Mentors can strengthen practice culture by teaching new skills across the team—and by encouraging new members to lead hands-on learning, helping build confidence and elevate them within the practice. Photo courtesy Dr. Dani Rabwin New veterinarians are often told during interviews or onboarding that mentorship is part of the job; but when they arrive, what they experience can look very different. “I was told I’d have mentorship, but it ended up being quick conversations in the treatment room between appointments.” “I didn’t know when it was okay to ask for help, so I either interrupted too much—or waited too long.” “I didn’t want to bother anyone, so I just tried to figure things out on my own.” These are patterns I hear repeatedly from early-career veterinarians. No practice sets out to create this experience, but the gap between what is promised and what is delivered has real consequences. When mentorship is informal, inconsistent, or undefined, new graduates can feel unsupported during one of the most demanding transitions in their careers. Over time, that uncertainty erodes confidence, increases stress, and influences whether a veterinarian stays or leaves. Recruitment may get veterinarians in the door. Mentorship often determines whether they stay. The retention gap is real Early-career turnover is one of the most persistent challenges facing veterinary practices today. Estimates consistently show a significant portion of new graduates leave their first position within the first year or two—some studies placing that figure between 30 and 44 percent.1 The financial impact is substantial: the Society for Human Resource Management estimates direct replacement costs can range from 50 to 200 percent of an employee’s annual salary.2 The American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) “Stay, Please” study in 2024, which surveyed more than 14,000 veterinary professionals, found 30 percent of those currently in clinical practice planned to leave within the year; and of those leaving, nearly half intended to exit clinical practice entirely and nine out of 10 said they would not return.2 When you look at why new graduates leave, mentorship shows up repeatedly. In one study of recent veterinary graduates in New Zealand, toxic work culture and lack of mentorship were the two most common reasons given for leaving a first job.1 These are not anomalies. They reflect a consistent pattern across literature. Early-career veterinarians are not leaving primarily because of what they are paid. They are leaving because of how they are supported. The first year is about more than medicine New graduates arrive with clinical knowledge. What they often are unprepared for is everything surrounding it. The first year in practice means making independent decisions for the first time, without the safety net of school. It means navigating client communication when emotions are high and options are limited. It means working within financial constraints that were not part of the curriculum, managing time in ways no one explicitly taught, and trying to build confidence while still feeling genuinely uncertain. Often this happens simultaneously, from day one, in front of clients and colleagues. Research on the mentor-mentee relationship in veterinary medicine has documented the specific ways this transition period creates vulnerability. New graduates in their first positions report hesitation about when to ask for help, uncertainty about whether their clinical instincts are sound, and difficulty recovering from mistakes without internalizing them as evidence of inadequacy.3 These are not character flaws. They are predictable responses to an enormous transition with insufficient structure. Effective mentorship addresses this directly—not by handholding, but by creating the conditions under which a new veterinarian can ask questions without fear, process difficult experiences with someone experienced, and develop confidence through supported action rather than isolated trial and error. Regular feedback, consistent check-ins, and the assurance asking for help is expected rather than embarrassing: these are what allow new graduates to actually grow in their first year, rather than simply survive it.1,3 Where mentorship breaks down Most practices don’t ignore mentorship, but they fail to implement it in a way that holds up under the conditions of a busy clinical day. Expectations are assumed, not defined. The mentee expects regular check-ins, feedback, and accessible guidance, yet the mentor assumes they will help only when asked. Without shared expectations from the start, both sides are left guessing. The mentee does not know when it is appropriate to ask for help, and the mentor does not know what the mentee actually needs. Support is reactive rather than proactive. Help only happens when something goes wrong—when there’s a difficult case, a mistake, or a visibly struggling employee. There is no consistent structure for reflection, development, or planning ahead. Learning becomes tied to stress rather than progress. Mentor-mentee pairings are random. Not every experienced clinician mentors the same way. Some are directive, some are hands-off, some expect early independence. When a pairing creates confusion or friction, and there’s no mechanism to adjust, both parties disengage. Mentors receive no training, time, or recognition. We ask experienced clinicians to teach, give feedback, and support the professional development of someone new—often without preparation, protected time, compensation, or acknowledgment this is a meaningful additional responsibility. Even the most motivated mentor struggles to do this consistently under those conditions. These barriers—unclear expectations, time constraints, lack of mentor preparation, and mismatched pairings—are well documented in the veterinary literature.4 Further, when they are present, the impact is felt directly in the mentee’s day-to-day experience: more hesitation, less clarity, slower development, and a lower threshold for feeling overwhelmed. Informal vs. structured: The difference that matters Many practices offer mentorship, but only a few actually define it. Informal mentorship tends to depend on who’s available, be shaped by how busy the day is, and be different for every new hire. It is not that informal support has no value—it does—but as the primary or only form of support, it is unreliable. Structured mentorship, by contrast, is clearly defined, consistent across individuals, and inclusive of both clinical and non-clinical development. The research consistently emphasizes clarity, especially around expectations and communication, as a foundational element of any effective mentorship relationship.4 Without that clarity, mentees spend energy trying to figure out how to engage, when it is acceptable to ask for help, and what is expected of them, all while managing the demands of clinical practice. That cognitive load compounds everything else. What effective mentorship supports It is worth being specific about what mentorship is and isn’t. It’s not about teaching someone how to practice medicine—they already have that foundation. It’s about everything that surrounds it. Effective mentorship helps new veterinarians develop the capacity to: Communicate clearly and confidently with clients, including in difficult conversations Make decisions when there isn’t a single right answer, without spiraling into self-doubt Manage time without constantly falling behind or feeling like they are failing Recover from mistakes, which are inevitable in any clinical career, without shutting down Function within a team, and eventually take on a more active role within it When these areas are supported, new graduates do not just improve clinically; they become more stable, more consistent, and more committed to the practice. When they are not supported, the opposite unfolds, and it happens faster than most practice owners expect. What practices that retain new graduates do differently The practices that successfully retain early-career veterinarians tend to share a few common characteristics. They approach mentorship deliberately, not incidentally. Scheduled, protected time for mentorship conversations—not just catching up in the treatment room between cases Clear mentor assignments, with explicit acknowledgment that a different pairing is possible if the match is not working Support that extends beyond medicine—covering communication, time management, client navigation, and financial constraints in care A feedback culture where mentees can ask questions or raise concerns without fearing judgment Multiple sources of support—rather than placing the full weight of mentorship on a single person The literature describes this last point using the concept of “mosaic mentorship”—the idea effective mentoring over a career draws on multiple relationships, each serving a different function.3 In a practice context, this might mean pairing a new hire with a primary clinical mentor while also ensuring they have peer support, access to external resources, and someone they can talk to about the non-clinical aspects of practice. Write it down: The missing step One of the simplest, highest-leverage steps a practice can take is also one of the most commonly skipped: writing it down. In most practices, mentorship lives in conversation and good intentions. That leaves too much open to interpretation, and interpretation is where mismatched expectations take root. A mentorship agreement doesn’t need to be a lengthy document, but it should make explicit: How often mentor and mentee meet and for how long When questions should be asked in real time versus saved for a scheduled conversation What kinds of support the mentee can expect, and in what areas How feedback will flow—and that it goes in both directions What both parties are working toward over the first 90 days, six months, and year Clear expectations and open communication are consistently identified in the veterinary mentorship literature as foundational to any effective mentoring relationship.4 Writing it down transforms good intentions into an actual structure. And structure is what makes mentorship reliable rather than dependent on circumstance. When internal mentorship isn’t enough While internal mentorship is essential, it is also not always sufficient on its own. Time constraints, workload, and the limitations of any single practice’s perspective can reduce the amount of consistent support that can be realistically delivered in-house. External mentorship, whether through formal programs, professional organizations, or remote mentoring platforms, can provide structure that is not tied to the pressures of daily workflow, additional perspectives beyond the practice, and a space where new graduates can ask questions that might feel more difficult to raise internally. This is not about replacing internal support, rather it is about building a more complete picture. The veterinarians who feel most supported are typically those with multiple mentors, not those who rely on a single relationship. Photo courtesy Dr. Dani Rabwin Evaluating your current approach If you are unsure how well your mentorship program works, these questions can help you assess: Does every new hire have a clearly assigned mentor? Does the mentor know what that role entails? Is there scheduled (protected) time for mentorship conversations, or does it only happen reactively? Have you asked your new graduate whether they feel supported? Does your mentor receive any training, guidance, or compensation for taking on this responsibility? If your new hire leaves tomorrow, would you know why or would it come as a surprise? The real question Most practices lose new graduates when the day-to-day experience doesn’t match what was promised, and when there’s no structure in place to close that gap. The good news is this is fixable. Not with a dramatic overhaul, but with intention: a written agreement, a scheduled conversation, a mentor who knows what they’re there to do and has been given the time to do it. Retention is not purely a recruitment problem or a compensation problem. It is, in large part, a mentorship problem—and that means practices have the capacity to solve it. Dani Rabwin, DVM, is the founder of Ready, Vet, Go, a remote mentorship program for veterinary professionals, and editor of Mentorship in Veterinary Medicine (Wiley, forthcoming). She is presenting “You Hired a New Grad—Now What?,” a webinar for practice owners focused on practical strategies for supporting early-career veterinarians. More information is available at readyvetgo.co. References Gates MC, McLachlan I, Butler S, et al. Experiences of recent veterinary graduates in their first employment position and their preferences for new graduate support programmes. NZ Vet J. 2020;68(4):214–224. American Animal Hospital Association. Stay, Please: Factors that Support Retention and Drive Attrition in the Veterinary Profession. AAHA; 2024. Elce Y. The mentor-mentee relationship, addressing challenges in veterinary medicine together. Vet Clin Small Anim. 2021;51(5):1099–1109. Yanke AB, Weigand KA, Hofmeister EH. Addressing the needs and challenges of mentorship in veterinary medicine. New Dir Teach Learn. 2023;2023:83–93.
