Fresh Meat

You Don't Know What You Don't Know..

Penny. One of our dearest friends and a local rescue

The staff have notified me that you are headed to a nearby practice that has just sold to corporate. I want to respectfully and sincerely share my experience and insight on this decision. And apologize for the tone. 

I spoke to the seller, (a veterinarian I have known for the 20 years I have been a veterinarian), about two weeks ago. She told me that she sold to corporate, (a corporate company I also know), and I told her that I understood why people do it, I just could not understand her doing it. She was the last and only other practice owner besides myself who I believed would never imagine selling corp. 

Here’s what I don’t think you know. You are young. Just starting,  In debt yes, but you still have your heart, compassion and integrity. Your sign on bonus and contract are going to challenge that. Corporate companies have no interest in patients unless they have deep pockets. You will be expected to turn away or euthanize treatable pets because they are not inline with their profits. Period. They don’t care about anything unless there is a profit driven reason. They only care about you because you have a license and a contract. Without them they don’t care about you either. I could put you in touch with a dozen former corp vets who worked for them. They would all verify this.

If you think being in debt is the worst part of your current position it’s not. Being burnt out and turned into an indifferent person who doesn’t love vetmed is. Even worse, becoming a part of the statistic that is so shameful we bury it. We can talk about all of the myriad of reasons that veterinarians choose suicide, but, losing ourselves in the process of trying to care for others is at the forefront. 

Corporate medicine is so insidious in our profession that they now start recruiting the most debt-ridden students, (it is not a coincidence they start here), in their first or second year of vet school. By third year they have "signed." They are receiving "pay" in the way of stipends and expected to take their internships at their corporate run practices. They are constantly groomed and persuaded to pay back the favors enticed by large (always secret) sign on bonuses and long restrictive contracts. The contracts are the most horrific parts of this recruitment trade. I don't know if anyone on the university side has these graduates interests on their job description, but I know that when I was in vet school I at least had a professional advisor on campus. A recent new grad was sharing the details of the contract they had signed. $160,000 for 60 hours of appointments. Sixty hours is twice what any of the vets at my practice carry. The state average is about $130,000. This is endangerment labor. I strongly challenge the viability of anyone being able to learn effectively, care for patients effectively and then being locked in for 5 years!? An internship and residency last 5 years and when they are completed the expected salary triples. What is going to happen to this student? She is going to want her life back. Or, she is going to quit vetmed feeling like toast.

I never require a contract with new vet’s because I never want them to feel obligated or pressured to be anything other than who they are. If you aren’t happy here I want you to find the place you are. You cannot give your heart and soul and feel purposeful and good about yourself if you are contracted to anyone. 

I know this is not what you want to hear. But, I want you to know I am here for you. 

A veterinarian who sells their practice to corporate is asked to stay around for awhile. Help it look like the transition is gradual and under their guidance and acceptance. Maintain a facade as the new regime takes hold. It is all a part of keeping the most profitable plan by the new owners. In exchange for a whole lot of money the departing practice owner has to give up all that they built and all of his decades of building something amazing to vultures. They will always know that they profited from this sale and their staff clients and patients will pay for that. 

I hope that you find a place that you love. And love vet med as much in 5,10, and 20 years down the road. Never ever let anyone take away your passion or compassion.

I wish you well. I hope I am wrong about the direction that the clinic is headed for. The seller thinks it will remain the place she built and is proud of. I hope she is right too.

 Krista. 

Spencer, always shy and skeptical.
A local rescue

This is the letter I sent to a former employee who is started work at a corporately owned practice upon graduation. He has a big heart and he has worked hard to get into and out of vet school. He is like so many students who are lured by corporate reps who promise all sorts of things to get them to enlist. I spoke to one student who was given a big sign-on (about their first years salary ($140,000) for a 5 year commitment and a 60 hour a week appointment schedule. This leaves them to make phone calls,, review blood work/diagnostics and write up their cases on their own time outside of that. I would expect that will leave them working 80 hours a week. They are now earning $33/hour, and miserable.

What you don't know, you don't know. Maybe the first person who approaches you with the shiny objects and the impressive dollars doesn't have your best interests in mind? Maybe it's time the vet schools take a stance on predatory practices if they aren't already one themselves?

Maybe it's time we start asking some hard questions as consumers and start whistleblowing for the sake of our patients, our emotional bonds with them, and the people we entrust with their care. (More on this to follow).

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The Advice I Wish I Had Been Given. New Grads in Veterinary Medicine

 

We are at an unprecedented time in veterinary medicine. Never before has the demand for veterinary care been so great, and never before has the availability of veterinarians to take care of animals been so thin. It is very important for new grads to understand this. We are also at a place where the ethics and intentions behind every decision being made within vetmed has serious long-term consequences. Never before have you had to start making life changing, and life influencing decisions so soon out of the gate.

No one from the other side is going to tell you this. They won’t tell you because they need you and they need you to remain new enough to be green and naive. No good, strong, lasting meaningful relationship starts with this as the premise.

When I graduated from VT I was looking primarily for two things; mentorship and long term stability where the fruits of my labors would reward me with a piece of the pie that I had helped establish. It took me a few months, and a few practices, to find this place, but once I did, I stayed. What I didn’t recognize as truly important was the people that I shared my professional life with. I had been too self-absorbed in trying to become a great practitioner to understand the importance of a place of belonging. When all else was turning into a catastrophe soup (and yes, these days are ahead regardless of where you go), I had a group of people who supported, cared for and saved me.

I have always been a veterinarian. From my earliest thoughts and actions, I was meant to be a part of this profession. I suspect most of us are this way. I was all passion, some training, and dedication in limitless bundles. What I learned is that patients come and go, your place in their lives, (albeit incredibly important) is also transient. What is not transient, what grows and motivates, and moves you into legendary, is the impact you have on those around you. What has defined legacies of the veterinarians before you, (and perhaps the veterinarians who helped get you here), is the other stuff vet med brings to your life.

Your perfect place is out there. It will grow with you, evolve because of you and be better because you are a part of it. Finding that place out of the gate will take some self-introspection, some questions you may not be able to answer fully yet, and courage.

Here are some of the insider employer secrets;

1.       If it is all about the money you will leave vetmed heartbroken/bankrupt. There are sharks among us who are here because of the money. VC’s are circling and capturing veterinarians in record numbers. You are a cog in their money-making machine. You can justify a small, transient existence among them, but you will sacrifice something along the way you will regret. Money does that. There are limitless lucrative possibilities here, but know who’s terms you are making them upon.

2.       A contract always benefits the house. Don’t sign anything. You don’t have to, and it doesn’t protect you outside of a short period of time. Everything in life is negotiable.  No one has any business influencing your heart and soul. Walk away. You need to learn this lesson early. It is ok to say no. You have a voice and a responsibility to yourself, your patients, and clients (occasionally). A non-compete, and/or gag-order are hard NO’s IMO for me. Period.

3.       Never sell yourself short. We are all growing and learning and there is beauty and strength in this.

4.       Promise yourself you will be honest from minute one day one. You can admit to anything and be ok. I promise that.

5.       Always remind yourself of your WHY. Know WHY you are here and never stray. You know what it took to get here, and never abandon that person.

6.       Have fun every single day. Nothing is more valuable than joy. (Purpose is a close second).

7.       Remember that mentoring is so much more than medicine. It is also mentoring for success in every avenue that makes you YOU.

If you truly find an advocate, they care about you without caring about how it benefits them. Vetmed was founded on this.

If any part of this resonates with you, or if you want to learn more about how we practice you can find me anytime at my email, or our social media sites. kmagnifico12@gmail.com or Jarrettsville Veterinary Center, Jarrettsville Maryland. New grads, interns, wanderers, curiosity seekers, surgery exposure, or good-deed-doers are always welcome. We have housing, no contracts, no emergency calls, zero tolerance, and hard-won cases that heal every bad day in great abundance. We never practice economic euthanasia and we never break hearts, hope, or good intentions.

Jarrettsville Veterinary Center

more on us here; Jarrettsville Veterinary Center Facebook

Jarrettsville Veterinary website, here

Advice To New Vets. My Top 10.

Pickles prep for neuter. Scabby Katie watches on.

I have owned my clinic, Jarrettsville Veterinary Center, for 12 years. I have hired about a dozen veterinarians in that time. Had anyone ever told me that I would be assessing so many vets over such a short period of time I would have never believed them.

Why we got to where we want to be.
Penny Lane sits pretty for a treat.

I remember vividly sitting in the large senior veterinary student lecture hall days before graduation about to be shoved out of the safe veterinary college nest, ready to test my wings, full of new life, vigor, lust for cases, and hungry to put books skills into real-life cases. We were getting a few last minute words of wisdom from the college Dean, who humble and genuine as he was, had never worked a day in private practice in his long tenured career. He stood above us lecturing on about “the world being our oyster and the horizon limitless.” I’ve no doubt it was the same sending off speech he had given dozens of times before. Each of us sat listening with our bloated with a stomach full of butterflies, the unknown of it all, and the anxiety of change upon us. I had been a college graduate before and I had a small suspicion that I would be heading to some suburb of Maryland to save dogs and cats. I knew myself well enough to whisper out loud that I wanted to own my own practice. Still I listened. Eager for any tidbit of sage advice to stuff in my pockets before I headed North to hang my vet shingle.

The advice I got was about "planning". He reminded us via poetic euphemisms about "picking a path along a road map of dusty dirt packed streets, and, not being afraid to follow previously paved roads established by our elders, and toll road speckled interstates we were about to embark upon." He also illiterated about using the knowledge we had been given, sharing the skills we were still sharpening, and keeping our minds open to new innovations, new advances, and the magic of medicine.

Lucy waits for her next puppy vaccine.
Safely between her mom and aunt.

Now I understand many new graduates probably don’t think much of listening to others advice, but, I should have taken the time to listen. It is tragic that each new generation is doomed to repeat the same mistakes simply because we think we are "too smart to listen." As someone now with an honest degree of private practice credibility I’ll put it into words for you few who might take heed and listen my advice on being the fledgling  about to leave the vet school nest;

1. Be humble. That’s a big one as you march forth with your wet diploma. Your client has a pre-conceived notion of what a great vet is. Humble is a part of that.

2. Be kind to everyone. Even the A-hole you want to drop kick when he yells at you for not giving his “rescued” cat a free neuter. It will pay itself forward I promise. And you will someday look back on all of your accomplishments and realize these cases were the most difficult and the most rewarding.

3. Be true to who you are. You don’t have to be anyone’s veterinarian except your own. In the end, and there is always an end, you will walk away alone. Just like you started.

4. Make decisions with a clear conscious and not an ultimatum from a client or a boss. You will retire with some ghosts and skeletons in your closet. Accept this, and relieve your burdensome conscious by at least knowing that in your heart you did what you thought was right and good, and not influenced by anyone or anything else. Other peoples definition of what or who you are supposed to be are whispers in the dark and rarely guide you in the direction you are meant to travel. If you show fear, doubt, or indifference you will build a persona of being the vet to the one timers. Transient people who make decisions based on coupons in newspaper inserts and will leave you as fast as they arrived.

5. Be brave. If you get out of school feeling a bit overwhelmed, under prepared, and over wrought with expectations, jump in anyway. If you don’t you never will. A year will go by and your reluctance to perform that emergency GDV surgery will become your crutch to refer these cases to specialists. Become a second set of hands to every single surgery that happens under your roof. Put term limits on apprenticeship regardless of the self-doubt and jump in.

6. Be an advocate for something. A rescue organization, a cause, a disease, a political figure, your community, something outside of your family and your paycheck. You will need a pocket full of favors somewhere in life. When life is firing you challenges from the muzzle of an M16 lean on these people. They will be your support and get you through the darkest days. We live in a profession where grief, despair, and suicide lurk. Keep a secret army under your white coat and use them. Your friends need to feel the same sense of purpose and empowerment that we get to feel every day. You save a parvo puppy you feel empowered, share that sense of purpose, let someone save you, it is the meaning of a veterinarian’s life.

7. Understand your clinic’s mission statement. You won’t know which way to paddle if you don’t know where the clinic is trying to go. If every new vet had a clear understanding of this cornerstone of their employers purpose the BS associated with negotiating CE, and every other line item of the employee contract would be avoided. Stop being focused on minutia details like 'modern vet equipment', 'time off', and 'allowances'. If your practice in solely rooted on a profit-loss statement then everything in your professional life will be too. If you are a vet who is more than the practices mission statement move on. A bad fit is never going to be anything at better than a 'tolerable' fit, and even that will at some point become intolerable. You can do better.

8. Understand your colleague’s motives. They are your best key to success and enjoyment in practice. Understanding the core of every person affords you the ability to build strong healthy relationships. You don't all have to be great at everything, but, it is super helpful if you are diverse in skill sets and work like a team. Not everyone can be the lead singer, or quarterback.

9. Understand your bosses perspective. You will be asked to make decisions when they are not around. Ask for guidance as often as you can so you can make the split second decisions solo when the time comes.

10. Don’t burn any bridges. This is a small tight knit community and word gets around. People will respect you for being opinionated but never vindictive or maniacal.

And when all fails, find a critter to love.
One of our TNR kittens sums it all up.

Related Posts;
Why Would I Hire You? My rant on hiring a technician.

Compassion Fatigue. When the candle you are burning at both ends consumes you.

Taking A Stand And Facing Consequences. 

If you have a pet question you can find me on Pawbly.com. I am happy to answer any pet related question, or you can assist others in their pet care needs by contributing your time and expertise. We are always free to use. If you would like to learn more about us you can find us online at JarrettsvilleVet.com, on Twitter @FreePetAdvice, or on Facebook, where we have inspiring stories about pets and vet life. I also have a YouTube channel where I discuss cases, conditions, and what to do if your pet needs help.