Yes, you will survive this. No, you are not likely to lose your license over this complaint. Yes, it may even feel worse than almost anything else you have ever suffered as a veterinarian; but no, it will not kill you.

In fact, this singular experience has the power to make you a better veterinarian—even a better person. That is, if you can manage to keep things in perspective, seek good advice along the way, and remain open-minded about the opportunities for personal and professional growth crises like these can offer.

The fear factor

Although a license complaint from their state’s veterinary board is among the few things every veterinarian fears more than almost any other professional calamity, it is rare for veterinarians to lose licensure as a result of a complaint. Nevertheless, the fact that one’s professional license is always, at some degree, at risk during this process makes the experience an incomparably stressful one.

However, it is not just the risk of losing your livelihood that makes this experience almost universally harrowing. Even when we know for sure license loss is not a realistic possibility given the facts of our case, we still suffer knowing we have been called out for failing to perform our profession to the standards we have pledged to meet. The distress may prove even more impressive for us than for other professionals given the degree to which we tend to conflate our identities with our veterinary roles, our ethics, and our work product. It just feels personal—deeply so.

Personal perils

I know this to be true because I recently made it through the license complaint process myself. After 27 years in practice, I received my first complaint in mid-2020—during the godforsaken pandemic, no less. In some ways it was every bit as awful as I had feared it would be. In others, nowhere near so. So, what got me through? Somehow, I talked myself into the idea that if I just hung in there, everything would eventually work out.

Still, I made a lot of mistakes along the way; missteps both emotional and tactical that cost me more sleepless nights than I can count and threatened to poison my relationship to this profession. Ultimately, however, I learned a complaint against your license does not have to be all bad—something I wish I had heard right from the beginning. In fact, there’s a lot I would have wanted to know right from the moment I received a thick manila envelope in the mail from the Florida Board.

What’s the risk?

Here’s the question everyone in this position always wants an immediate answer to: How many vets actually lose their licenses to board complaints? Unfortunately, this is not an easy data point to plot given in the U.S. alone, we have 52 different jurisdictions at work. The stats are so decentralized you have to search each state’s reports, which can vary drastically by region and from year to year. Moreover, they have a way of lying murkily submerged for long periods of time below layers and layers of URLs in formats that can make it hard to tease out any real numbers.

But here’s the conventional wisdom on this: The risk is vanishingly small of actually losing your license unless you have: a) committed a serious crime (often professionally unrelated); b) done some outrageously shoddy (or shady) work as a veterinarian; c) failed to disclose previous board actions in other jurisdictions, or d) the complaint is related to a substance abuse issue.

Note: After speaking with many addict- and alcoholic-license-complainants, it seems clear boards take an especially dim view of any degree of substance abuse. This is likely because the public at large remains so very unforgiving on the subject and our boards answer to consumers, not to us. Nevertheless, many states offer programs to help these veterinarians maintain their licenses while they address their illness.

Who should I talk to?

For starters, try not to talk much to those who have not been through the process. They will probably fail to understand the range and severity of emotions you are experiencing. What’s worse, they may focus instead on what you did wrong and could have or should have done (or what they would have done differently). Just remember—it is normal for those who have not been there (yet) to fail to grasp what you are going through. So, here’s who you should talk to (in rough order of importance):

The professional liability insurance trust (PLIT). You may or may not have elected license coverage the last time you renewed your professional liability insurance. Call and find out. If you did, they would hook you up with an attorney ASAP.
An attorney. If you do not have coverage for license issues, ask the PLIT to refer you to an attorney specializing in veterinary board complaints. Note: Yes, you do want to pay for this. This is your license. No matter how small the risk of license loss, you do not want to play around here. Sure, you have loans, but defer them, borrow from family, or get another credit card. My two cents: Do not represent yourself. You have too much to lose.
Your family. You will hopefully have family to rely on. However, you may want to resist the urge to download completely until you have gathered your wits about you and have a plan. It can be very scary for them, too!
A sympathetic colleague. Choose someone who has been through it. If you do not know anyone personally, there are plenty of vet-only social media support groups, where people discuss such things. But beware: social media is a fickle friend, so please don’t post your woes to a random “help” page. Instead, attempt to make direct contact with someone who has been there.
Your therapist. If you do not have one, this is a perfect time to start seeing one. You will want someone who is on your side no matter what—even if you do have to pay them to maintain access to their invaluable support.
Your employer (maybe). Ask your attorney whether you need to disclose anything and when. In many cases the matter will already be public knowledge in your workplace, and you may have no issues talking to your boss about it. In others, it may cost you your job.

Will I ever feel better?

I had expected to feel embittered and resentful even after the process was over and done with (nine months later). Yet, when the complaint was ultimately dismissed (as the vast majority are), I felt as though I had made it through some bizarre rite of passage and I had come out the other side knowing if this did not make me want to leave the profession, there was probably nothing out there that would. There is power in that kind of knowledge.

Unfortunately, a larger percentage of veterinarians than ever before are expected to endure a protracted ordeal just like mine. COVID has, by some reports, more than doubled the number of veterinary license complaints in the U.S. It has also created a backlog, meaning, complaints that once might have taken just a few months are taking a year or more to reach their conclusion.

As long as professions exist, we will always have to contend with the reality of professional policing to maintain our standards and protect the public. Unfortunately, that also means the public has a right to lodge complaints based on mistrust, suppositions, and expectations. But, again, it’s not all bad. After all, you’ll survive. What’s more, if you are as fortunate as most of us are, you will probably learn your commitment to your profession is made of tougher stuff than you had thought—and, so are you.

Patty Khuly, VMD, MBA, owns a small animal practice in Miami and is available at drpattykhuly.com. Columnists’ opinions do not necessarily reflect those of Veterinary Practice News.