Episode 198 | The First Five Years (critical reminders for newer grads & those who work with them)

In this episode, Dr. Cari Wise addresses the challenges faced by new graduates in their first five years of practice, emphasizing the importance of self-acceptance and the gradual development of confidence and skills. 

Dr. Wise highlights the need for patience and practice in areas such as client communication, case management, and decision-making. She advises against comparing oneself to more experienced colleagues and stresses the creation of a supportive environment for personal growth. 

The episode also discusses the detrimental effects of self-criticism, fear, and unrealistic expectations on veterinary professionals. Dr. Wise promotes compassion, self-reflection, and a positive work culture to ensure wellbeing and success in the field. 

Key Takeaways:

  1. Challenges for New Graduates: New veterinary graduates face significant challenges in their first five years of practice, including building confidence and skills.
  2. Importance of Self-Acceptance: Dr. Cari Wise emphasizes the importance of self-acceptance and acknowledges that developing proficiency takes time.
  3. Patience and Practice: Key areas requiring patience and practice include client communication, case management, and decision-making.
  4. Avoid Comparisons: New professionals should avoid comparing themselves to more experienced colleagues to foster personal growth.
  5. Negative Impact of Self-Criticism: Self-criticism, fear, and unrealistic expectations can negatively affect both new and seasoned veterinary professionals.
  6. Advocacy for Compassion and Positive Culture: Dr. Wise advocates for compassion, self-reflection, and cultivating a positive work culture to ensure well-being and success.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

This transcript is auto-generated and may contain typos.

Hi there. I’m Doctor Cari Wise, veterinarian, certified life coach and certified quantum human design specialist. If you’re a veterinary professional looking to up level your life and your career, or maybe looking to go in an entirely new direction, then what I talk about here on the Joyful DVM podcast is absolutely for you. Let’s get started. Hello my friends. Welcome back to the Joyful DVM podcast. In today’s episode, we’re going to be talking about the first five years of veterinary practice.

And this episode is going to be important for those newer grads and everybody who works with them. So let’s go ahead and jump in. The first five years of veterinary practice are the time in our careers where we are learning to develop our own style and this is really important for us to know. So whether you are a veterinarian or veterinary technician, once you have graduated from your program and earned your credential, you are already qualified to do your job.

So let’s make sure that we remember that you are qualified to do your job. How do we know this? We know this because you have taken the exam and you’ve gained the licensure from the only authority that has the ability to decide whether or not you are qualified and you’ve already passed that test, so to say. So you are qualified. It’s okay to just accept that as truth.

Now what we need to understand is once you get out into the practice of veterinary medicine, you’re going to start implementing what you have learned and you have not seen every type of case that you’re going to encounter. There’s no way that by the time that you graduate from any program that you will have been exposed to all the different types of things that you will be exposed to once you’re out there in the clinical practice of veterinary medicine.

This is really important for us to realize, and I know it sounds very obvious, but in the moment, once you get out into practice, you’re going to forget that part because your brain is going to take over and you’re going to start comparing yourself to other people. So when you are the newer grad, whether you are brand new, this is your first job. You’re just in the first few weeks or a few months of that job or you’ve been out a year or two, I want you to start to pay attention to how you are comparing the way that you approach cases and the skills that you have, the psychomotor skills you have to those people who have been working in the profession longer.

And notice when you compare you probably aren’t coming out on the upside of that comparison. You’re probably not concluding that you are better. More than likely, if your brain works like most of our brains works, you’re concluding that you are less than or that you are not good enough. This really comes into play when we notice how fast some people are able to do things. So how quickly they work through cases, how quickly they get through appointments.

And what we want to know and what we need to understand is that picking up our speed in any kind of job is simply the result of having done the things over and over and over again. We develop our own style. We develop our own automatic ways of interacting. And when you’re brand new, you don’t have any of that built up yet. You don’t have enough reps to have the strength in those areas.

It’s not that you’re weak. It’s just that you haven’t had the time yet to develop your own style. What I can promise you is that six months from now, the way that you talk about things with clients is going to feel so much easier. So this is just one of the areas that I want to make sure that we understand. Client communication those first few months when you’re in veterinary practice is really hard, and even those first few years.

But as you get used to saying the same things as you really kind of hone in on how you want to describe certain situations, how you want to make different recommendations, then you will just start having those conversations without having to put a lot of mental thought into it in advance. Those conversations will start to feel much less awkward. But the only way to get there is to go right through the middle of it.

You have to practice. Remember, this is the practice of veterinary medicine. So talking to a client about preventive care recommendations, or a spay surgery, or diagnostic testing for a potential medical condition, or talking about the diagnosis itself, those conversations will take you longer as a newer graduate than it will 510 15 2030 plus years from now. By the time you get that much experience under your belt, you’re going to be able to have those conversations much more confidently, much more swiftly, and much more succinctly.

Comparing yourself to the ability to have that conversation today, to somebody who works in your practice, who’s been having those conversations for years or even decades, that is really unfair to both of you because you’re comparing yourself today as a newer graduate to where they are with years and years of experience under their belts. That doesn’t mean that they’re better than you are. It just means that they are in a different place.

And that’s okay. You will get to that place as well when you’ve given yourself enough time. As we consider this, it goes beyond just conversations. So we think about different cases that we manage. And one of my favorite examples to give is the first time that you diagnose and manage a diabetic case, that first time that you do it, you get that diagnosis, you’re going to feel a little bit nervous.

All of a sudden. You’ve got to come up with a treatment plan for how you’re going to approach the management of diabetes in this animal. You’re going to have to have a conversation with the client about what managing a diabetic patient looks like and what their options are on how they want to proceed. And some clients are going to decide they don’t want to, and that’s fine as well.

But having those conversations for the first time is going to feel uncomfortable. You’re going to feel a little bit anxious about it, and it is going to take you forever to come up with what you want to say and how you want to approach the case. My friends, this isn’t a problem. This isn’t a problem at all because you know that this animal has diabetes. You’ve been able to diagnose that, and now you know, in general how you’re going to approach this.

Perhaps you’re going to approach this one with insulin, depending on the species and the presentation. But let’s just say you’ve drawn the conclusion that this animal needs insulin. Now you need to decide what type. Now you need to decide how much. Then you have to decide what frequency and then when do you want to see them back for a recheck, and what are those rechecks going to entail?

I’m not listing all this stuff out to overwhelm you. I’m just wanting to show you that all of these different decisions are going to be made by you as part of the process of managing this case. The first time that you do this, this is going to feel overwhelming, because here you are managing this for yourself. For the first time, you’re going to doubt yourself. You’re going to wonder if you’re making the right decisions.

And I promise you that you are going to lean into your training and you’re going to make decisions and you’re going to follow up exactly the way that you’re supposed to. It’s going to be fine, but it’s okay to feel afraid as you go through that. And it’s okay if it takes longer than you think that it should take. Where we get into trouble is when we look at ourselves trying to manage a diabetic case and we compare ourselves to a veterinarian who’s been out for decades, who’s like, oh, that animal has diabetes.

We’re going to start it on this insulin at this amount, and I’m going to see him back on this day. And they go in, they have a conversation with the owner. It takes ten or 15 minutes, and off they go to the next case. And we’re like 2 hours into trying to figure out how to do this. And we’re concluding that we suck, that we’re too slow, that we should be better at this.

My friends, you’re not. The reason that a veterinarian is quicker dealing with some of these cases than you are is not because they’re smarter and not because they’re better. It’s simply because they have more practice under their belts. That first diabetic case that you manage, it’s going to be stressful. You are going to feel overwhelmed. You’re going to feel like it’s taking too long. You’re probably going to feel like you’re running behind on everything else.

You’re going to feel like the conversation with the owner is awkward. You’re going to be insecure. It’s all normal. That’s the part of veterinary medicine that the word practice really represents. This is the practice of veterinary medicine. But the next diabetic case you have, it’s going to be easier. The third one, it’s going to be easier. You get ten or twelve of these underneath your belt. You’re going to be speeding right through them.

Like that veterinarian that you’re comparing yourself to on day one. This is the process. This is how you start to find your way and find your groove in veterinary medicine. So no matter what the situation is, whether it is a case that you are managing a case, you’re trying to diagnose, whether it is a procedure, that you’re doing a surgery, I want you to notice that you may be being very hard on yourself, very self judgmental about how fast you are and about how good you are.

And you’re only coming to those conclusions, that you’re not fast enough or good enough because you are comparing yourself to somebody else who has been in the field, who has had the opportunity to practice more than you have. At this point, it is not fair for you to compare yourself today, in the first year or five years, to somebody who’s been out doing these things for ten or 15 or 20 years or more.

That is not fair at all. And there’s no need to do that. You’re not expected to be at a six year level in year one. Now, for those of you who are practice owners. Or anybody who’s working with a newer graduate. You’ve got to keep this in mind as well. Because after you get years of experience under your belt. Even two, three, four years under your belt. The way that you approach things is much different than it was in your first year.

You are much more comfortable in your own skin. You are much more confident in your own communications. And your diagnostics. And your approaches to cases. But if you don’t remember where you started. If you then compare the performance and the work of your newer grads. To the level that you are at now. Then you are going to set them up to fail. Because you’re going to be overly judgmental and critical of them.

And you’re not going to give them the opportunity. To learn how to practice veterinary medicine. My friends, they are qualified to do their jobs. We just need to create supportive environments. To allow them to go through the normal journey. Of learning to practice veterinary medicine. We can support them in being there for them with their questions. We don’t need them to do everything exactly the same way that we do it.

After all, this is the practice of veterinary medicine. Which by definition, reminds us that there are a million ways to get from point a to point b. They get to develop their own style. They get to practice how they want to practice. But we can still create a supportive environment for them to do that. We can encourage them. We can help point them in the right direction. When they have those questions.

But if we hover over them. And if we are hypercritical of them. And if we are looking at what they do. And we’re criticizing everything, the decisions that they make. Or we’re questioning everything in a negative way. Then that’s just going to build more fear for them. And it’s not going to build their confidence. And that often is us forgetting that they are qualified to do this job.

Because they do have a license. And it is also us acting out of our fear. We are afraid of how we are going to be impacted. If they quote unquote, screw up. There’s no area for grace and compassion there. Or any other learning. And we forget that veterinary medicine is a bit of an art form. It takes some time to develop the skills to actually practice veterinary medicine.

The book part was the easy part. Now we have to put it into play, put it into practice. And if we set up an environment where they are afraid to screw up because they’re already afraid, but if they’re afraid to screw up, they’re afraid that you’re going to be hypercritical of them or you’re going to yell at them, then their ability to find their own way to build their own confidence is really going to be minimized.

They are really going to feel constricted in that way. So it’s important for us as people who have been out in the profession for a long time, to remember what it was like to be a new grad and not from a resentful. Well, I just had to learn on the fly. Well, I was just left to my own devices. Well, I just had to figure it out. Don’t get a chip on your shoulder and be egotistical about it.

That doesn’t help anybody. I know there are many of us out there who were kind of thrown to the wolves when we first got out into practice, and that was just the way that it was. But that doesn’t mean that that’s the way that it always has to be. Just because some of us feel like we had to pay our dues early on doesn’t mean we have to set up an environment for our newer grads where they have to pay their dues in some way.

That doesn’t help them at all. It doesn’t help our profession, and it certainly doesn’t build culture within our hospitals. So we want to make sure that we are aware of our own egos whenever we’re interacting with newer grads, are we so afraid of how their behaviors and their work is going to impact us, that we aren’t there to support them or encourage them or to be a resource that they can come to.

Are we actually not creating a supportive environment because we are too stuck in our own fear? We have to be willing to look at ourselves and look at the way that we’re interacting with our newer grads, our newer associates, because if we don’t create an environment where they feel welcome, then they’re not going to stay and we’re going to turn around and we’re going to blame it on things like their work ethic or say they’re just princess millennials or whatever other little catchphrase you want to use.

But the truth of it is that people don’t want to be in environments where they don’t feel supported, where they don’t feel encouraged. And I’m not saying we have to do a bunch of hand holding. But we need to create an atmosphere where it’s okay for them to practice veterinary medicine, where we are there as a resource for them so they can come to us with questions, without having a fear around our responses, without being.

Feeling like we are judging them harshly, and that we are just waiting for them to screw up. And as much as many of you are going to hear me say that, and you’re going to say, oh, that’s not what I do. I want you to really be honest with yourself and ask yourself, is it what you do? Now, I’m not trying to be judgmental here. I just want us to create awareness and understand that this practice of veterinary medicine is something that is built over time.

Confidence in our ability to practice veterinary medicine is built over time. And I know I spent a lot of time in this episode talking about veterinarians, but it’s the same for veterinary technicians, our veterinary technicians, who are new graduates, newly credentialed technicians, they still need that atmosphere to build their skillset. They’ve learned a lot as far as it comes to book knowledge, and they have done a lot as far as psychomotor skills that’s required to become credentialed.

But does that mean that they are 100% flawlessly proficient in every single thing that they learned? No, but then neither are you. So creating an atmosphere for continued learning and practice is really, really important. And with that, keeping our awareness in our perspective and our compassion toward them, to remember they are still, in their first few years of practice, they are still growing and learning and evolving, and we cannot.

We cannot compare their performance in year one to those people, those technicians who have been in the field for 15 or 20 years. It’s just not fair. So we can’t do it to veterinarians, and we can’t do it to veterinary technicians, because as we continue to evaluate our newer veterinary professionals through an expectation and a level of judgment of what we would expect out of somebody who’s been out over a decade, then we are just going to continue to be critical, to create uncomfortable work environments, to be not supportive, but to be combative with the people that we work with.

And that does not actually help grow the profession at all. It actually contributes to burnout. So you can start to see how this approach to the first five years of veterinary practice has a huge impact on the profession as a whole. Not only do we have newer grads, veterinarians, veterinary technicians, who are being really hard on themselves because they’re believing that they’re supposed to be at the level of veterinary professionals.

Who’ve been out over a decade. So we’ve got all this self judgment and self doubt. That they are stacking onto themselves. Not only is that happening. But then if we are treating them. As if they are supposed to be at that level early in their careers. We are simply reinforcing their greatest fears. And in doing that, we actually are stifling their ability to grow. Their ability to develop their own style.

And to actually become more confident in their professional skills. We also then continue to erode our own veterinary culture. Through that constant comparison and criticism that we. Comparison and criticism that we continue to do. So these first five years. For any veterinary professional. Are really important. Because this is what starts to set the stage and build the confidence. And if we destroy the confidence. Of our younger veterinary professionals in those first five years.

It’s really hard to get those back. And we’ve got to remember that many of our veterinary professionals. Who are coming out into this profession right now. They’re already coming into this profession. Having been beat up on clinics. Or in an internship or a residency. Because, unfortunately, there’s still a lot of bullying. That is happening. Within the academic systems themselves. There’s still a lot of shamed based education, my friends.

That just doesn’t work. It just doesn’t work. And if any of you out there are just thinking, well, they just need to get a tougher skin. They just need to buck up. They just need to have a better work ethic. I want you to step back and recognize that any judgment starts as self judgment. And so you need to take a look at yourself. On where you’re believing that you’re not working hard enough.

That you’re believing that you’re not doing a good enough job. That you don’t have a thick enough skin. That you need to buck up. Where are you believing that you’re being weak. And find some compassion for yourself? Because the one thing that we all have in common. We actually have two things in common. Number one, we’re all human. Which means we’re all here in this human experience together.

The good and the bad. We are in a profession by choice. That we are very passionate about. That comes with some of the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. And the more that we become critical and judgmental of each other. The harder we make this job. And oftentimes, unfortunately, we use criticism as a coping mechanism. To deflect the areas where we feel insecure. The other place thing that we have in common.

Is that we actually do care about animals, my friends. And that’s the point of all of this, right? To be able to help people and to take care of animals. If we can remember what we have in common, then maybe we can have a little bit more compassion for ourselves. And that compassion really has to start with our own self compassion. We have compassion with ourselves first before we have the capacity to have compassion for others.

So if you find yourself being very hypercritical, we have to take a step back and be like, where am I judging myself so harshly? Where am I not allowing myself to be human? Where am I expecting myself to be perfect instead of allowing myself to practice? The more that we are honest with ourselves. About what we experience in the first five years of veterinary practice, the greater the possibility that we are going to create supportive and long term environments.

For our veterinary teams. This job is sustainable only to the extent that our well being is sustainable. And when we start right out of the gate. Either destroying our own self, our own sense of well being, because we are so self critical, or destroying the well being of those people around us because we are critical of them, then we really decrease the overall sustainability of this profession as a whole.

So, my friends, as you go through the next few weeks, if you are a newer veterinary professional, so somebody who’s been out in practice for only the first five years, then I want you to really lean into your own self compassion. And I want you to know that you are exactly where you’re supposed to be. And even if it feels like you’re walking through muddy, even if it feels like it’s not getting easier, you are making so much more progress than you realize.

You are not even going to see how much progress that you’re making. You’re not even realizing. And you can give yourself some time to reflect back. And just start to notice how much easier it is to talk about things like preventive care. Or the benefits of a dog’s pay, or heartworm disease and prevention. It is so much easier to talk about those things even three or four months into your profession than it is in the first month.

So give yourself the opportunity to go back and to look at all the things that you’re finding easy now. Instead of focusing on the things that still feel hard. And as you can find, the evidence of the things that are easier today than they were at the beginning. That’s your proof that the things that are hard today are going to get easier. The more that you practice. And for those of you who have been in the profession for a while, who are having the opportunity to work with some of these newer grads.

I am just going to encourage you to be supportive, to be compassionate, to be a resource for them, and to remember that we are all in this together, that the way that this job is sustainable is through positive and supportive environments. Because there are parts of this profession that we will never be able to control the highs and the highs and the lows and the lows. We will never be able to control the clients.

We will never be able to control the patient outcomes. And beating our support staff up, beating our associate veterinarians up as part of that process to try to manage our own stress level is not going to improve anything. The more critical we are of our support staff and our associates, that just simply shows us where we are still trying to control patient outcomes and client behavior through perfection of the people who we work with.

And that is never going to be the route to those things because you cannot be perfect enough to guarantee that patients always get better and that clients are always happy. That’s not how this works. So instead, let’s work on solidifying our teams, building supportive environments, helping each other wherever we can, extending unlimited compassion, and remembering every single day that this is the practice of veterinary medicine. Because when we allow ourselves the compassion needed to practice day in and day out, not only do our skills and our customer service improve, but our quality of life improves right alongside it.

If the things I shared in today’s episode really resonate with you, I will encourage you to check out Vetlife Academy. Jump over to joyfuldvm.com vetlifeacademy to learn how you can take control of your veterinary life and your well being, no matter what happens at work or in the world. All right, my friends, that’s going to wrap it up for this episode. I’ll see you soon. Bye for now.

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