4 Tips for Hiring Veterinary StaffMarch 9, 2015Whether you are just starting your own veterinary practice or you are looking to replace or expand your practice, hiring is an essential part of running an efficient practice. With an employee costing 1 ½ to 3-times their annual salary and some employees taking up to five months to reach break-even productivity, according to Investopedia, making sure your next hire is the right one is essential to your practice’s longevity. Have you looked at how your practice selects the best candidates? Here are some tips to help your veterinary practice reduce hiring time and increase the amount of time you can spend growing your business by better serving new and existing clients. Focus on Soft and Technical Skills When Hiring While having the necessary education and licensure for a technician or veterinarian is necessary for competency, looking at the complete skill set of a potential hire is equally important when making a successful hire. “For a technician, you look for a person with good technical skills: Being able to put catheters in, being able to intubate animals, being able to setup a patient for a radiograph is what I look for in a vet tech,” says Dr. Philip …
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7 Things That Will Kill Your Employee's MotivationMarch 9, 2015Almost every new employee brings a high degree of motivation to: Be the best they can be Contribute to your practice Learn new skills Get along with other employees Remain with your practice for the long haul “I Love My Job.” The challenge for practice leaders is to build on that initial motivation, and to create an environment where motivation grows deeper. Eventually, a sense of motivation can blossom into an attitude of loyalty and commitment. This reminds me of a scene at the altar of a wedding I once heard about. When the groom started patting his pockets as though looking for something, his best man asked, “Did you forget the ring?” The groom worriedly answered, “No, I think I’ve lost my enthusiasm.” Looking back on 36 years of leadership in veterinary practices makes me wish I had researched and written this article many years ago. No, I didn’t make all the mistakes all the time, but my leadership could have been better, especially in the area of keeping team members motivated. A lot gets written about how to motivate employees. But what about the flip side; things that kill motivation like weeds choke out a vegetable garden? Killer …
Why are Technicians Late for Work?March 5, 2015After months of polling the technicians we work with from various clinics and online (with the help of a Facebook page for technicians, “Vet Techs United”), we have come up with a collection of the funniest or craziest reasons they’ve arrived late for work. Here is a true story, narrated by a technician at one of my practices on a day we had a TPLO scheduled at 9 a.m.: “I woke up late but still wanted to go to the gym. I quickly gathered up my gym bag, and out the door I ran. I had a successful ‘express workout,’ feeling good about myself. Time to hit the shower. And that’s when I realized that not only did I pack two scrub tops and no pants, but also no fresh underwear. OMG!!! So I have to put on my sweaty gym clothes back on. I rushed home to spruce up and get dressed. “Once I got to the clinic, my TPLO patient had backed up his rear end up to the cage door and unloaded the smelliest and most disgusting blackish diarrhea, which stunk up the entire kennel. With a deep breath and some assistance from my great teammates, we …
Is it Possible to Avoid Compassion Fatigue?February 26, 2015Once again, I have been given the opportunity to teach my compassion fatigue classes on the Veterinary Support Personnel Network, which began two weeks ago. While I certainly hope the VSPN students walk away with something of value, it never fails that I also walk away with something of value too! This time around, it has been illustrated to me how, even if you think you are on a career path where you are “safe” from the emotional repercussions of compassion fatigue, really, there is nowhere to hide. Just as a refresher, in human medicine, compassion fatigue is defined as the stress that arises from the clinician’s relationship with the patient. For us, this is the relationship we all have with our families, both the human and the animal members of our family. Based on this definition, you expect compassion fatigue in general practice, where you form lengthy relationships with families and their pets. You also expect compassion fatigue in emergency practice, where the family is dealing with an incredibly emotional, unexpected situation. Even if the family is a complete stranger to you, the sudden and even short relationship is still going to affect the team. In specialty medicine, you …
Practice Makes Perfect — NotFebruary 5, 2015During the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, the world discovered that South Koreans were excellent at archery. According to Reuters, “South Korean archers have won 30 Olympic medals, 16 of them gold, and hold every world record with the Olympic-style recurve bow.” South Koreans approach archery like a martial art. "First they spend months learning the proper stance. Then it’s months learning to raise one arm, then both arms for a couple of months." Students practice “the most basic elements until they had perfected the technique and biomechanics.” As a result, “those kids have six months intensive training before they shoot their first arrow." Meanwhile, how are things done in the United States? We “just stick a bow in their hands right away and then spend the rest of the time trying to break bad habits.” The article concludes: “The more you practice the wrong things […] the harder it is to get rid of [them].” Clearly this approach doesn’t work very well. Just count the medals … “Practice makes perfect” is a classic expression we’ve all heard multiple times, and probably have said many times. Yet it’s completely untrue. It can lead to all kinds of mistakes, including …
Is Your Practice Short-Staffed?February 3, 2015Previous: Are You Supervisor Material? Have you ever come to work, looked around and thought, “Wow, we are fully staffed!” Sound like a dream? Probably so. Most days, in most practices, the staff is “short” due to someone’s illness, child’s illness, vacation, jury duty, maternity leave, funeral … plenty of reasons to not have the full team that was scheduled actually on the floor for their entire shift. I propose a solution to being “short staffed”… we no longer consider ourselves “short,” and simply realize that this IS the entire staff we can expect any given day. So instead of being short most days, you’ll be pleasantly surprised when you have an “extra” person clocked in to help! Wouldn’t that be nice — to feel positive for a few days, instead of feeling negative most the time? I may have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: Sometimes, some of us are just not that sympathetic when a team member is out sick. How do you know who is unsympathetic? You’ll hear comments such as “she didn’t seem that sick yesterday,” “geez, she was just sick X number of days ago,” “she’s always sick” (even if she’s really on out …
Are You Supervisor Material?January 20, 2015Previous: Wanted: You as a Supervisor? Not many of us enter veterinary medicine with the intention to someday become a manager. In fact, we can be innocently carrying on our position of technician, assistant or front office, and WHAM! You are asked to become a manager or supervisor! What now? There are several reasons why you may be selected for a promotion into management. As difficult as the truth may be, you should be clear as to why you’re being considered for this promotion, so that you have a glimpse of your potential and the support that is being offered to you by those who want you in the position. Too Much for the Top It makes sense that when the manager at “the top” becomes overwhelmed with too much to do, they will start to implement some levels of middle management to help them get all the work done. This makes sense, except often times the middle managers are still spending 75 percent of their time “on the floor” being the receptionist, technician, etc. So everyone needs to be clear as to what percent of time this middle manager will be given to complete administrative or “management” type …
How to Fall in Love with Veterinary Medicine in 2015January 8, 2015Ready to start 2015 with renewed love and enthusiasm for our wonderful profession? Here are three simple suggestions that can change your outlook and improve your daily life. 1. Create a Networking Group Pick three or four like-minded colleagues and create a small networking-group, where topics can be discussed freely. The farther apart the practices are, the more you will feel like sharing “sensitive” information. You can meet in person or virtually. You can meet monthly or quarterly, and you can stay in touch between meetings via phone or email for urgent matters. Items to discuss include: Medical topics, for example a puzzling case. Management questions, including HR, productivity and health insurance. Current articles – this could morph into a journal club, which is a fantastic way to stay on top of current literature (our secret cameras showed us your piles of unread journals…) Financial topics, such as loans, associate compensation and retirement. Philosophical questions: Should we have a mission statement? How do you find time to exercise? What is the meaning of veterinary life? 2. Visit 4 Vet Hospitals Plan on spending a day at four other hospitals this year—one per quarter. Again, in order to have a more …
What To Expect In Your Vet Tech CareerJanuary 5, 2015You’ve got the degree … now what? For many people, the prospect of helping heal animals is an intriguing profession. In our last article, we explained the differences between similar-sounding fields (veterinary technicians, technologists, and assistants), and outlined the different types of secondary education programs for veterinary technicians. Once you’ve completed a 2- or 4-year degree at the university of your choice, what’s next on the career path? You’re Not Done Studying Yet Before a veterinary technician can accept their first job, they must pass the Veterinary Technology National Exam in order to become credentialed. Credentialing requirements vary (like everything else) by state, and some do not require technicians to pass this particular test to get their licensed, though most do. The VTNE is administered by the American Association of Veterinary State Boards and is offered three times per year. The three-hour test consists of 170 multiple-choice questions and costs $300, with additional fees for practice tests. The VTNE covers pharmacology, surgical nursing, dentistry, laboratory procedures, diagnostic imaging, anesthesia, emergency medicine, pain management and animal care/nursing. The VTNE is made more challenging by its general nature—even if you know you’re only interested in practicing in one or two species, …
How To Become A Vet TechDecember 18, 2014My childhood cat, Tom Kitten, was generally a nice guy. He considered himself my home tutor (evidenced by his tendency to sit on textbooks) and happily cuddled on the couch with me in the evenings. That’s what we told everyone at the veterinarian’s office where he was unwillingly examined each year. Despite his wailing, growling, and flailing, the (wisely) leather-gloved veterinary technicians patiently soothed him through the process every summer. Anyone who’s taken their pet to a veterinarian knows that the job of caring for Fido or Fluffy is more than a one-person operation. It’s easy to imagine that (when dealing with more docile patients than Tom Kitten) the task of greeting animals and helping heal them must be very rewarding. And indeed, many veterinary technicians say the opportunity to help animals and their humans is an excellent, if demanding, vocation. If you’re interested in becoming a veterinary technician yourself though, navigating the various exams, acronyms, and training programs can seem like a full-time job in itself. Clarifying the Terminology The first step is discerning the difference between “veterinary assistants,” “veterinary technicians” and “veterinary technologists.” Although they sound remarkably similar, each requires a different degree of training. Veterinary technicians have …
