Get hit and keep moving.

“It ain’t about how hard you get hit.  It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.  That’s how winning is done.”   Rocky Balboa. 

I love this quote, not only because I love Rocky, but Rocky has an extremely good point for all of us in the veterinary profession to consider.  The daily challenges that we, as veterinary professionals face, have a way of knocking us down mentally and sometimes actually physically. (Ever get knocked on your butt by a 90-pound Rottweiler?)   The hits that we experience can cause us to head towards feelings of overwhelm, stress, anxiety and with some even, into depression.  Sometimes we wonder why anyone would ever take on this job, with the long hours, high stress and low pay.  How then, can we take Rocky’s advice and get back up after a hit?  How can we stand and move forward after we take hits from our, clients, patients, families and coworkers?

One of our most common hits is the myriad of increasingly unreasonable client demands.  I see our clients as getting more demanding each day, with their need for instant gratification, maybe resulting from the instant answers they experience on their smart phones, or with Siri and Alexa.    They want fast answers and cheap solutions to their pet’s problems, and demand that we provide.   They make our job difficult by consulting Dr. Google and diagnosing our patient, before we even get a chance to do our exam, and often force us to work under unreasonable budget constraints.

 In order to combat this trend you need to stand up for your unique perspective in the exam room.  After all, you are the one that paid the big bucks for the expensive veterinary education.  Perform a complete examination and verbalize the findings to your client.  If their Google diagnosis does not match with your findings, explain exactly why you do not agree and be confident.  If you can explain your findings in a clear and concise manner with assurance, they will be brought around to your way of thinking.  If their diagnosis is correct, praise them for their clever homework and heartily agree with them as you get them to consent to your diagnostic and treatment plans. When you can agree with them regarding their concerns and address them with a solid plan for resolution, you will gain their respect and make them more likely to follow your recommendations. 

Another daily hit that keeps on coming is your team member’s and coworker’s demands on your time.  This is something that I deal with quite often.  I feel as if I should change my name or wear a disguise some days in order to avoid being pulled in a million directions.  One team member after another stands in line to ask a question or asks me to solve some problem for a client, patient or the team.  Worse yet there is a problem with a piece of laboratory equipment, or the always dreaded, computer problem.  Each situation is urgent and needs my (your) direct attention, but as the questions overwhelm your mind it is difficult to make any rational decision, and being under this kind of pressure to make decision after decision, will drive you to the brink of insanity. 

How do we stand up after this hit?  Stand up for yourself by asking team members to come to you with at least two solutions to the problems that they are trying to “dump” on you.  The solutions must be well thought out and complete and should always have the best interest of the hospital at their core.  If team members can come to you with a solution already in mind it will make your job much easier as you will be able to approve the solution or tweak the solution with a suggestion without having to solve every problem yourself.  Having your team trouble shoot each dilemma will make them ultimately happier, by giving them more autonomy and power in taking care of the clients, patients and in turn the hospital and ultimately their leader, you.

Take time to explore your deepest feelings about these hits that you deal with daily.  Talk to another veterinarian who can understand you and your stress filled job.  Read, exercise, meditate, do yoga or just visit and spend quality time with your family and friends.  You must nurture your soul in order to give your best to your life and in turn your team members, patients and clients.   Above all, keep on fighting like my friend Rocky and you will be rewarded with the rich rewarding and often entertaining life that you were looking for when you went into the healing field of veterinary medicine. 

Dr. Julie Cappel

Why having a pet at your place of business is a great idea.

Having pets at work is a privilege that we as veterinary professionals often take for granted.  Many of us have hospital cats (in our case, often many more than one) that live at our place of work and are always there to happily greet us in the morning.  The Veterinary hospital is an ideal place for a resident pet, and many of us may bring our pets to work when and if needed.  However, the real question is, should your work place have a pet? 

I think that the answer is absolutely yes. 

Pets often promote social interaction between people.  If someone walks into a business with a resident pet it usually brings a positive response and seems to get people talking.  It allows for an automatic point of relation between the team member and the customer.   Introverts will find that small talk becomes easier with the common point of interest in the pet.  We no longer have to search for something to talk about because it is right there in front of our faces.  Automatic icebreaker! 

Pets are proven stress relievers and studies have shown that individuals that either brought their pets to work or interacted with a work pet, had lower stress hormones released throughout the day than people that had no pet interaction.  How can you be stressed when you see a soft furry face looking up at you?

Pet friendly workplaces tend to increase employee satisfaction and have higher moral than pet free businesses.   Company pets also help with employee retention; people may want to leave their job, but leaving the company pet may be emotionally more difficult.  They become more attached to their job when it includes the pet. We often have a litter of orphan kittens at our hospital to entertain us with their play during lunch breaks.

Pets can improved your image by softening the corporate boardroom experience.  If someone feels intimidated by your place of business, seeing the friendly face of a pet will often soften that experience.  Meetings will be less combative if the participants are petting the company cat.  Companies often use aquariums full of beautiful fish as an “ice breaker” in their lobby or boardroom and a furry pet can accomplish the same thing.

Pets at work could save the employee money and the company as well.  Employees that are able to bring their pet to work will often work more and longer hours and spend less money in day care and dog walking costs.   The fact that they do not have to rush home to walk or feed a pet allows them to stay longer at work and get more things accomplished.

Is there a downside to company pets?  Yes there can be.  Not all businesses are suitable for pet ownership.  Businesses that serve and prepare food and certain health care facilities may not be appropriate for pets.  Also, customers that fear pets or have pet allergies may not be particularly thrilled to see a pet at your place of business.  It must also be considered that pets can cause damage to carpet or furniture and may also endanger your employees or customers if they are not properly trained or become afraid and act out.

In most cases a well trained and socialized pet will bring rewards that surpass the effort, time and money that it takes to make them a part of your work place.  Try to build some logical company rules around pets in the workplace, talk to your insurance company about liability issues, then get a pet and see how it goes.  It will surely make your workplace more interesting and fun.

Dr. Julie Cappel

What is it about our clients that make us feel bad?

Can clients make us feel bad?  If they criticize, judge, complain, push, ask for discounts, and talk over you, do you get frustrated or discouraged?  If you do a great job with their pet and they don’t notice, do you get discouraged or worse, depressed?

 Yes, clients are often very demanding, but we have a choice to feel any way that we want to feel about it.  What if we were just fascinated and entertained by them?  What if we could just be interested in their behavior?  What would it FEEL like if we chose to think about them differently?

First of all, you are the keeper of your brain.  You have the ability to control your thoughts and the way the thoughts translate into the way you feel about those thoughts.  You get to choose to either find the nasty client entertaining and interesting, and wonder why they choose to act the way they are acting, or let that person get the best of you and cause you to feel upset, angry or dejected.  It is a choice, for sure, 100%.  However, it is a difficult task to think and feel differently.  It takes practice and it takes examining the thoughts that you have in any given moment, acknowledging those thoughts and choosing to change those thoughts. 

Here is a true story example from my own client experience.

Mrs. Hurryup shows up with Vicious, her Chihuahua, over 10 minutes late for her 20-minute afternoon wellness appointment.  As soon as she walks into the exam room with the technician she announces, “I am in a hurry because I have another appointment to get to, and then I have to pick up my son.  Oh, and by the way Vicious has been having diarrhea for a week and has been chewing his feet for a couple days and can I get his vaccines today?”   Fascinating right?  The technician quickly takes a history and sends me into the room with the woman and her tiny frightened dog.  I examine Vicious and decide that he needs some blood work, skin impression and a fecal smear, some subcutaneous fluids and some medication for the diarrhea and itching.  I make up a treatment plan with the prices for our diagnostics/treatments and send the technician back in with the plan.  Mrs. Hurryup signs the plan and looks at her watch wondering why this is taking so long.  I ask for permission to take the dog and attempt to start my diagnostics moving as quickly as possible, so she can make her appointment elsewhere.  Feeling very proud of myself that I got everything done so quickly I smile as I walk Vicious back into the room.  Mrs. Hurryup frowns at me and says, “you know that I have another appointment. I need to leave.”  So, I quickly explain the medications, tell her that I will call her tomorrow with the blood results and send her to the front desk to pay her bill. 

Next thing I know, the receptionist comes to me telling me that Mrs. Hurryup is complaining loudly in the reception area about the exam fee on her bill.  She tells the receptionist and the rest of the clients in the reception area that the doctor did not really examine her dog, and the doctor seemed “in a hurry”. True story.  The client even threatened to change to another veterinary hospital because she felt like “the doctor was rushed”. 

What do we do in this situation?  How do we keep from getting frustrated and dejected even angry when it seems as if there is no way to make a client happy?  My answer is, choose to think of them differently.  Choose to see her as a fascinating study in human behavior and continue to treat her with kindness.  Maybe she has a sick child, husband or other family member and feels overwhelmed with her situation with the diarrhea dog.  Maybe she has financial troubles and is trying to get a discount by complaining loudly to the receptionist.  Maybe she is just a naturally angry human being.  At any rate, I do not have to have her change my thinking about the job that I just did.  I examined her dog, got his diagnostics, gave him his treatments and got her on her way as fast as I could to try to help her make her next appointment.  I was a rock star!  The fact that she does not understand how great I am has no bearing on my thoughts about myself or my happiness.   

 I did meet her up at the reception desk and calmly happily asked her if there was anything else that I did not address or could do for her and her dog.  Once I was back in her line of sight she did not seem to have any problems with me.  Interesting again.

The next time a client tries to get to you, remember you have the power to turn things around by doing a very simple thing.  You can choose your thoughts.  Choose to be fascinated by the person or circumstance that you are experiencing.  Choose the emotion that you want to feel about them.  Is it, “Wow, that is an interesting take on what just happened here.” or “She is truly a demanding person, I wonder why?” or “I bet she has a difficult life, and just needs some love.”   Choose to remember that you are a rock star and there is no client behavior on the planet that can change your opinion of yourself or the amazing job that you do.

Dr. Julie Cappel

When a patient dies, do people know?

As veterinarians we know all too well about stressful weeks. Multiple difficult cases, emergencies and the unfortunate death of an employee's pet leaves us all asking why?  Why do we do this job that is so difficult that we often spend our evenings sleepless with worry. Sleepless about a sick patient, or what we could have done differently to save a beloved pet.

One incident that occurred recently, happened during a small mammal surgery, when one of my most experienced technicians scheduled her pet rat for a routine surgical procedure. Together with one of our excellent doctors, they performed the routine procedure that went very well until the rat was recovering from the anesthesia.  For no apparent reason he suddenly arrested.  They worked and worked to try to get him back but they were unsuccessful.   The technician and doctor were distraught.   How could this happen so fast and why?    

When I heard what had happened,  I went to console and hug my technician who then looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, "Do people know how hard this is on us?   Do they know that we go home and cry and often lose sleep over their pets?"  "You should write a blog about this so people can know."

Working in a busy small animal, avian and exotic practice sets us up for extra difficulty.  Exotic pets are much more sensitive to disease, anesthesia, malnutrition and other health conditions.  Some times the pets get to us when it is too late for us to save them.  When we lose a pet their owners can become angry as they go through the stages of grief and lash out at those of us that are there to try to help them.  This all leads to increased stress that can ultimately lead to depression and burn out.

We want our clients to know that we really do care about all of the patients and even though we look happy when you bring us your healthy pet, we may have just been through something very upsetting and difficult.  We do love our jobs,  and have our fair share of fun puppies and kittens to cheer us up, but sometimes we may just really need a hug. 

So please treat your veterinarian, veterinary technician, animal assistant and receptionist with care and love, because they suffer right along with you when things are going badly and they work long hard hours to be there for you and your pet in your time of need.  

If you are a veterinarian or veterinary technician, reach out to your fellow veterinary professionals.  We all understand your pain and would love to help you get through the difficulties.  This is our calling and the profession that we love, even during the sad days.