How To Remember What Fueled Your FireJuly 23, 2015On Veterinary Support Personnel Network (VSPN), there is a public message board on compassion fatigue that I moderate. It has turned out to be a great place for veterinary professionals to come share their thoughts, feelings and predicaments as it were, and receive support from others who have “been there, done that.” Recently one of the topic threads has touched on burnout, and here is a posting I added recently to help those trying to figure out where they stand when it comes to burnout. I have also shared this with several audiences. See if this speaks to you, or helps in any way: If we are experiencing negative feelings now—whether it be called burnout, compassion fatigue, or something else unnamed—another factor that adds to our negative feelings is a realization that we did not start out feeling the way we may feel now. We began with noble ideas of helping animals, and the good way that sense of purpose would make us feel. In a discussion about burnout, these first feelings were identified as what “fueled our fires” back in the beginning, and they include a time when: We felt …
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The Craziest Veterinary Technician StoriesJuly 16, 2015It is inevitable that something difficult, messy or never-heard-of-before will happen in a veterinary clinic. No one is safe, no one. At times, it appears technicians are the ideal target for crazy situations. From untimely fires to breaking personal space and animal bodily fluids landing in unfortunate areas, technicians are exposed to it all. So we asked technicians to share the craziest stories that have happened to them at our various referral hospitals. Cute but Messy Kitten Speaking of bodily fluids: A technician was cuddling with the cutest kitten in the world. He climbed all over her, and suddenly — to her horror — he had explosive diarrhea all over her: her face, her neck, her hands and her scrubs. Yet it’s hard to get mad about a cute kitten… No Scrubs, No Problem At an emergency clinic, a technician became covered in blood while triaging a hit-by-car patient. He was covered in blood, and pretty soon, she was covered in blood as well. Of course, this happened at the beginning of her shift. There were no extra scrubs anywhere, so she decided to wash her scrubs at the clinic. And so she wore a towel wrapped around her body …
Why You Should Use STATJuly 9, 2015An Absent Assertiveness Alarm should go off if any of these statements sound like you: Doing something you don’t want to do; Saying yes when you mean no; Meeting needs before being asked; Doing more than your fair share; Giving more than you receive; Fixing other people’s feelings; Thinking for another person; Suffering other people’s consequences; Failing to ask for what you need or want. The first publication of STAT: Special Techniques in Assertiveness Training for Women in the Health Professions was in 1978. Now in its fourth edition, this publication proves that indeed, some things never change. Reading this book is like looking at any nurses’ station in any hospital across the continent, where women continue to be the dominant gender in nursing, yet remain subservient to men in the profession for the most part. Veterinary medicine is really no different, EXCEPT that the number of female veterinarians is climbing! So does that mean this dynamic may change in the near future? That remains to be seen. In that scenario, perhaps instead of the “female vs. male” battle, we’ll just change it to the “practice owner vs. support staff” battle. Regardless, it never hurts to learn more about how …
Are Your Ethics Being Compromised?June 25, 2015What happens when we find ourselves in moral distress on a frequent basis? At the 2013 Veterinary Social Work Summit, Sonnya Dennis, DVM, DABVP, presented a session on “Ethics Exhaustion.” She defined “ethics” in this regard as a code of moral conduct or rules, following duty and not convenience, and doing the thing that “I should do.” The problem is, there is not universal acceptance of what is “wrong” and “right”; ethics is clearly a personal concept and will vary from person to person. Yet if we accept a position in a practice that provides a service we personally feel is immoral or unethical, we are allowing our ethics to be compromised. Dr. Dennis explains that ethics exhaustion is fatigue, emotional distress and lack of will to continue to act in a way that is consistent with what you believe is the ethical thing to do. It is having failed to square behavior with belief so often that you no longer care to try. At times, ethics exhaustion can be having trouble defining what that right thing is, or can be a mismatch between your ethical belief and your actual behavior. “Ethics exhaustion is not a loss of compassion, but …
Eat That Frog!June 18, 2015An ancient story claims that if the first thing you do when you wake up every morning is eat a live frog, nothing worse can happen to you for the rest of the day. Mark Twain reportedly said: “If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.” Brian Tracy, the best-selling author and professional development guru, explains that your “frog” should be the most difficult task on your to-do list. Believe of or not, the frog contains a secret hormone (fittingly named APH or Anti-Procrastination Hormone), which will give you energy and momentum for the whole day. The “frog” could mean returning a difficult phone call, organizing your desk or your office, firing a poor performer… The difficult phone call (or email) might be to an especially emotional client whose pet has died unexpectedly, to share bad news about biopsy results, or to return an irate client’s phone call (this last one never happens to me of course. I heard that it apparently has happened to colleagues though). In fact your frog also could …
5 Dogs Who Are Happy to be at the ClinicJune 5, 2015Not all dogs hate the vet clinic. These 5 dogs love hanging out in the office too. I love it when sweet faces like these are waiting for me in the exam rooms. 🙂 #lovemyjob #ebenezeranimalhospital #vetmed #dowhatyoulovelovewhatyoudo A photo posted by April Mafturak Stephens (@rockclimbingpetvet) on Jun 4, 2015 at 7:44am PDT These sweet puppies can't wait to see you. Good morning !! #lepar #vetmed #dog A photo posted by LePar Animal Hospital (@leparvet) on Jun 4, 2015 at 7:05am PDT These pugs are saying "good morning!" Ranger seems to think this is the preferred sleeping position for large puppies in …
How to Use ART to Combat Compassion FatigueJune 4, 2015Vidette Todaro-Franceschi tells us that, “We do not have to accept compassion fatigue and/or burnout as the costs of caring; with intention, we can make choices that help us to reaffirm our purpose and actively sidestep feeling dissatisfied and disenchanted with our work.” In her book, Compassion Fatigue and Burnout in Nursing: Enhancing Professional Quality of Life, she teaches a concept called ART: Acknowledge, Recognize, and Turn Outward, which she describes as reaffirming purpose as a healing model for our wounded workforce. In her book, Todaro-Franceschi discusses ways to use ART for many different situations or purposes, which we’ll look at closer. In every case, she states that “when applying ART, you focus on awareness of turning points, connection to others (and the environment), and one’s place (individually and collectively) in the unfolding present.” The first application of ART is compassion contentment, or job satisfaction in a manner of speaking. This is the positive side of professional quality of life, the reasons we put on scrubs every morning and clock in at our practices. When you remain aware or mindful of the positive things in life, we can look to repeat those things and experience joy …
#MeowMonday: Kittens in the ClinicJune 1, 2015This is some serious snuggling. This what 1 pound of concentrated cuteness looks like. #VetJob #VetTech #VetMedicine #Veterinarian #Vet #Kitten #Tiny #Cat #CatsOfInstagram #Snuggle #Adopt #ILoveMyJob #Cute A photo posted by Seth Wyckoff (@sethwyckoff) on May 28, 2015 at 4:41pm PDT This kitten is hard at work. Hard at work #kitten #playtime #vettech #veterinary #workflow #catsofinstagram #cryptorchid #specialkitty #cute #love #girlswithtattoos ???? A photo posted by Jen ???? (@jen.trim) on May 29, 2015 at 11:53am PDT Kittens everywhere! A client came in today with a basket full of seven kittens, and I think I died a little! Four boys and three girls. …
Do We Really Need to Talk About Mental Illness?May 27, 2015One of the most difficult times in my years of practice involved the suicide of a client. I knew the family well, and they’d been clients for years. You can imagine my emotions when the widower told me he suspected his deceased wife had sunk into deep depression after her cat died from a chronic illness while under my care. Nothing else was ever said about that, and surely there were other issues involved. Still, it was very disturbing to hear those words. All of us experience trying situations in practice. It goes with the territory. But the takeaway is to learn to know when we, or a person associated with our practice, become overwhelmed and need outside help. There are many reasons why people in the veterinary profession suffer from mental challenges like burnout, depression and suicide. Veterinary medicine is a demanding and challenging profession. Yes, that’s a good thing. But, at times the demands can become overwhelming and evolve into a negative force. In general, veterinarians practice a strong work ethic, are highly compassionate and are sensitive to the needs of pets and people. Again, these are all positive and admirable traits. But, those traits also leave us …
What do You do When You're Suffering From Burnout and Compassion Fatigue?May 21, 2015As the veterinary profession struggles with how to define and cope with the emotional aspects of the work we do, we have recently identified two concepts: burnout and compassion fatigue. Burnout is simply defined as the stresses caused by our interaction with the work environment. Among the list of causes are the feeling of having no control over the quality of care provided and a conflict between individual values and organizational goals and demands. Compassion fatigue is defined as the stresses caused by our relationship with our patients and clients. The majority of the stress in these relationships comes from the fact that in healthcare, we are expected to be technically proficient, emotionally available, straightforward, clear and compassionate … all at the same time! So what happens when we see corners being cut, perhaps resulting in providing services below our own personal opinion of “standard medical care,” and we feel powerless to change the system? What happens when we have to be straightforward, yet hide substandard quality of services? What happens when we have to demonstrate compassion and be emotionally available when we feel we are asked to act in an immoral way? This is the dangerous zone of “Moral …
