Clearly Compassion FatigueOctober 29, 2014As some of you know, I am big into the topic of compassion fatigue. In fact, some of you may be fatigued from hearing me talk about it! When I speak on the topic, I unashamedly admit that I am the “poster child” for compassion fatigue. Some of my wounds have healed, leaving the tender scar tissue. Many more still remain, some of them irritating scratches, like paper cuts. You know the kind: they can be the smallest little slit, but it hurts like crazy. And yes, I have some big, gaping wounds that I know will likely never heal. When it comes to compassion fatigue, I have literally “been there, done that.” I think I finally realized how deep some of these wounds are when I was stopped dead in my tracks by the annual Compassion Fatigue conference in Kingston, Ontario. I began my training on CF up in Kingston with a private firm, and then extended my learning by attending two of the annual conferences. Typically they have presentations from different lines of work that can suffer from compassion fatigue, such as mental health providers, humanitarian organizations, even the “human” medical field. It’s funny, well OK, sad, that I …
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Balance Out Your Team's Strengths and WeaknessesOctober 23, 2014Do you hear what I hear? It’s okay if you don’t. As you know, there are all kinds of people in veterinary medicine. We all have our strengths, and we all have our weaknesses … when we’re honest with ourselves. When you put a variety of people together in the workplace, it would be ideal if the strengths and weaknesses created a complete picture, like different puzzle pieces, working together to create an image. I was talking to “my good friend, Val” and she was taking this concept one step further — to employee development, performance evaluations and job fit. This is sorta how it goes. We take a person who has their own set of strengths and weaknesses, and let them loose at the practice. What they do good in, great, “no news is good news” is often the management tool we use when things are going well. That’s because if you do something wrong, you WILL hear about it. This could be an informal conversation, or it could occur during the annual performance evaluation (you’ve got that, right?). Val’s point is, we take someone and say very little about what they do well, but spend an awful lot of …
How To Avoid Sad SupervisorsOctober 21, 2014This past month, I had the pleasure of speaking to the Wisconsin Veterinary Technician Association at their annual meeting in Madison. It was an impressive group, with more than 450 techs in attendance. I was focusing, as so often I do, on the non-medical topics such as client communication, human resources and compassion fatigue. One of my favorite lectures was titled, “Moving to Management.” In my own personal experience, management was not so much a conscious decision, as it was a gradual taking on management-type duties over time until, guess what, you’re the supervisor now! From others I’ve spoken with, this is most often what happens, and it can be dangerous for both the practice and the person who has unknowingly taken on a management position. The way it happens is fairly simple. The boss gets busy — they have too many people and not often time to manage them, so they start delegating duties. They pick someone from the practice team, and usually it is either the “best” technician or front-office person, or the one that has been around the longest. They are marked for management without any real offer presented for discussion. Then, the supervisor is virtually alone, …
Why You Shouldn’t Skimp on Quality ControlOctober 13, 2014Originally published in the September 2014 issue of Veterinary Practice News Advances in diagnostic equipment for veterinarians continue to be made. There’s a lot to be positive about, but a number of experts point to concerns about practitioners being over-reliant on technology and not performing adequate quality control. Manufacturers of diagnostic equipment years ago started out with hematology and chemistry units that were a bit awkward, but over time they have become easier to use, more efficient and can offer more results, noted Brent Hoff, DVM, DVSc, Dipl. Tox. The makers of the new equipment have been “a little too good to the veterinarians,” he said, in that there’s now a pervasive notion that veterinarians can just run these machines without a great deal of forethought and training, said Dr. Hoff, a clinical pathologist and clinical toxicologist at the Animal Health Laboratory at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. “The companies haven’t been [consistently] good at pointing out that these point-of-care pieces of equipment really need some quality assurance and quality control for there to be valuable results,” Hoff said. Linda M. Vap, DVM, Dipl. ACVP, also worries about quality control. “I am concerned about the number of places …
Are you a SuperTech?October 10, 2014I have been very fortunate to work with some good technicians. Sometimes, I have the pleasure of working with technicians who are exceptionally great at what they do. They just get it. They are the few. The proud. The SuperTechs. In honor of National Technician Week, here are 20 characteristics of this rare breed of technician. 1) They are improvers. SuperTechs always try to improve the “system.” They constantly and spontaneously look for ways to make things better and more efficient. SuperTechs solve problems that you didn’t even know you had. For example, without prompting, SuperTechs will redesign your operating room and make it magically look much more spacious. 2) They are lifesavers. SuperTechs keep you out of trouble. When you treat a 4-month-old dog with an infected bite wound that would benefit from enrofloxacin, SuperTechs gently remind you that it may cause cartilage damage. 3) They have superpowers. SuperTechs use secret superpowers to feed the stubbornly anorexic, tame Cujo and restrain the most fractious of cats. Phil Zeltzman, DVM, Dipl. ACVS, CVJ Are you a super vet tech? 4) They are perfectionists. I once agreed to euthanize a surgery patient on the table if the suspected tumor had metastasized throughout …
Ch-Ch-ChangesOctober 8, 2014 #86495329 / gettyimages.com Often I wonder what it would feel like to be really old, and to know how the world was 70, 80, 90 years ago … so much has changed. Even in my lifetime, only moderately old, I can see change all around me. Take for instance, work. My dad’s generation was a “career” generation, where a person (usually a man back then) would settle into a company and see his career all the way through with that same company, comfortably retiring when “really old” hits. Contrast this to today’s generation, when the people entering the workforce (and now it’s about equal, men and women) are not out to make a career necessarily with one company. Instead of the “career” generation, this generation is more like “live and let live” … they are more apt to change employers multiple times, sometimes just in one decade, and follow their skills and interests wherever they may take him or her. They are more focused on what they want to do when they are OFF work, than sometimes what they’re supposed to do AT work. This means big …
Error of OmissionSeptember 12, 2014Usually, when we get in trouble for something, it is because we DID something. An error of omission is different, though, because the trouble is about the thing you did NOT do that you should have! It can often take the shape of delivering less than stellar common courtesy to others. For example, we had a fence installed around our backyard (so our dogs could run “free” … Joy just keeps eating the plants, and Georgie has since become blind—well, technically “eyeless” with surgical removal of both—so I’m not sure we met our expectations), but that’s a different story. Anyways, the fence company needed to make a return trip toward the end of the installation to permanently affix the three gates. They told me, upon leaving the first day, to expect them the next. Fortunately, I work at home so I did NOT have to take the day off to meet them but, nonetheless, they never showed. I called their office, asked when they WILL be at my house, and mentioned to the phone representative that it would have been nice to have at least gotten a call, so I wasn’t waiting around all day. She did seem sorry. However, …
Silliest Client Behavior ContestAugust 28, 2014 I try really, really hard to remain politically correct in this blog. But I do have to share a few stories that portray some of the silliest client ideas and behaviors. Some were my clients. Some were my colleagues.’ All paid dearly for their mistakes, and so did their unfortunate pets. 1) The sister of one client thought it would be funny to play a practical joke. She covered a tampon with ketchup and mustard, and put it in a hotdog bun. Unfortunately, Poopster* the poodle, who had an especially ferocious appetite, got a hold of the hotdog before her owner and swallowed it within seconds. He later had a gastrotomy to retrieve the foreign body. 2) A couple gave Sheba* the Shih Tzu a bath and thought it would be a good idea to put rubber bands on the dog’s ears. Strangely, the ears didn’t like this treatment and started to necrose (see picture). Sheba later had bilateral otectomies. 3) An Amish owner had a friend call his vet clinic to explain that his large breed dog was ADR. Our colleague asked him to bring his dog in. He eventually found a ride, and …
Are You Paying It Forward?August 14, 2014 “Pay it forward” is a phrase you hear a lot these days, and we’re all pretty familiar with the concept. Basically, when/if someone does something nice for you, you are supposed to turn around and do something nice for another person, to keep that spirit of giving alive. Here’s an example: I was going through the Dunkin Donuts drive-thru, and I was second in line at the window. When that car pulled away, and I pulled up, they let me know that the driver had actually given me the doughnut they bought. Well, okay, it was really a free doughnut for them because they got a coupon for completing the survey, but she used it to get a free doughnut to give to the person behind her. Turns out, I was told that she is diabetic so she can’t eat the treat, but always goes to the trouble to complete the online survey and give that donut away to someone else. In my experience, both the getting and the giving are pleasant. She felt good giving me the doughnut, and I felt good receiving it. Either way, your heart smiles, and so does someone else’s heart. You …
The 7 Deadly Veterinarian SinsAugust 8, 2014 Not that I’m the poster child for veterinary practice … nor am I even remotely in the running for clinician of the year. I have too many bad habits, ingrained biases and pent-up resentments. I commit far too many set-in-my-ways sins and give in to more than my share of slothful indulgences to preach from any pulpit. So much so that “Do As I Say, Not As I Do” might as well be the headline for this month’s column. With last month’s column dissing physicians fresh in our heads, I’m here to tell you there’s a whole lot more we could be doing to improve the quality of our results. That’s something we can all get behind, right? Trouble is, we’ve all got our own ideas of what’s sinful and what’s not. Which is why I make no apologies for my list. Here’s my current list (you never know, it may change next week): 1) NOT Speaking Our Minds For Fear Of Client Retribution Do you tell clients they’re killing their pets with all that food they insist on feeding? That their puppies hail from less-than-reputable sources? Their dog needs to wear a muzzle …
