Why Can't I Find a Job as a Vet Tech?April 25, 2016A veterinary technician writes: I have been trying to find a job as a vet tech and I’m having a difficult time. I've been on about seven interviews and got only three responses back, all saying that I was not experienced enough for the clinic. I don't know why since I've been at my clinic for more than three years and I do just about everything. The only problem is that we don't use computers (which I can learn quickly), X-rays, in-house labs and I have a very strong background in customer service. I had one interviewer tell me right away that I wasn't going to get the job because I didn't know their practice management software and that they don't have the time to train me. During the interview, I do tell them this up front and I also mention that I'm a quick learner. Is it my age? I don’t tell them how old I am because I really don't look it and don't act it? I talk it up about how I love talking with owners about their pets and other things. I'm very honest about …
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10 Ways to Not be a Jerk in the Veterinary PracticeApril 25, 2016Reprinted with permission from Smart Flow Sheet. It really is quite simple to not be a jerk in veterinary medicine. Step number one, don't be a jerk. If you are not sure what not being a jerk looks like, just follow these next steps: Did you just walk past that diarrhea bomb? I didn't think so. Get back there and clean up that explosion. You are on your 15th smoke break (and you don't even smoke)? Put your phone down and get back into the game. You assume someone else is going to clean up your IV catheter mess? Not likely. Now treat this clinic like it is a 5-star resort. I hear the phone ringing. Do you hear it ringing? Help a receptionist out and answer the call. Floors don't mop themselves. Wouldn't that be nice? Fill up a bucket and get to work. You don't work well with others? Not an option! Be polite, even if it hurts. It takes you how long to fill that RX? Stop wasting time. What, you mean showing up at 8:05 isn't the same as starting …
Stats Show New Veterinarians are Smothered in DebtApril 21, 2016Figures released by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) reveal some alarming statistics about veterinary students and recent graduates. In the 2015 graduating class of about 3,000 students, the mean educational debt load was $174,060, and 223 students owed more than $300,000. Considering that the average salary for those going into practice is about $71,000, that debt will not be repaid easily. Mike Chaddock, DVM, EML, the associate dean for administration at the Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine, grasps the debt spiral. “One of the chief problems is that students often come in to veterinary school with a huge undergraduate burden of debt,” he said. “And many lenders are lending as much as students want, so students don’t think about the consequences, feeling they will just deal with it years down the line. “I’ve heard horror stories of what happens once they graduate and realize how much they truly owe.” Dennis M. McCurnin, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVS, a Louisiana State University professor emeritus who taught surgery and practice management, believes student debt is a plague …
Did I Ruin My Chances at a Promotion and a Pay Raise?April 19, 2016A veterinary employee writes: I have been employed at a hospital for just over a year now. I started in an administrative position and a couple of months ago, a management position opened up. I told the hospital owner that I am interested in this role, and she encouraged me to apply. Two months went by, and nothing has happened in regards to the position — no interviews have been conducted, no one has been hired. I inquired about it a few weeks ago, and was told that there are too many other things going on at the moment and it’s not a priority. During those two months, I have been feeling really overworked and underpaid. Well, not just underpaid, but undervalued and unappreciated. I rarely get any positive feedback, I am asked to do the work of multiple people and I am left to deal with a lot of stuff on my own. Yesterday, we were scheduled to have a team meeting. I was already having a bad morning and thinking about a lot of this stuff (no promotion, no …
Takeaways From the 2016 Veterinary Conference SeasonApril 19, 2016If you crunch the numbers on annual veterinary conference attendance, you’re likely to glean one thing above all else: January’s North American Veterinary Conference in Orlando and March’s Western Veterinary Conference in Las Vegas attract the largest share of national conference attendees in an annual locking of horns over market share within the coveted, increasingly competitive and surprisingly lucrative veterinary continuing education marketplace. No denying it: There’s no more exciting time of the year for a part-time veterinary journalist. Here’s where I get to hang out with old friends, make new ones, suck in some energizing CE and surrender to some hard-won spa time. (The Delano’s Bathhouse in Las Vegas is my all-time favorite.) What with all the attendant pomp, ceremony and trash talk (overheard, I swear), what’s not to love? Best of all, however, is the annual opportunity to assess the year’s changes in our veterinary landscape through a panoramic lens. Though we’re rarely treated to shocking revelations or earth-shattering innovations—conference sponsors will claim otherwise—there’s a constant thrum of forward motion behind all the banners, glossies and swag. Even the tricked-out booths will have a thing or two to say …
One of Those Days? How to Handle ItApril 18, 2016Reprinted with permission from Smart Flow Sheet. By now, you've definitely had one of THOSE days. The kind of day where everyone is late, everyone is grumpy, nothing is going the way it should and everything is most definitely only your fault. You'd think it would only happen in a veterinary clinic, but trust me, it happens everywhere. Now I know what you're thinking, "You can keep your list! That bottle of red wine I'm going to pick up on my way home will fix anything!" But alas, being one of THOSE days, you will inevitably be getting out late and the store will already be closed. So, here are some alternatives. 1. Leaving Baggage at the Door We've all heard this one before. However, it is absolutely true. Leaving your baggage from home at the door before you walk in can give you the best focus on your day ahead. A bad day at home should not greatly impact your day at the vet clinic and vice versa. It is just as important to get your frustrations from work out of …
In Defense of Emergency Vet Clinics, From a Pet Owner's PerspectiveApril 13, 2016 It's not often that you'll have an owner stand up for a veterinary clinic, but Felissa Elfenbein of the blog Two Little Cavaliers did just that in her blog, "Emergency Veterinary Hospitals Are Not Charity Clinics." As she writes in a Pinterest post, "Why is it that people say that a Veterinarian is only in it for the money if they refuse treatment for lack of payment or lack of ability to pay?" Elfenbein wrote about her experiences when she had to bring her dog, Davinia, in for emergency treatment. While she was there, she witnessed a family bring in a dog who couldn't breathe, and who even stopped breathing while waiting for care. Unfortunately, the dog could not be saved, and the family refused to pay for any treatment, even leaving before the clinic could ask what they wanted to do with the dog's body. Elfenbein also writes about the people who come into the clinic demanding their animal be treated for free or let it die. It's not a choice any veterinarian wants to make, but sometimes they have to, and it can have consequences. "The …
How to Talk to Your Clients: Veterinary Receptionist EditionApril 7, 2016Welcome to the “How to Talk to Your Clients: Veterinary Receptionist Edition” series! This series is not just for your clients, but for you as well. A survey was conducted in the veterinary profession some years ago. Veterinary professionals in the variety of positions on the team — veterinarians, veterinary technicians, veterinary assistants, receptionists and office managers took it. They were asked to report their biggest source of satisfaction at work, and the things that made them want to come to work. Then they were to report their biggest source of stress, also known as the things that made them want to pull the covers up over their heads and stay at home. Not surprisingly, “difficult and noncompliant clients” made the top of the stress list for EVERY position on the team! Conversely, “thankful clients” made it into the top three sources of satisfaction for everyone on the team. Based on these findings, …
How Much Money Could You Personally Be Saving?April 7, 2016As a traveling surgeon, I have the opportunity to have some pretty intimate conversations with technicians in the privacy of the OR. One day, I was talking with one of my vet surgery technicians about how she is falling behind on bills. She couldn't ever seem to catch up. Bills piled up. School loans were due. She needed new tires. In fact, she needed a new car. Yet savings were non-existent. She confessed that she was living paycheck to paycheck. Surely you realize how incredibly common this is in our profession… Yet I had noticed that she always came in to work with a large cup of coffee from a well-known national chain, that she picked up on her way in. And at lunchtime, she routinely added her take-out order to the daily list a receptionist would start. One day, feeling bad for the dire situation this technician was in, I bit the bullet and did the unthinkable: I offered to openly discuss her financial situation. She accepted. So we did some basic math (in case you are wondering, this was done outside the OR, without a patient under anesthesia!). And she quickly realized that the savings could be amazing …
14 Veterinarians Share the Best Advice They Received from a MentorApril 5, 2016Are you surprised when you think about the impact of a few words of wisdom a mentor shared with you along the way? I’m fascinated by how words like that become guideposts that endure for years to steer us toward values we know we can trust. The following are responses from more than a dozen of your peers who credit advice from a mentor with helping them become better veterinarians. 1. Choose what you focus on wisely. "After I'd been out of school for about a year I had lunch with a former clinician. He asked, 'What do you see most commonly?' I responded parasites. He advised, 'Get really good at that.' Today I'm a boarded parasitologist." — Chris Adolph, veterinary specialist at Zoetis 2. Be satisfied knowing you’ve done your best every day. “My mentor told me to never think of clients as ‘my clients.’ You don't own the clients; they are free to go and come as they like. Just feel privileged that at that moment in time they are entrusting the care of their pet to you. Other vets don't ‘steal your clients;’ they just decide to go somewhere else, many times in spite of everything …
