Save the Drama - Feeling Overwhelmed and Dealing with Stress

Tomorrow is Monday.  At my veterinary hospital that means drama.

Because Monday is one of the busiest days of our week, it is the perfect day to experience drama, which leads to feeling overwhelmed and ultimately stressed.  I have to admit that I love a little drama, in fact I am sometimes the one that creates it, but I hate to see my veterinary team frustrated and stressed over something that is beyond our control.  Monday.

Last Monday we had three doctors on the schedule, plus me, working there doing my paperwork.  I don’t see clients on Monday as a general rule.  The schedule was packed as usual and several people called with sick birds.  Alas, I am the only bird vet.  When the receptionist politely asks me to see Mr. or Mrs. So and So with their birds, the first thing I do is loudly complain and create stress around the situation. “How will I ever get my paperwork done?” I declare, knowing that I will ultimately say “yes” and see the birds.  Why create the drama? 

I think that the drama feels necessary to us.  It feels warranted.  Our brain likes everything to feel structured, orderly and quiet.  Our brain does not like to be challenged or forced to make quick decisions.  That is why when we feel the need to make many decisions very quickly, our brain causes us to feel overwhelmed so we have a reason to just run and hide.   It is the way we are wired deep in our primitive thinking. 

Stress and feeling overwhelmed are simply emotions.  They have no purpose.  They pretend to be caused by the events going on around us, but are never caused by the events. They are in our mind and under our control.  The stress and frustration we feel is our brain avoiding decision making.  We don’t want to make a choice, so we create drama to avoid making that choice.   When too many choices are presented we have an emotional meltdown to avoid facing them.

How can we keep the drama away and prevent the feeling of being overwhelmed?  Start with managing your thoughts about the busyness of the day.  Why shouldn’t we be busy?  It is Monday.  Mondays are always swamped, because we have been closed for the weekend and people have been watching their sick pets just waiting for us to open.  Normal. Natural. Right?  Getting upset, complaining and stressing-out serves no purpose. 

This is something that we can control.  If our brain is avoiding making decisions we need to teach our brain to make quick decisions and give our brain limited options.  When a client with a sick bird wants to come in on my day of paperwork, I really only have 2 choices.  Say “yes”, or say “no”.  No complaining, no drama.  I know that I will always say "yes", so why not just go there first to avoid the stress?  Limit your brain’s options, make quick decisions and train your brain to avoid the drama.  This will ultimately save you time and energy and keep you from feeling stressed and overwhelmed.

The next time you say, “I feel so stressed” or “ I feel overwhelmed”, think about why you are creating these feelings.  Realize it is a choice that you are making to avoid managing your decisions. 

Dr. Julie Cappel

Please share a story about how you overcame your drama in the comment section below.

Find your Grit and become a Ninja.

“Grit is that 'extra something' that separates the most successful people from the rest. It's the passion, perseverance, and stamina that we must channel in order to stick with our dreams until they become a reality.”   Travis Bradberry

This weekend I was fortunate enough to participate in an event that reminded me about the concept of grit. 

What do I mean by grit?  The definition is, “courage and resolve; strength of character” and in the above quote “that extra something”.  It is the extra something that convinces us not to quit when our negative thoughts tell us that things are impossible in our work or home life.  Grit allows for success in the face of failure.

Have you ever watched American Ninja Warrior?   The contest is a true test of human perseverance and grit. The contestants prepare for the courses and come back to try again, even when they fall face first into the water surrounding the obstacles.  The Ninjas are doing things with their bodies that they thought was impossible until they actually hit the buzzer and finish.

What I did this weekend was nowhere near American Ninja Warrior caliber, but for me it was a test of grit.   It was a 50-mile bike ride, in 92-degree heat and I was a rookie.   My last 20 miles were along an asphalt road with heat radiating off the pavement up into my face,  sun beating down on my baking skin and sweat pouring into my eyes.  My legs were fatigued and it would have been super easy to just pull off the route and call Uber (with a bike rack) to take me home.  I had to reach down deep to pull out my grit to keep peddling to the finish.  I was hot, tired and a bit miserable, but when I saw the finish line, I was proud of myself for my accomplishment. 

Do we need grit in our veterinary practice?  Absolutely!  When an emergency walks in, just as you are just getting ready to leave for the evening.  Grit.  When you have two walk-in appointments in addition to your regular schedule.  You have to be gritty.  You have to put on your multitasking hat, boss your technicians around like a Ninja, and get the impossible done.  Your mind will tell you that it is crazy to take care of two emergencies at once, but in reality you can do it.  You just go into Ninja Warrior mode and get it done.  You don’t have time for worry or fear; you need to pull out your grit plow forward and trust your instincts and your team.  You will save 2 lives in the time it usually takes to save one.  What a great feeling!  Super Veterinary Ninja! 

The next time you feel your brain telling you that your life is too much, or you need to

do something that seems impossible, call on your grit and become a Ninja.   

Leave me a story about a time that you used your grit to overcome an obstacle in the comments below.

Make Time to Create Time

We had another rocking Saturday at our veterinary hospital today. It was loaded with patients ranging from the cutest little sheltie puppy in for his second vaccine appointment, to a difficult euthanasia, to the two vomiting cats that needed radiographs and blood work and still gave me no solid reason for their vomiting. The busy overloaded schedule and the stress that I felt radiating off of my veterinary team, made me wonder how can we better manage our brains around time?  How can we manage the way we think about our time at work and at home, and would it make a difference if we could think differently?

Over the years I have observed myself spending time and wasting time. Using time wisely and costing myself time with worry, indecision, regret and distraction.  I have the type of personality that always wants to know what is going on.  I have trouble sitting in an office alone when there are people and things to see and do outside my office door.  I find myself distracted by the activity in the rest of the hospital.  It is like a monkey controls a small part of my brain.  This results in me procrastinating the “boring” usually important tasks that I need to accomplish and wasting my time worrying about how my team members are spending their time.  Another big thing for me is helping other people get their tasks accomplished.  I find it more fun to help others get things done than to help myself.  

There are things that we can do to create time.

Make a plan:  In order to get more done, be very deliberate with your time.  You will need a detailed plan as to how your time will be spent each day.  The plan should have actual time blocks penciled in to accomplish each task.  If you give yourself a 30-minute slot at the end of the day to write up records, set the timer on your phone to 30 minutes.  Don’t look up from those records until your 30 minutes are up.   You will surprise yourself with your productivity.

I have a small journal that I carry with me.  I sit down in the morning and list all the things that I will get done in the day and schedule time for them.  When I write those tasks down, it looks like my perfect day.   But, we all know that perfect days are rare in a veterinary hospital.   Although I don’t always get it exactly right, by having the written plan I have a much higher chance of success.

Follow the plan:  Making the plan is vital, but following it is key. When you sit down to attend to your plan, your mind will tell you to check your phone, get a snack, get some water, catch up on some gossip and visit the bathroom. Your brain will try to foil your efforts, but stand strong and keep to your plan.  Realize that when your brain tells you to stray from your plan, you can control it.   Tell it to quiet down and get to work.  Later you can schedule in a snack break, but when you decide, not when the monkey in your brain wants it.

Make strong decisions and don’t look back: Many of us spend too much time agonizing over simple decisions instead of just making them and moving on.  Things as simple as, “What should I eat for lunch?” can take some of us over 20 minutes.  If you fear making decisions because you could fail and choose wrong, force yourself to make some quick decisions and don’t second-guess.  You can practice going with your gut and choosing the first thing that comes to you. If you make the “wrong” decision you can just chalk it up to a learning experience and make a better one the next time.  No big deal!

If we all pay attention to the way that we waste our time with distraction and become aware of reducing that waste, we can create more time in our day for the things that we want to accomplish.  Remember that you only have this moment.  The past is gone and the future is out there waiting for you to build the amazing life of your dreams.  

Dr. Julie Cappel

Dropped Pants!

I am always impressed and entertained at how intimate the relationship can become between a veterinarian and a client.  People just love us and often feel so close to us that they share things that they shouldn’t (or we wish they wouldn’t).  It can be a big responsibility and is stressful at times, but mostly it is an honor to be thought of as a trusted friend by people that pay us to help them with their pets.  

I see it as the human-animal-veterinary bond. 

Here is a story from my veterinary life as an example of this awesome phenomenon.

One of my favorite client pairs was a very sweet, happy, and proud Polish couple that brought their very fat Cocker Spaniel  “Taffy” into the office regularly.  They spoke English, but had very heavy accents that were sometimes difficult for me to follow.   In fact, I don’t know that the Mrs. understood much that was spoken to her in English, but she would always smile and nod her head vigorously in agreement with everything I said.  Mr. would explain Taffy’s symptoms in broken English with many details, most of which I got.  He would point and gesture with each word, then smile and shake his head in the affirmative if I repeated his words correctly.  Taffy was very loved as evidenced by his very obese physique.  He was always well groomed but would waddle into the exam room and wag his very stubby and plump tail, but promptly lay down because he was so fat.  He was the kind of fat that makes a dog look like a walking tabletop or ottoman.  Each time he came in I would gently suggest that they reduce his food and they would go on and on about how little he really ate.  “Doctor, he eats only a few bits of food, how can he get so heavy?”  I would ask, “Do you give him any treats or food from the table?” “Oh No!  He only gets a little toast with butter for breakfast,  a couple bites of chicken, a little of my sandwich, he likes pasta and once in awhile he likes a little ice cream and dog treats when he goes outside.”  But he really isn’t a very good eater.”

One day this poor eater arrived for an emergency visit.  It happened when Mr. was taking Taffy for his daily ride in the car.  When they returned home he jumped out of the car as he always had, except for this visit he jumped from the car seat as opposed to the floor.  When he landed on the cement driveway both of his front legs gave way, he screamed out in pain and was unable to walk.  Mr. and Mrs. rushed him right in to see me.  Taffy was in a lot of pain and you could see that the legs were already starting to swell.  I explained that we were going to need to give him some pain medicine and take some radiographs to assess the situation.  When the radiographs finished it was obvious that both of Taffy’s carpal (wrist) joints were completely dislocated.  All the ligaments were torn and Taffy would no longer walk on either front leg unless he had some major reconstructive surgery.  Which is not on my list of talents. 

 I talked to them and explained that I would get him comfortable and wrap the legs for stabilization, but they would have to visit a specialist with Taffy to get the legs repaired.  Once I explained the situation and contacted my favorite orthopedic specialist, we packed Taffy up for the transfer.  We all went out to the reception area to get paperwork together and take care of the charges.  As we were waiting there, Mrs. must have had a revelation of understanding because she called out to me “Doctor!” and as I leaned in readying myself to understand her, she dropped her pants clean to the floor and pointed to her knees.  She obviously understood what her little pet needed.  She was standing in the middle of my reception room, smiling broadly and nodding her head, with her pants at her ankles pointing to the scars on her knees where she had knee surgery.  I smiled back as I looked at her in her underwear now smiling and nodding my head so she would know that I understood, and thinking how much I really love my job.   Communication and trust at its best. 

If you are a veterinary professional, try to remember how much trust and love our clients have for us and treat yourself in the same loving way.  You are their veterinarian, the person that they trust enough to drop their pants.

Dr. Julie Cappel

Why we Love, Love, Love our veterinary technicians

Veterinarians would be lost: No,  we would be nothing, without veterinary technicians.  We would be sad, lonely, tired, overwhelmed, and totally broke. 

I thought about this as I was working today, a very busy Saturday.  I walked out of exam room after exam room to see my technicians scurrying by, handling a mega-pile of tasks.  Draw the blood, catch the urine, run the tests, radiograph the pet, give the fluids, trim the nails, present the treatment plan, count the pills, and call the client.  One crabby gentleman said some rude remarks and threw a stack of paperwork at one of my kindest, most gentle technicians as she was explaining a treatment plan.  She handled the assault with with grace and poise.

How can we honor these rock stars of the veterinary world?

Love and Respect their experience:

Some veterinarians take a superior attitude with their technicians. They do not respect their knowledge base and experience.  Most technician programs are 2-year programs, however much of the technician learning is done hands on.  They learn much of what they do by actually dealing with animals and clients.  Also, sometimes your veterinary technician has more years of experience than you do. Your technician has also worked with multiple veterinarians allowing them exposure to many different methods of  practice and new ideas.  They spend more time with the clients and patients too, allowing them to get to know what the individual needs possibly better than the veterinarian.  When a technician alerts you about  the status of your patient, it would be wise to listen to them with an open mind.  They will help you avoid missing something important.

Love and Respect their teaching ability:

Most of the technicians that I work with are vastly more patient than I am, and much more thorough when teaching a client patient care.  When they are properly trained in nutrition, training, puppy socialization, parasite prevention, and medication techniques they can pass that training on to my clients.   They are friendly, open, honest and able to talk to a client on the level that they need to understand many issues surrounding their pet’s care.  Not to say that we doctors are not great educators, but when we are in the middle of a packed schedule with many patients occupying our time, we are forced to rush through the client education “stuff”.  That is when we can call “super technician to the rescue!”  The client will get a much better education than they will get from the veterinarian (me).

Love and allow them to be who they are:

I work with 10 technicians on a daily basis and each one is unique and special.  I have one that loves inventory ordering and monitoring, one that loves to handle the schedules, one that is a top-notch repair and maintenance woman, one that loves working with the practice management software and one that is a master at social media.  One hates surgery, one hates running exam rooms, one loves exotic pets, one loves rabbits, one loves dog training.  They are all super talented in all areas, but are super productive in the areas that they like best.  The most productive thing that I can do as a veterinary leader is to assign them to the areas in which they excel.   Honoring their unique talents makes for a happier work environment and a more efficient hospital.

So cheers to Shelley, Carolyn, Deanna, Beth, Nicole, Sam, Dawn, Jessica, Jackie and Becky – my amazing technician team.  Thank you for saving me day after day. 

Please share your best veterinary technician story with me in the comments, to honor those who really run our veterinary hospitals.

Call your clients, love your job, better your life.

Consider the client phone call.  That stack of messages that is waiting on your desk at the end of a busy 12-hour day when all you want to do is go home, eat some food and watch something on Netflix with your family. 

So many times I have been guilty of complaining about calling a client at the end of the day about some random issue or question. For instance, Dr. what should I feed Bailey?  (After I spent 40 minutes in the exam room yesterday recommending the perfect diet for Bailey).   The questions that we get are often commonplace and tedious to us, however, we need to remember that the client is concerned about ONE pet, the most important pet in the universe, THEIRS.  Their pet is a precious child, and if we don’t take time to talk to them and show genuine concern we are neglecting our primary duty and responsibility as a veterinary professional.  It is our duty, but I have found that it is more often a privilege.  It is a window into their home life, at the time of the day that everyone is home from work, had their dinner and are more relaxed and eager to talk to me,  their friendly veterinarian.  It is often that phone call that brings me closer, strengthening the bond to my clients as I get to know them better.

When I call clients back with a cheerful attitude it is often the most rewarding time of my day. I get the most positive feedback and appreciation, “Oh, doctor thank you for returning my call, you are working so late. I really appreciate your time.”  I get so many kind words and affirmations from my clients during those calls.  There is something special about calling them back as requested that exceeds expectations in a world of automated answering systems and voice mail.  They are so happy to hear from me and my other doctors, even at some pretty late hours and the call often forms a closer bond than we can get in the exam room alone.  I even have clients that have lost their pets call just to check in with me, say hello and tell me their plans for getting another pet.  Those calls make what I do, even after a long day, well worth it.

Remember to keep a good attitude at the end of the day, or any time, when calling your clients and you will be rewarded with feelings of accomplishment, appreciation and gratitude for the important job that you do.

If you have a good client "call back" story that ended with a positive affirmation, share it with me here in the comments section so we can all benefit from your experience.

Dr. Julie Cappel

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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