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Veterinary Practice News Editorial Blog:
Thursday, March 4, 2010
The Problem with Celebration
By Katherine Dobbs, RVT, CVPM, PHR
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I love the winter Olympics. There have been years when I’ve just been glued to the television soaking in those winter sports, but more often there are years like this one, when I’m too busy to do anything but pop into the Olympic news that makes the Yahoo! headlines each day.
Imagine my surprise when I saw the slide show of the Canadian gals celebrating their golden hockey victory! I’m not certain which is worse, the way they continued their rambunctious celebration on the ice WITH the media still in the stands, or the hoopla that has been made of their actions. Then I thought of our veterinary practices.
Picture this scene - because I’m sure you’ve seen it before - where a client is saying goodbye to their pet that is dying or being euthanized.
Now right outside the closed examination room door, there is conversation, commotion, perhaps even laughter and jovial outbursts that are happening in “the back” of the practice. Does it occur to us that the grieving client can hear our lighthearted interactions? Do we realize that a closed door does not mean our exam rooms are suddenly soundproof? If you think they might be, and even if you just need to remind yourself that they aren’t, try sitting in one for ten minutes and writing down all the extraneous staff noise you hear while you sit there. It’s eye opening, and may teach us to keep our mouths shut more of the time … or at least whisper and hold in the laughter a bit.
Now here’s “the rub” as they say … there is absolutely no doubt that we need humor to keep us sane in this work that we do. In fact, humor is so important that I’m tempted to write a blog on how vital humor is to helping us cope with compassion fatigue, and how managers should not walk through the practice assuming everyone is loafing around if there is conversation and laughter heard. But as the saying goes, “to everything, there is a season.” The “season” for laughter and fun is not when a somber event is unfolding in your practice no matter what corner it is unfolding in.
It is not difficult to insulate these somber events from the jovial interactions that often times take place in the back among staff members.
Events can include this death or dying scene described, or it could be a client coming back to visit a very ill pet in the treatment area, a difficult diagnosis that is being delivered in an exam room, or a fragile family waiting in the lobby for news of their injured pet just admitted. These insulation techniques include informing the staff on hand of the event, perhaps even with a silent signal between everyone that means, “not now.” Just raising a hand with the “peace sign” can work beautifully if everyone knows what it means. Perhaps it involves posting a sign on any entrance door(s) to the area to let late-comers know that respect and reverence is expected at that current moment in time. It’s not difficult; we just have to be aware how our actions may influence our client’s experience.
So is the lesson not to drink beer and smoke cigars on the Olympic ice post-victory, or even better, is it not to do this IF the media is still lurking in the stands???
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The Problem with Celebration
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