What Are You Grateful For?November 26, 2014Hard to believe it’s THAT time of year again—time to rake the leaves, prepare the feast, and remember what we are thankful for in our lives. Years ago, I bought these little foam trees, and the idea was to write something you are thankful for on a leaf, and attach it to the tree. I’ve shared this tradition with my family for many years, and it occurs to me, why not apply this activity of thankfulness with our work “family.” Despite the tough days, hissing cats and snapping clients, we all have things we are thankful for, or else we wouldn’t keep coming to work! So get your team thinking about being thankful. One idea is to make a cut-out of a big tree to tape on a wall in the back, and provide cut-out leaves to fill the tree (along with some brief instructions to keep it clean!). Among the many things I am and have been grateful for in my career, here are a few to get your wheels turning (in no particular order): Thankful that I HAVE a job, when there are others out there without employment. Thankful for a boss that listens to my ideas, at least …
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How Can Skyscrapers Be So Tall?November 10, 2014As I was admiring some futuristic skyscrapers in San Diego during the last ACVS meeting this October 2014, I was reminded of a fascinating documentary* on that very topic. Without the seven following engineering breakthroughs, we would not be able to build extravagantly tall towers. 1. Elevator The most obvious advancement is the elevator, which appeared in the 19th century. Architects knew that in order to make taller buildings, people needed a way to climb higher. To resolve this issue, the elevator was invented. The problem with the elevator’s prototype was that, if the rope suddenly broke, there was nothing to stop if from falling down. In 1854, a mechanic named Elisha Otis (yes, same as the company) created a safety device that would stop the elevator from falling. Should the hoisting cable snap, the wagon would securely lock into metal prongs along the sides of the lift. 2. Steel The next problem to solve was that preventing taller (i.e. heavier) buildings made of stone from sinking into the ground. When the triangular Flatiron building (87 m tall) was created in New York City, architects used steel columns and beams to develop a steel skeleton—which was thin and light enough …
Membership Drive a Big Success for Vet Tech GroupOctober 31, 2014Hoping to reel in 200 new members in October, the National Association for Veterinary Technicians in America (NAVTA) may have hooked thousands. The hugely successful membership drive was bankrolled by Merial Ltd., which donated $10,000 toward the effort and followed up with an additional $11,000 as the applications flooded in. “Within the first 48 hours, we far exceeded our established goal,” said Julie Legred, CVT, the executive director of NAVTA. “We are thrilled with the outcome we’ve seen so far and look forward to continued success from the digital membership offering.” 犀利士 NAVTA had about 12,000 members before October. “We received over 5,000 memberships during National Veterinary Technician Week and with the Merial offer,” Legred said. “We are still sorting through those received as to the number of those that are new and the number that are renewals. “It is very common for us to receive memberships at this time of year, but not at the pace they came in during that week, and the Merial offer certainly drove them in,” she added. “It will be very interesting to see how many of those that came in are new members.” Merial paid for …
Clearly Compassion FatigueOctober 29, 2014As some of you know, I am big into the topic of compassion fatigue. In fact, some of you may be fatigued from hearing me talk about it! When I speak on the topic, I unashamedly admit that I am the “poster child” for compassion fatigue. Some of my wounds have healed, leaving the tender scar tissue. Many more still remain, some of them irritating scratches, like paper cuts. You know the kind: they can be the smallest little slit, but it hurts like crazy. And yes, I have some big, gaping wounds that I know will likely never heal. When it comes to compassion fatigue, I have literally “been there, done that.” I think I finally realized how deep some of these wounds are when I was stopped dead in my tracks by the annual Compassion Fatigue conference in Kingston, Ontario. I began my training on CF up in Kingston with a private firm, and then extended my learning by attending two of the annual conferences. Typically they have presentations from different lines of work that can suffer from compassion fatigue, such as mental health providers, humanitarian organizations, even the “human” medical field. It’s funny, well OK, sad, that I …
Balance Out Your Team's Strengths and WeaknessesOctober 23, 2014Do you hear what I hear? It’s okay if you don’t. As you know, there are all kinds of people in veterinary medicine. We all have our strengths, and we all have our weaknesses … when we’re honest with ourselves. When you put a variety of people together in the workplace, it would be ideal if the strengths and weaknesses created a complete picture, like different puzzle pieces, working together to create an image. I was talking to “my good friend, Val” and she was taking this concept one step further — to employee development, performance evaluations and job fit. This is sorta how it goes. We take a person who has their own set of strengths and weaknesses, and let them loose at the practice. What they do good in, great, “no news is good news” is often the management tool we use when things are going well. That’s because if you do something wrong, you WILL hear about it. This could be an informal conversation, or it could occur during the annual performance evaluation (you’ve got that, right?). Val’s point is, we take someone and say very little about what they do well, but spend an awful lot of …
How To Avoid Sad SupervisorsOctober 21, 2014This past month, I had the pleasure of speaking to the Wisconsin Veterinary Technician Association at their annual meeting in Madison. It was an impressive group, with more than 450 techs in attendance. I was focusing, as so often I do, on the non-medical topics such as client communication, human resources and compassion fatigue. One of my favorite lectures was titled, “Moving to Management.” In my own personal experience, management was not so much a conscious decision, as it was a gradual taking on management-type duties over time until, guess what, you’re the supervisor now! From others I’ve spoken with, this is most often what happens, and it can be dangerous for both the practice and the person who has unknowingly taken on a management position. The way it happens is fairly simple. The boss gets busy — they have too many people and not often time to manage them, so they start delegating duties. They pick someone from the practice team, and usually it is either the “best” technician or front-office person, or the one that has been around the longest. They are marked for management without any real offer presented for discussion. Then, the supervisor is virtually alone, …
Why You Shouldn’t Skimp on Quality ControlOctober 13, 2014Originally published in the September 2014 issue of Veterinary Practice News Advances in diagnostic equipment for veterinarians continue to be made. There’s a lot to be positive about, but a number of experts point to concerns about practitioners being over-reliant on technology and not performing adequate quality control. Manufacturers of diagnostic equipment years ago started out with hematology and chemistry units that were a bit awkward, but over time they have become easier to use, more efficient and can offer more results, noted Brent Hoff, DVM, DVSc, Dipl. Tox. The makers of the new equipment have been “a little too good to the veterinarians,” he said, in that there’s now a pervasive notion that veterinarians can just run these machines without a great deal of forethought and training, said Dr. Hoff, a clinical pathologist and clinical toxicologist at the Animal Health Laboratory at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. “The companies haven’t been [consistently] good at pointing out that these point-of-care pieces of equipment really need some quality assurance and quality control for there to be valuable results,” Hoff said. Linda M. Vap, DVM, Dipl. ACVP, also worries about quality control. “I am concerned about the number of places …
Are you a SuperTech?October 10, 2014I have been very fortunate to work with some good technicians. Sometimes, I have the pleasure of working with technicians who are exceptionally great at what they do. They just get it. They are the few. The proud. The SuperTechs. In honor of National Technician Week, here are 20 characteristics of this rare breed of technician. 1) They are improvers. SuperTechs always try to improve the “system.” They constantly and spontaneously look for ways to make things better and more efficient. SuperTechs solve problems that you didn’t even know you had. For example, without prompting, SuperTechs will redesign your operating room and make it magically look much more spacious. 2) They are lifesavers. SuperTechs keep you out of trouble. When you treat a 4-month-old dog with an infected bite wound that would benefit from enrofloxacin, SuperTechs gently remind you that it may cause cartilage damage. 3) They have superpowers. SuperTechs use secret superpowers to feed the stubbornly anorexic, tame Cujo and restrain the most fractious of cats. Phil Zeltzman, DVM, Dipl. ACVS, CVJ Are you a super vet tech? 4) They are perfectionists. I once agreed to euthanize a surgery patient on the table if the suspected tumor had metastasized throughout …
Ch-Ch-ChangesOctober 8, 2014 #86495329 / gettyimages.com Often I wonder what it would feel like to be really old, and to know how the world was 70, 80, 90 years ago … so much has changed. Even in my lifetime, only moderately old, I can see change all around me. Take for instance, work. My dad’s generation was a “career” generation, where a person (usually a man back then) would settle into a company and see his career all the way through with that same company, comfortably retiring when “really old” hits. Contrast this to today’s generation, when the people entering the workforce (and now it’s about equal, men and women) are not out to make a career necessarily with one company. Instead of the “career” generation, this generation is more like “live and let live” … they are more apt to change employers multiple times, sometimes just in one decade, and follow their skills and interests wherever they may take him or her. They are more focused on what they want to do when they are OFF work, than sometimes what they’re supposed to do AT work. This means big …
Error of OmissionSeptember 12, 2014Usually, when we get in trouble for something, it is because we DID something. An error of omission is different, though, because the trouble is about the thing you did NOT do that you should have! It can often take the shape of delivering less than stellar common courtesy to others. For example, we had a fence installed around our backyard (so our dogs could run “free” … Joy just keeps eating the plants, and Georgie has since become blind—well, technically “eyeless” with surgical removal of both—so I’m not sure we met our expectations), but that’s a different story. Anyways, the fence company needed to make a return trip toward the end of the installation to permanently affix the three gates. They told me, upon leaving the first day, to expect them the next. Fortunately, I work at home so I did NOT have to take the day off to meet them but, nonetheless, they never showed. I called their office, asked when they WILL be at my house, and mentioned to the phone representative that it would have been nice to have at least gotten a call, so I wasn’t waiting around all day. She did seem sorry. However, …
