Compared to many other professions, veterinary science is not what you would call a high performer on the salary front. Depending on who you ask, vet wages fall somewhere between that of a plumber and a hat rack. But is this necessarily true? Over the 20-odd years of my career I’ve met a lot of... Continue Reading →
You, young doctor or nurse, living in your privileged society of excess, with your years of study and work in an industry that exists largely to minimise animal suffering, have certain expectations of what ‘taking care of an animal’ looks like. This is not a standard achievable by many. Suffering and death will come... Continue Reading →
Photo courtesy of Michael Weinhardt Photography: So Many Other Things. At work, as in life, what we think largely determines how we feel, and how we feel becomes how we act and interact. Through our actions and interactions we put out a certain energy into the world that those around us will absorb and radiate... Continue Reading →
Regardless of how well you conduct yourself and how thorough you are in your work, it's inevitable that you’ll occasionally be on the receiving end of a client complaint. This will always suck. When someone criticises you it is very natural to feel a strong negative emotional response. The emotional control centres of your brain interpret criticism... Continue Reading →
In a previous post, we looked at how to think about making mistakes, and how to not let the fear of mistakes stop us from extending ourselves. But what do we do when what we fear has happened? When you’ve done something, or didn’t do something, and the outcome for your patient has not been... Continue Reading →
You can spend a lifetime learning about communication. Countless books, online resources, coaches and entire university degrees are readily available to educate and inform. Unfortunately most of us don’t have spare lifetimes to commit to this, meaning that the active improvement of communication skills often get relegated to ‘something I’ll do later.’ Yet the... Continue Reading →
It’s the weekend. You’ve had a challenging week at work, but you coped, and it’s over. You’re sitting in the sun with a few friends at your local pub relaxing with a drink when your phone lights up: work calling. A small crack appears on the edge of your previously contented state of mind.... Continue Reading →
Google tells me that the edge of the universe is expanding outwards at 68 kilometres per second per megaparsec. To clarify: a parsec equals 3.26 million light years, and a megaparsec equals a million parsecs. Get it? Me neither, but suffice to say that it’s faster than the speed of light. NASA’s Solar Probe... Continue Reading →
Somewhere in an old diary of mine, wedged in between ‘phone blood results for Spotty Jones’ and ‘book ute for a service’ on my to-do-list these words are scribbled: “If not this, then what the fuck?!?!?!?!” I suspect this pretty much sums up what you feel? Like you, and like so many countless other vets,... Continue Reading →
I was sixteen or seventeen. It was late on a Saturday night, and I was lazily flicking through channels like only a teenager can when I stumbled upon an interesting looking movie. I never did catch the title and I’ve long forgotten the plot, but it featured a young boy of about 13 years... Continue Reading →
