace may say they value accountability, but there’s one person on the team who chronically escalates conflict, provokes others, or behaves in ways that erode trust—and the behavior has been allowed to continue, often for years. When you ask about it, the response is something like: “Yes, but…they are good at what they do.” “Yes, but…that’s just their personality.” “You get used to it after a while and learn not to take it personally.”

The message to everyone else is: some people are exempt from accountability, no matter the impact. And that shapes the culture far more than a value statement about accountability ever will.

And it’s also important to say: culture isn’t only the hard stuff. Teams can have powerful positive cultural patterns too—like pitching in without being asked, sharing knowledge generously, or coming together to address challenges. Those things can become invisible over time and be taken for granted, but they’re absolutely part of “how we do things around here”. If we want to strengthen a culture of wellbeing, we need to get honest about what’s working et what’s not, for everyone on the team

Dr Brad : We need to evaluate that — right, Dr. Brandt? — and ask ourselves the question of whether our particular workplace culture is a culture of wellbeing. So let’s define what a culture of wellbeing is and can you give us some pillars you can place underneath that definition.

Docteur Jen : People can hear “culture of wellbeing” and picture different things, because there is no single universal definition, and one size doesn’t fit all. But there are some core pillars to look for.

At its heart, a culture of wellbeing at work is one where people can do meaningful, high-quality work without sacrificing their health, dignity, or humanity—because the systems, expectations, and everyday behaviors are designed to support both human wellbeing and sustainable organizational performance.

Some pillars to look for would include:

• Equity in action: not just saying “we’re fair,” but having policies, pay practices, growth opportunities, and daily norms that don’t systematically advantage some people or roles over others.
• Transparency and follow-through: people know how decisions are made, what the priorities are and how those priorities will be measured, and leadership does what they say they’ll do.
• Qualified leadership: not just technically skilled people, but leaders who know how to manage humans—communication, conflict, expectations, feedback, and accountability—consistently and effectively
• Psychological safety: people can ask questions, admit uncertainty, speak up about concerns, and learn from mistakes without fear of humiliation or retribution.
• Strengths and appreciation: teams regularly name what’s going well, not only what’s going wrong.
• Reasonable flexibility and autonomy: within clear parameters, people are trusted to make decisions and have some control over how they do their work.

It’s not perfection. It’s not “everyone is happy all the time.” It’s a workplace that takes human functioning seriously—and designs the environment accordingly.

Dr Brad : I think it would be very easy for someone, even a manager that’s well-intentioned, right, to misconstrue initiatives that are very individual-focused — providing that associate veterinarian with maybe an office or a space in the hospital where they can go listen to soothing music and have an aromatherapy diffuser going or an investment in 10 free yoga classes. And those are great things to be doing from a self-care perspective, but that’s not addressing the underlying systemic culture.

Docteur Jen : Exactly. Those individual resources can be genuinely helpful—but they’re not the same thing as a culture of wellbeing.

Historically, when organizations talked about “health,” it often meant biometrics—hypertension educational sessions, weight loss programs, smoking cessation support. Over time, other types of offerings were added like yoga classes, mindfulness apps, or access to counseling. Those resources can absolutely have value for individuals.

But the issue is this: if we only offer individual tools without examining the environment, we’re skipping the most essential questions—what are the underlying conditions shaping people’s experience at work, and what helps people have the capacity to do their best work sustainably?

Because if the system is chronically understaffed, unpredictable, punitive, or chaotic, then adding self-care on top can be like saying, “Good luck—try harder.”

And yes, system-level approaches are generally more complex. They require higher-level thinking, more intentional planning, more collaboration, and more follow-through. But they also create benefits that individual add-ons simply can’t.

Dr Brad : In researching this segment, the point that I came across that was an aha moment for me was that as well-intentioned as it is to offer these resources and offerings to try to help individuals build up their wellbeing, it may be that we’re failing to actually address the systemic issues. There’s almost an implicit message there: What we’re doing is fine and you just need to work on yourself.

Docteur Jen : That’s exactly it. Even if it’s unintended, the message can land as: “The environment is fine—your ability to handle it is the problem.” And that can be invalidating, or even insulting, when people are struggling as the result of very real, structural reasons.

Another issue is overpromising and underdelivering. A common example is when an organization asks people to complete a climate or satisfaction survey—and then nothing meaningful changes. I’ve certainly experienced that. I’ve filled out the surveys, and I’ve been on the teams analyzing the results, identifying themes, and making recommendations, only to have leadership respond with something like, “We hear you. You’re stressed. So we’re going to provide pizza parties once a month.”

Meanwhile, the survey themes are: “We’re overwhelmed.” “We need more consistent staffing.” “We need a better, more transparent pay structure.” “We need affordable childcare.” “We need mental health resources we can actually access.” A pizza party doesn’t touch the actual drivers of quality of life. And people feel sucker-punched. They start thinking, “Why speak up? Why bother?”

I remember being part of an organization where interns and residents had mandatory annual training framed as “resilience.” And thank goodness many were comfortable enough to say, “If we’re forced to sit through another one of these, we might punch something.” What they were really saying was: “We’re not struggling because we lack coping skills or resilience. We’re struggling because these are not humane working conditions.” It’s not reasonable to expect people to continually adapt, when the conditions are what needs to change.

Dr Brad : So how do cultural norms, including biases and unwritten rules, how do these elements support wellbeing and which ones undermine wellbeing?Docteur Jen : The norms that support wellbeing are the ones that translate values into consistent daily behavior. For example, equity, psychological safety, respectful communication, and leadership that addresses challenge through a systemic lens instead of ignoring them.

The norms that undermine wellbeing are often the hidden ones—the “this is just how it is” rules. Things like:

• rewarding perfectionism over balance
• expecting stoicism (“never let them see you sweat”)
• tolerating abusive client behavior because “the client is always right”
• discouraging people from naming needs or concerns because it’s seen as “personal business” or “being too sensitive” or “not having what it takes.”

Here’s a concrete example: many practices say they value courtesy and respect. Great. But what does that mean? Creating and maintaining a culture of wellbeing requires specificity: what does courtesy and respect look and sound like here? What behaviors cross the line? What happens when someone is disrespectful—client or coworker? Who is empowered to intervene, and how? And input on these questions requires involvement from all members of the team, not just a designated few.

Because “we value respect” doesn’t mean much if the real norm is “keep your head down,” or “don’t rock the boat,” or “just tolerate it.” And even though we’ve made progress talking more openly about mental health and wellbeing, some workplaces still carry an unwritten rule that you should keep it to yourself or you’ll be judged for it. That’s an example of a norm that can quietly block wellbeing, even in otherwise good teams.

Dr Brad : Thank you for joining me in this conversation, Dr. Brandt.