“Change is the only constant”- Truth Potato
If you haven’t experienced the Truth Potato I highly recommend it. Sometimes we need little truth bombs placed throughout our days to realize what is most important. Change is really the only constant in life. As part of a veterinary community we all experience change in our daily work life. Change is scary. Change is hard. Change is complicated.
At this moment I am going through a major change. I have been working for the same clinic for the past six years since graduating from veterinary school. Together the clinic and I have been through many changes like personnel changes, renovations, new technology, and new leadership. But now my husband and I have decided to make a change and move closer to a big city, which means leaving my current job.
Yes, I’m a little scared. Yes, I’m fairly nervous. But change is the only constant in our lives and in an ever-changing field we must embrace the change or get left behind.
In the veterinary field, we have all been faced with many changes. Every couple of years a treatment plan falls out of favor only to be back in favor in another few years. Yearly we go to conferences to learn the most recent updates in medical treatments for conditions we deal with daily.
On a smaller scale as a veterinary clinic, we go through changes in technology and protocols. What once was simple and easy will eventually get replaced with something else that may not seem as simple at first. Change happens and how we respond to that change will either allow us to succeed or fail.
We all have seen it. I’ve been through a few clinics that transitioned from a written appointment book to using the computer. I even went through a transition from a DOS system to a Windows-based system.
Or maybe your clinic went from hand-dipped radiographs to an electronic system. It’s amazing how easy or hard the transition can be depending on how you and your team approach it. There are the people who are excited because they want to see the clinic become more efficient and make things easier. And then there are the people who complain… for years… about how great the written appointment book was or how terrible the computers are now.
These people don’t really want the clinic to fail, but their approach to change is making it harder for the clinic to succeed. These people eventually get left behind. I get it. Change is scary. But as a whole, we have to realize that this change is happening with or without us on board. And getting in the way of that change can make your life and work-life harder than it has to be.
I’m a realistic person. I’ve never really had my head in the clouds or been a super optimistic person. But when it comes to change I think we all need to take a more optimistic look at things.
We need to not get stuck in our ways- especially in this medical field. We need to stop doing things just because we have always done it that way. We need to embrace new vaccination protocols and anesthesia medications. We need to continue to improve our pain control for patients. We need to continue to improve our technology and efficiency for our clients and patients. We need to strive to be better and change.
Don’t worry- I’m still scared about the changes in my life but I’m embracing them for what they are- exciting, new, and a step forward. Don’t let yourself or your team hurt your future. Change is going to happen- it is the only constant.
