Have you ever been scared out of your mind? If you say “no” you are a big fat liar.
In veterinary medicine there are plenty of opportunities to
be afraid. We are afraid of delivering a
bad diagnosis, giving a poor prognosis, or experiencing a surgical complication.
We fear angry clients, poor reviews and making even the smallest mistakes. We fear the 90-pound, untrained, aggressive
dog that arrives seemingly every day.
Paralyzing fear is our daily friend.
This week my smartest and most experienced associate
veterinarian had the opportunity to be scared out of her mind. We have both been doing this work for over 25
years, and we still have many occasions to be fearful. This week fear arrived in the form of a cute
little friendly dog, named Freddy. Freddy
had bladder surgery a few days prior to this visit and he was back in the office
because he was not feeling well. My
associate was terrified that there was some sort of surgical complication
causing his malaise. As she worked up
his case, doing radiographs and ultrasound to determine if he was having any
internal complication, she worried that something had gone wrong with his surgery. As the two of us combed over his test results
trying to decide if he needed another surgery, we were both feeling fear.
Who wants to see this sweet pet go through a second surgery? Who wants to feel like a failure if something
has gone wrong?
The AVMA wants us to
have a “fear free” practice for our dogs and cats, but what about us? Who is working to help us with our
fear?
Fear is defined as – A feeling induced by perceived
danger or threat that occurs in certain types of organisms, which causes a
change in metabolic and organ functions and ultimately a change in behavior,
such as fleeing, hiding, or freezing from perceived traumatic events.
How do we deal with our daily fears and not let them consume
us?
Realize that fear is a normal brain response that all humans
experience. The part of your brain that is
there to protect you, will cause you to experience a fear response. Your fear is caused by your thoughts about your
current situation. Once you realize that
you are thinking thoughts that are causing your fear, you can work to change
those thoughts. In the case of our
little dog, our thoughts of surgical complications were causing our fearful
feelings.
Approach the thoughts that are causing your fear response with
curiosity. If you examine your fearful
thoughts and try to understand where they are coming from, it will start to alleviate
your fear. When you realize that many of
your thoughts are coming from a place in your imagination – worst case scenario
thinking - you can start to let them go.
Take some action in order to gain perspective. If you can take action to investigate the facts
of the situation, you can let go of fearful thoughts and start to formulate a
plan. Once you have a solid plan in
place, you can start to let go of your fear.
In our case with our little friend, we took some diagnostic actions to rule
out internal complications. As we talked
over his results, we were able to let go of our fearful thoughts and replace
them with a medical plan.
Our fear was unfounded on this day with Freddy, and he was able
to return home with some medication for his symptoms. My associate and I were spurred in to action by
our fear and were able to do the right thing, but we know from experience that fear
may be back tomorrow.
“You know, I think you try harder when you’re scared.”
Rocky Balboa
Dr. Julie Cappel
Join me on the Podcast! The Veterinary Life Coach Podcast.
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