Veterinary Team Training

"I'm momma bear/poppa bear and they are my cubs" "It's like I'm managing kids" "We're like a family" All these statements make me cringe. Leaders and even team members need to realize they are a coach and part of a team, not a family. Coaches focus on individual performance and what's best for the team. I dive into the difference between the two terms.

How do you know if the veterinary hospital you are working at or thinking about applying to is a good hospital? What are the green flags? Too often we find red flags after we join a hospital. I list what I think are the most important green flags that represent the best of veterinary hospitals. I hope you find many of these green flags in your own hospital.

I decided to jump into hot water and address two of the biggest topics for veterinary technicians here in the United States. Should we be titled registered veterinary nurse? Should we have a mid-level practitioner certification? I've never once provided my thoughts on any social media platform until now. This was an uncomfortable podcast for me to create but I decided to be brave. This quote in my podcast summarizes my thoughts on both, "It became a dilutional effect to a very important mission." I looked at both of these topics from a project management standpoint looking at multiple factors. I think it's important for everyone to stay up to date on important initiatives within our profession. Keeping an open mind and sharing thoughts with kindness is a must. I look forward to any thoughts about these topics.

When I was younger I would say, "They shouldn't own a pet if they can't afford it." Decades later I no longer have that narrow opinion. I believe everyone (regardless of money) should own a pet, including the homeless. That said, it's a complicated topic. How do we help those who don't have the means to own a pet? Should we be helping? I jump into this topic with the statement I don't have all the answers, but wanted to challenge the view of "they shouldn't own a pet if they can't afford the best care."

ANNUAL PERFORMANCE REVIEWS SUCK The way most hospitals conduct their annual performance reviews is terrible. Once a year a manager sits down with an employee and vomits a slew of feedback at them. The employee is then expected to improve themselves without any guidance. Sometimes the employee's salary is adjusted without any rationale. A year later this horrible event is repeated. The manager can't figure out why there hasn't been any improvement. For most hospitals, the way performance reviews are conducted NEEDS TO CHANGE. This podcast shares some ideas for change and ways to motivate rather than demotivate employees.

Everyone needs to be responsible for their own behavior. Claiming it's "just who you are" doesn't mean you have the right to belittle, berate, or bully others. Having high emotional intelligence is important for everyone. Let's talk about how to take responsibility for ourselves as well as how to manage those who are struggling to do so in our teams.

The veterinary technician career has changed dramatically over the past 50 years. Veterinary technicians/nurses are doing more procedures, caring for pets on a higher level and are direct contributors to the hospital's revenue. And yet, salaries have largely gone unchanged. Hospitals and doctors still restrict the skills that veterinary technicians are trained to do. Roughly half of the general public is unaware that veterinary technicians/nurses perform medical procedures. Let's talk about advocating for the profession that my core and soul belongs to.

Senior pets are special. Every moment with them is special. How can we help them when they come into our hospitals? Let's talk about ways we can provide the best care to our older pet patients.

How the hell did I get here?! I ask that question several times a week. I was told there was no market for a veterinary leadership book so I took a leap of faith and self published Oops, I Became a Manager two years ago today (09/12/2020). Up until 2020 I mostly hid myself from the veterinary community, but once I published the book I had to put myself out there. It's been a fun, scary and crazy two years and I am humbled and in the debt of everyone who supported my little book with a unicorn on the cover. I decided to sit back and reflect on "how the hell did I get here" in this podcast starting with my wrong choice of college major and now sitting with a book that keeps making the best seller list and recently won a gold medal in the Reader's Favorite Book Awards. Pinch me. All I can do is say thank you. You are the reason I wrote the book and you are the reason a second book is coming soon.

What the heck is quiet quitting? Is it happening at your hospital? Is it a good thing or bad thing? There's two sides to every story so let's dive in to this catch phrase created by individuals on Tic Toc.

Here's your shift differential now good luck on the overnight shift. After more than a decade of pulling overnight shifts I realized one thing. Money can't buy sleep or quality of life. What else can we do for our overnight team members? Let's dive into some ideas to help support the overnight team. Thank you to everyone who filled out my online survey where I asked, "Besides money, what else can we do for our overnight staff?" You came up with some great ideas!

Not sure what a Veterinary Technician Specialist (VTS) is? Interested in obtaining your VTS credentials? Does it pay more? When and why should a vet tech/nurse think about getting their VTS credentials? Let's dive into VTS.

Not everything needs to be done right now! If you are like me and you also have a high sense of urgency, then hopefully this podcast will give you some ideas of ways to move slower, enjoy like more and calm the F down!

Medical mistakes happen. The reality is almost everyone at some point in their career has made one. Most of them do not result in patient harm, but unfortunately some do. Let's talk about medical mistakes, how to record them, how to respond to them and what some of the most common ones are.

A dog was hit by a car. The owner cannot afford the care of the dog. Do you offer that owner the option of surrendering their pet to the veterinary hospital? If not, how do you manage this situation? The practice of offering a pet owner the option to surrender their pet is a common one. This podcast dives into the pros, cons and personal experience with surrendering.

Nursing managers, supervisors, directors of nursing and chief nursing officers are every day positions in human healthcare. Registered nurses wouldn't even dream of having a hospital administrator as their boss. And a doctor overseeing the nursing team in a human healthcare facility?! No way! In veterinary medicine it's common to have veterinary technician/nurse managers & supervisors in almost all vet hospitals, but are they really allowed to be a leader? Too often they are not provided the full autonomy to perform their job to their best ability. And what about those higher level positions like CNO/DON but for veterinary technicians/nurses? They are almost non-existent. Why? Why do we treat veterinary technician manager/nurse leaders as less than?

Too often leaders complain about their toxic team. They see the turnover. They see the gossip. They hear the complaints. Sometimes leaders will have a meeting and talk about how they want the team to be happier, have a less negative attitude and decrease gossip. The team agrees during the meeting, but nothing changes. Why? One meeting won't cut it. Change takes time, a lot of time. Stop complaining, create a real plan and start fixing your team. For my blog on this topic visit: https://www.vetteamtraining.com/post/your-team-is-broken-stop-complaining-and-fix-it

We see the cries on social media all the time saying, "corporations are ruining veterinary medicine!" In this podcast I dive into my own struggle with corporations that touch every facet of our lives and then move onto whether veterinary medicine medicine is being ruined by corporations. I dive into the poor pay, benefits and workplace environment to determine what, if any, blame we can place on veterinary corporations.

Too many leaders are offering bad interviews. It's a buyer's market right now. Failure to wow the candidate will cause them to find another hospital that does. Let's talk about some best practices for interviewing candidates. Instead of winging-it for your interview process, let's dive into how to develop a positive experience for both the hospital and candidate. For more details including downloadable information please check out my blog on developing an interview process for your hospital: https://www.vetteamtraining.com/post/stop-offering-crappy-interviews

We need to start getting more comfortable with pet owners and become a more transparent industry. Stop separating pets from their pet parents! This one thing is causing a lot of anger, resentment and anxiety in pet owners and yet, the majority of the veterinary industry is doing it. Allowing them to stay with their furbabies will allow them to see all the amazing work you do, decrease their anxiety and be nicer to the team. Who doesn't want nicer clients?

Got a team member who is dragging the entire team down, but you're too short staffed to let them go? Often too much time is spent on a toxic team member instead of the superstars. Let's talk about the cost of a toxic team member, how you can help them and when to let them go.

If you say you are not bias and/or never discriminate against anyone based on your bias then you are a liar. I am bias and so are you. Let's talk about what bias is so we can bring the awareness to it. Recognition first step in stopping our biases because while we don't want to have any, we all do.

Are you recognized by a state/country as a veterinary technician/nurse? No? Then stop calling yourself a veterinary technician/nurse because you are not one! You are keeping the profession stuck in the 1970s which is causing all of our salaries to remain low. I address why it's so important that we all fight for our title and why it's important to distinguish between a veterinary technician/nurse and assistant. Don't call yourself a veterinary technician/nurse unless a state or country has awarded you the credentials to do so.

I made this podcast because I saw on social media yet another veterinary professional go on and on for pages about a client complaining about money. Why do we let this stuff bother us? Are you a victim of yourself? How do we learn to let the small stuff go? Let's talk about ways to stop bi*#$ing about the small stuff. Apologies for some brief singing in this podcast.

Veterinary industry is a 80-90% female workforce, but yet the amount of leaders that are female are slim. Why are there so few women in leadership roles? What data is out there? How can we work to ensure women have an equal voice at the leadership table? Let's dive into why there are so few women in leadership roles in the veterinary industry.

"Yes." That's how most of us would answer the question of whether veterinary medicine has a high percentage of cynics working in it. To some extent we need a healthy amount of cynicism in order to survive in the profession. But is too much cynicism unhealthy? Does veterinary medicine actually have a higher level of cynicism than other professions? I attempt to find data and facts while diving into our love of cynicism in the veterinary medicine.

We need to stop making excuses or waiting for things to change. Instead we need to accept the extra busy state of our hospitals and the shortness of staff in them. We need to stop making excuses as to why our team can’t take breaks, why we are burned out, and why we can’t be happy in our jobs. We need to start figuring out how we can practice the best medicine with the resources we have. It's time to stop burning ourselves and our people out. Stop the excuses. Start making changes.

If you are a credentialed veterinary technician (VT) does your hospital pay you more than someone who is on the job (OTJ) trained with the same experience? When a new OTJ and a new credentialed VT are hired into your practice does the credentialed VT earn more? Are there certain opportunities that are only awarded to the credentialed VTs of your hospital? No??!! Then this is S#$! You Shouldn't Have To Put Up With. Let's dive into OTJ vs credentialed VTs.

Are you a veterinary technician or nurse whose skills are not being utilized? Do you watch as your veterinarian places IV catheters, performs a dental prophy or vaccinates all the pets? Let's talk about the importance of utilizing veterinary technicians and nurses to the fullest. Failure to do so results in high turnover and a loss of revenue. This is s#&! you shouldn't have to put up with.

Let's dive into these 3 terms and understand why they are all necessary depending on the situation. Having a deeper understanding will allow you to know when to apply them, but also how to protect yourself from compassion fatigue.

Disclaimer: I am not a licensed therapist, psychologist or counselor. This podcast is not meant to replace professional mental health resources. This podcast is meant to bring awareness and resources about suicide prevention to those who work in the veterinary profession. It's meant to open up the conversation around mental health with a focus on suicide prevention. It's a tough, but important conversation that needs to happen in every veterinary hospital. Resources That Compliment This Podcast: https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/ https://qprinstitute.com/ https://nomv.org/ https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/index.html

Why do adults bully each other? How is it even a thing?? It's not only a thing, but prominent in many veterinary hospitals, the industry in general and everywhere online. Bullying is S#&! we shouldn't have to put up with in veterinary medicine.

We all have them, angry clients. The ones that yell, scream and even curse at us. In this podcast I talk about why they may be angry and ways we can help manage them better.

Welcome to the first in the series I'm titling "S#$! You Shouldn't Have to Put Up With." In this episode I'm going to be discussing Bad Bosses. Let's define some traits of a bad boss and what you can do if you have one.

How can veterinary professionals show Olympic sized love and kindness to themselves? Are we failing our team if we say "I can't come in for that shift" or "I can't stay late?" Let's talk about the Olympics, mental health and boundaries.

Too often owners, managers and supervisors believe the employee who always says "yes" is the most loyal, but are they? Let's dive into what true loyalty is and why many leaders fail to recognize it.

All veterinary professionals should be paid more, but there's a difference between being paid well and being paid fairly. Are you being paid fairly? How does your workplace justify your pay? Is there a method to who gets paid what or is it a free-for-all? Paying fairly is important so employees know that salaries aren't based on favoritism.

What are the traits that make the best leaders? What do you need to be great? There's only one trait: trust. It takes a long time to earn it and you could lose it in blink of an eye.

Yes, we have forgotten about the veterinary receptionist heroes of our hospitals. We need to do better by this team. Education, career paths, pay increases and kindness are just some of the things we need to improve for this team.

There is an increase in client crankiness largely stemming from the curbside process. What can we do to decrease the crankiness? This podcast provides some tips for those managing through curbside.

It is important that hospitals create a culture of education, empower those to learn and grow and evolve the team. Education is one of the fundamentals to having a healthy veterinary team.

Boundaries we all need them, but many of us don't know how to set them. Those of us who set them we often fail to honor our boundaries. And unfortunately, others shame those who set boundaries. Let's talk about the importance of setting healthy boundaries.

Everyone in veterinary money needs to make more money but it's not the cause of the cycle of toxicity. Recognize if you are in the cycle and if you are in a leadership role work to resolve the cycle of toxicity within your hospital.

After more than two decades in the veterinary field I've come to the conclusion that 3 important issues need to be fixed to improve the profession. This podcast challenges you to think about the issues and then calls to action to improve them. Every person can influence at least one of these issues so we can make the veterinary profession healthier, happier and sustainable for those that enter it.

Employees hate going to them, managers struggle to hold successful meetings. Let's review some quick tips how to host a successful meeting that people may not complain about as much.

At any hospital I have ever worked at new hires get hazed. It's not a specific veterinary technician/nurse or doctor issue. It's a whole hospital issue. I have watched new practice managers be hazed by the entire veterinary team to the point they quit. I have seen a new client service representative walk out within six hours of starting due to the hazing. It happens everywhere. What is it, how can we stop it and how can we prevent it from occurring in the future?

Usually when we use the term burnout we associate it to work, but right now most individuals are feeling burned out in their personal lives in addition to work burnout. I don't know many people who aren't feeling burnt out. Let's talk about why burnout is at an all time high.

Every hospital has team members that are struggling with performance. Are you enabling them? What's happening to your superstars while all your energy is focused on trying to improve the performance of one individual? Check out this podcast to learn how to balance poor performers while not forgetting about your superstars.

Too often veterinary professionals feel like a fraud or fake, especially leaders. They feel like they don't have the knowledge or expertise to lead teams. You are suffering from imposter syndrome. Listen to this podcast to learn about it, how to overcome it and how to get our of your own way.

Too many veterinary hospitals have the new employee show up in scrubs and put them right to work. They don't even know where anything is! They are set up for failure. Then they quit. Having a 90 day orientation program is important for all new hires. Get some ideas on how to start developing one today.