Are you dedicated to animal welfare or veterinary medicine? Do you pour your heart into healing, connecting with, and protecting animals? If so, you understand the immense rewards—and the unique challenges—of this vital work. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, like the demands are endless and your own well-being takes a backseat. The emotional toll, often termed compassion fatigue, can seem insurmountable.
But there’s good news: transforming empathic distress and building resilience is absolutely achievable. For animal career professionals seeking to enhance their skills and sustain their passion, the University of Florida’s Shelter Medicine Program offers the Compassion Fatigue Strategies online course, led by certified compassion fatigue educator Jessica Dolce. This program provides valuable tools and techniques, essentially acting as a crucial “animal career certification program” component, focused on professional well-being.
This comprehensive course is designed to equip you with the knowledge and strategies to not only recognize and address compassion fatigue, burnout, and vicarious trauma, but also to proactively cultivate a more sustainable and fulfilling career path in animal care. You will learn to reduce stress injury, enhance self and team care practices, foster compassion satisfaction, and build lasting resilience—essential skills that contribute to your professional growth and longevity in the field.
Key Benefits for Your Animal Career
By the end of this course, you will:
- Master 6 Proven Strategies: Learn and implement six research-backed strategies to effectively manage and transform compassion fatigue-related stress. This will empower you to thrive in your animal career, feeling energized and passionate about your work once again.
- Personalized Self-Care Practices: Discover self-care and stress management techniques that are tailored to your individual needs and preferences, ensuring you have practical tools to maintain your well-being both on and off the job.
- Develop a Professional Mission Statement: Gain clarity on your “why”—craft a personal mission statement that reinforces your purpose in animal care, providing a strong foundation even when faced with challenging situations inherent in animal careers.
- Set Achievable Goals for Sustainable Change: Establish clear, manageable goals focused on key areas like sleep, diet, and personal relationships. These targeted changes contribute to lasting improvements in your overall well-being and career sustainability.
- Incorporate Simple Meditation Techniques: Become comfortable with easy-to-use meditation practices that you can readily integrate into your daily routine to restore balance and manage stress effectively in your demanding animal career.
- Navigate Mental Health Resources with Confidence: Understand when and how to seek professional mental health support without stigma, ensuring you have access to crucial resources for your well-being as an animal care professional.
- Foster Team Collaboration and Support: Learn how to collaborate with your colleagues and staff on compassion fatigue issues, creating a supportive and resilient work environment that benefits everyone in your animal career setting.
Course Modules: Your Path to Certification in Compassion Fatigue Management for Animal Careers
Module 1: Understanding Compassion Fatigue and Workplace Stressors in Animal Care
This module provides a deep dive into the nature of compassion fatigue, also known as empathic strain, specifically within the context of animal welfare and veterinary professions. You will learn to identify the symptoms of compassion fatigue in both individuals and organizations. Through self-assessment and exploration, you’ll gain a clearer understanding of your own experiences and the factors that contribute to compassion fatigue in your animal career. The module also addresses other significant workplace stressors common in animal care, including grief, ethical dilemmas, challenging working conditions, personal circumstances, trauma exposure, and burnout.
Module 2: Managing Stress and Prioritizing Self-Care for Animal Professionals
Module 2 focuses on the critical importance of stress management and self-care for professionals in animal careers. You will develop a personalized system for monitoring and managing your daily stress levels. This module emphasizes the necessity of self-care and guides you in creating a diverse toolkit of practices that can be readily implemented both during your workday and in your personal life, fostering a sustainable approach to well-being in your animal career.
Module 3: Building Compassion Satisfaction and Resilience in Animal Welfare Careers
This module is dedicated to reconnecting you with the inherent rewards of working in animal care and shifting your perspective towards a realistically positive outlook. By focusing on increasing compassion satisfaction, you will learn techniques to counterbalance the emotional demands of your animal career. You’ll explore resilience-building strategies, including self-compassion and mindfulness practices, which are crucial for effectively navigating and recovering from the inevitable stress associated with animal welfare and veterinary professions.
Module 4: Taking Action and Committing to Sustainable Change in Your Animal Career
The final module is action-oriented, guiding you in setting achievable goals for implementing the strategies learned throughout the course. You will explore collaborative approaches to support your team and staff in addressing compassion fatigue within your organization. A key component of this module is crafting a personal mission statement—and potentially an organizational mission statement—to provide ongoing motivation and direction as you integrate your new skills into your animal career. For leaders, this module also provides insights into creating vicarious trauma-informed organizations and effective strategies for reducing burnout among staff.
Course Features Designed for Animal Career Professionals
- The 6 Question Process: Gain access to six research-validated strategies proven to reduce and transform compassion fatigue-related stress, a cornerstone of this animal career certification-focused program.
- Flexible, 100% Online Learning: Enjoy complete flexibility with all lessons available from day one. Learn at your own pace, fitting the course into your busy schedule as an animal care professional.
- Comprehensive Module Content: Benefit from four in-depth modules featuring videos, interactive integration activities, and relevant readings, providing a rich and engaging learning experience.
- Daily Community Support: Engage with peers and receive daily support through active discussion boards, fostering a sense of community and shared learning.
- Live Interactive Sessions with Expert Guidance: Participate in four live calls with Jessica Dolce, including a dedicated session on Stress First Aid skills, providing real-time interaction and personalized guidance.
- Valuable Insights from Mental Health Professionals: Access a recorded session with Ellen Dolce, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, offering expert perspectives on mental well-being in animal careers.
- Continuing Education Credits: Earn 15 Continuing Education Credits, contributing to your professional development and potentially fulfilling requirements for certifications relevant to animal careers.
Course Schedule
The course runs from February 6, 2023, to April 2, 2023. Designed for busy professionals like you, the online format requires approximately 2 hours per week (just 15-20 minutes a day) to progress through the four learning modules. This flexible schedule allows you to complete approximately one module every two weeks, for a total course duration of eight weeks. All course materials are accessible 24/7 from day one, enabling you to learn at your own speed and convenience. The four live calls provide valuable opportunities for real-time practice in stress reduction and mindfulness techniques – essentially offering four hours of dedicated self-care integrated directly into the course. Active participation in discussion boards ensures daily support and interaction with Jessica Dolce and fellow participants. All live calls are recorded and made available to accommodate those unable to attend the live sessions.
Registration Details
Secure your spot in this transformative course through the University of Florida’s Distance Learning department using the “Quick Registration” platform.
Early Registration Fee: $200 through December 31, 2022.
Regular Registration Fee: $299 beginning January 1, 2023.
Please note that enrollment for this course is limited, and registration may close prior to the course start date if capacity is reached.
Continuing Professional Education Credits: Invest in Your Animal Career Certification Journey
This course is approved for 15 credits of continuing professional education for veterinarians in Florida. Veterinarians in other states should consult their licensing boards for specific guidance regarding continuing education credits. The course also holds approvals for 15 hours of continuing professional education from the Certified Animal Welfare Administrator (CAWA) and the National Animal Control Association (NACA). Upon successful completion of all course requirements, participants can download a Certificate of Completion, further enhancing their credentials in animal-related careers.
