There I Said It

Why You- Yes, You- Should Have a Clinic Blog

July 4, 2016 by Jessica Vogelsang DVM

This post is sponsored by Merial.

Once upon a time, in a long-ago place where you could still find rotary phones and mustard yellow was an acceptable color to wear, people found veterinary clinics using a vast dusty tome known as the yellow pages. They would peruse the various rectangular ads, settle on one based on little more to go on than a name and logo, and actually pick up the phone to call you with any questions.

Oh, how times have changed.

Beginning in the mid-90s, the vast and depthless internet began to integrate itself into our lives, and society was forever altered. It took some people longer than others to catch on, particularly when it came to their businesses, and those who stubbornly continued to pour their advertising dollars into the yellow pages were quickly left in the dust. Let’s assume that since you are here online reading this piece on a site run by an internet veterinary powerhouse, you are not one of them. You are one of those people who sees the value in the limitless control over your branding offered by the world wide web. But does this include a blog?

As recently as 2009, the idea of a veterinary blog was met with incredulous smirks from both colleagues and businesses, who assumed I simply sat at home and photographed my dog wearing silly costumes. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that- now people who photograph their dogs wearing costumes have a million followers on Instagram® and book deals.) I simply smiled and plowed on, sure that history would vindicate me. It did.

Gradually, those same people came to understand that there was both value and necessity in creating an internet presence for businesses. It came with a lot of moaning and groaning, mostly from people who protested that they didn’t know how to write, or didn’t have time to write in a busy clinic, or both. They’d churn out a bland post about heartworm disease prevention statistics and then, when it bombed, point to it as an example of why blogging was a waste of time.

Well sure it is, if that’s how you do it.

The truth is, blogging and blogging well are two entirely different things, and it’s easy to get caught up in the minutiae of a constantly evolving vernacular: SEO, bounce rates, page rank, content marketing. If you’re marketing your clinic, you should be aware of what these are, but to me the golden rule of veterinary blogging has always been this: Create Engaging Content. If you don’t, the rest of those things don’t matter anyway.

Throw away blogging for a second and think instead of cooking. If I’m going to make you a pizza, I can do it lots of ways: in a fancy convection oven, on the grill, over an open flame. Every year there’s a new trendy gadget for your kitchen that may help your cooking technique, but if you’re cooking with bland mealy dough your pizza is going to stink.

Yesterday’s Twitter® is today’s Snapchat®; pressure cookers and toaster ovens that will come and go. Your clinic’s story, however, is the ingredient that never changes. Blogging is how you shape that story.

Regular blogging allows you to be in charge of the image your clinic presents to the world and gives Google® something to deliver when people are searching for you.

If you’re not Hemingway, don’t worry. Writing a good blog is not the same as crafting the Great American Novel; it’s a skill that can be learned, albeit often at a price. You can learn by trial and error, or you can skip that work and have someone train you. Lucky for you, if you’re trying to build that skill set, we know of a free webinar about blogging specifically aimed at the veterinary team.

Merial, the makers of NexGard for dogs® (afoxolaner), has teamed up with internet marketing agency Vertical Measures to present an online marketing webinar series open to all. The next session, Blogging Best Practices, will be presented on three dates: July 7, July 21, and August 11.

The 60-minute webinar is free and open to all. For more information and to register, visit this link: www.verticalmeasures.com/nexgard-merial-webinars/.

If you’ve been dragging your feet on getting a blog off the ground, there’s no time like the present. Despite what the old guy with the yellow pages may tell you, we all need to keep up with the times. The effort is well worth it!

There, I Said It: I Survived a Suicide Attempt

May 12, 2016 by Jessica Vogelsang DVM

Hands writing on old typewriter over wooden table background — By Anonymous

Welcome to There, I Said It- a column where we give you, the reader, a chance to get something off your chest in an anonymous fashion. Be it embarrassing, frustrating, or just something you didn’t want to admit out loud, it still might make someone else having a bad day feel just a bit better. If you have a story of your own, unburden yourself at TISI@drandyroark.com.

Guest author ANONYMOUS

In 2005, I tried to commit suicide.

If it wasn’t for my dad (who happens to be a veterinarian) I would have been successful. He told the ER physician they did in fact need to treat me for acetaminophen toxicity, and I am so grateful that he did. Today I am a wife and a mom to three beautiful boys. I am thankful, grateful, and as happy as I think anyone really can be with all the stresses life brings.

I never forget what I did. I think about it often and recently, with the publication of a study revealing that 1 in 6 veterinarians have considered suicide, I think about it more often. As part of that statistic, my concern is for those that don’t ask for help. I didn’t, at least not really.

I turned my life upside down, but otherwise I seemed happier then I had been in years. The weekend I attempted suicide was the anniversary of my grandpa’s death and a friend’s suicide. I remember driving home and feeling the urge to just drive off the road…the only reason I didn’t was because my cat was in the car with me and I didn’t want to hurt him. It was a very calm decision, no crying in the car, just calm.

I got into my hometown and drove to two grocery stores, one for a bottle of alcohol, the other for a bottle of Tylenol PM. I arrived home as if it was any other day. That night my family took my grandma out to dinner so she wouldn’t be alone. I said goodbye, but she didn’t know what I really meant because it was expected for me to hug her longer, tell her I love her repeatedly.

The next day, I got breakfast on my own and drove to my grandpa’s grave to write my goodbyes through rushing tears. I arrived home calm and made my parents dinner. Afterwards, they went downstairs to watch a movie and I went upstairs to study for my cardiology exam- which I did for almost two hours before taking a bath with a bottle of wine, a knife, and a bottle of Tylenol PM. I didn’t cut myself because it hurt when I tried so I just took more pills. At some point I crawled out of the bath and got myself into bed.

My mom came upstairs and saw the bottle of wine, not concerned until she saw the knife at the side of the bathtub, then the notes. Then I don’t remember much until I do- the awful taste of acetylcysteine.

I am so thankful I am here. I love my husband and my boys, I am grateful I got to stay alive, to make it through an inner hell that I wasn’t even aware I was in until after. The things I wrote in my letters did not make sense. The whole thing didn’t make sense. The only thing that makes sense is in those moments I was out of my mind, not really aware of what I was doing or what was happening to me. My thoughts were not rational, I was not rational.

Every day I worry, for those that ask for help, but even more for those that don’t. How can you help those that don’t ask or don’t appear to show their pain? I fear for those like me in those moments. How can we really help others like that, like me? Unfortunately, online, we can’t. But we can think about how we could for those in own personal lives, or anyone you see and meet around you.

My hope in sharing my experience is that it might help others understand the illness that is depression. Or that I might reach someone who is on that ledge to say: “I am here, it does get better, what is to come in life is worth this struggle.” To those of you who are lucky enough to not suffer from depression, support those who do even though you may not understand. The conclusion that suicide is an easier choice makes no sense to you because it makes no sense at all. So just be there.

The views and opinions featured on There, I Said It are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the DrAndyRoark.com editorial team. Submissions may be edited for content and clarity.

There, I Said It: I Need Someone to Care For Me

April 15, 2016 by Jessica Vogelsang DVM

Guest author ANONYMOUS

I had a serious mental breakdown the other day, one that I am sure many can relate to.

Let me tell you about me: I am a caretaker. I take care of my family- financially, morally, emotionally, physically. I am the main income earner. I also care for animals and their families at the end of life. I do both things seven days a week.

I also run my own business, am helping run a conference, for which I get no pay, and am a consultant for other veterinarians who need help. I care deeply about each of the things I do. All of my friends will tell you I am the strong, reliable one. I might be a little overextended. I get that.

But I suspect that if you relate, you are too.

Here is where things went wrong…. my father died. I was estranged from him, and so I wasn’t there. It was sudden and, to my surprise, I was overwhelmed with grief. I took two days off after being flattened by the grief. A healthy thing to do, right? Well, not according to one of my clients, who wrote a letter to me with such vitriol it physically hurt me. I continued on, knowing that it was one person, and everyone else still really appreciated me and my help. Then I got sick, really sick. My body’s way of making me stop my addiction to helping. I actually had to turn people away.

But it was the tiniest thing that sent me over the edge: My husband lost his phone. It wasn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last, he has destroyed or lost every cell phone he has ever owned. We got into a fight, because he wanted me to drop everything and buy a new phone for him. That was when it hit me. Like a ton of bricks! I care, and care deeply for every person I meet in life…but who cares for me. Not in the sense of feeling, but actual physical, emotional, spiritual caring. To be cared for.

And that is when I lost it. I didn’t want to care for another human being on the planet. I didn’t want to help any more families or anymore pets. I didn’t want to be on the planet. I was depressed.

I needed to take time for me. Since I am the only one who cares for me. Hard as that is, that is what I need. So I went for a drive. A long drive. I briefly thought about ending it. I understood where people get to. Instead, I am sharing. If you get to this place, this dark side of the force, call for light, find some help.

Caretakers need to be cared for too. You might be so good at caring for others, you have forgotten yourself, forgotten how to care. Ask for help. Not necessarily the help everyone tells you to get, find someone who has been there. Who has hit the bottom, and climbed out, who can be there, just to listen and commiserate. Someone who doesn’t need to fix it for you. If you feel you need professional help, find that too.

I received a gift of a chocolate bar from a stranger at a nail salon. She saw me crying, and listened. She wants to be a caretaker someday. I hope she remembers the crazy vet, who had a mental breakdown and the gift she provided for her.

Tomorrow I have to go back to caring. Today, I am just caring for me.

The views and opinions featured on There, I Said It are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the DrAndyRoark.com editorial team. Submissions may be edited for content and clarity.

There, I Said It: I Was Fired

March 31, 2016 by Jessica Vogelsang DVM

Guest author ANONYMOUS

This is very difficult for me to say: I was fired.

I felt like had let myself down, and my friends and my family. Why me? What will other people think of me? Am I a good veterinary technician? Is this the career choice I want? I had many sleepless nights with a lot of crying. What was I going to do?

I was fired after working only a couple years at a practice. It was my first real job as a veterinary technician, and I was devastated after it happened. I was given statements on why they were firing me that I felt were both mean and untrue. I tried to talk to the owner of the practice, but they refused to hear my side of the story. The decision was final.

I sent dozens of resumes out and got very little response back in my surroundings area. The interviews I went to went terribly and would never be a good fit. I started to look statewide. That meant me having to uproot and look for a new place to live and selling my house. I was scared: What am I going to do financially? Am I going to be able to find a place to rent that will allow me to take a large dog?

I found a part-time job at a retail store to help make ends meet financially. They were very supportive of helping me find a veterinary technician job. I sent out more resumes daily to clinics I found online and clinics that were not advertising they were hiring. I went on more interviews that were not a good fit. I went on some where I felt I would be a great fit, but the positions were part-time and meant I would have to move to that area. I did not want to move for a part-time veterinary technician job with no promise of a full time job.

After keeping at it, I finally got some interviews where I felt confident and thought I would be a great fit. I received a job offer- two, in fact. Now came the hard decision of picking one. I listed out my pros and cons and made my decision.

I started my new job a few weeks ago. My coworkers are fantastic. I feel I am trusted, which is something I never felt at my last practice. The more I look back on my experience of being fired, I feel like it was a blessing. I would not have gotten through it without the support of friends and family. Reading some of these articles produced by anonymous people have also helped.

Sometimes you really do need to go through something horrible in order to find something better waiting for you on the other side. I was fired, and it was a good thing.

[tweetthis]Sometimes you need to go through something horrible to find something better waiting for you[/tweetthis]

The views and opinions featured on There, I Said It are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the DrAndyRoark.com editorial team. Submissions may be edited for content and clarity.

TISI: I Had To Leave a Job Because of the Toxic Atmosphere

March 4, 2016 by Anonymous

My most recent job has left me scarred. It was both the best and worst position I have ever had. I was still working on my certification when I took this position and it was a new and exciting type of medicine to practice. When reading back over the notes I noticed a lot of initials of staff that had come and gone and could not understand why anyone would not want to do this work. There were experienced people around me that I was hoping to learn from as I completed my coursework. The clients were mostly very pleasant and grateful for the services they were receiving. I thought I would be there for many years.

I moved to a new state for this unique job opportunity. When I first took the position I noticed that the staff was at best cordial, but often just cold. They were friendly among themselves but not towards me. I tried to shadow and ask questions to learn but would receive either one-word answers to my questions or just be ignored altogether. I felt anxious as if I was doing something wrong (which is possible since I was just learning this type of practice) but no one would tell me what.

I soon had my own patients and began to learn a routine for myself, and over time my schedule was filling up to the point that I was booked from open to close. Some of my clients were complaining that if they didn’t keep appointments scheduled for at least two weeks ahead that they couldn’t get in to see me. To me this is a sign that I was doing something right, but aside from a text once telling me that I was doing a great job, I got no feedback. There was still very little socialization with the staff, not even normal work conversation, and I felt like a leper. Because I was new to the area and did not have any friends, the loneliness at work began to weigh on me.

After work there was the breakdown of the clinic, laundry and floor cleaning and room organization. Often the staff would hurry to do the minimum and then leave with the intention to finish the rest the following morning before the clients came. Once the staff left I could relax, because the energy would change from heavy and negative to just quiet and peaceful. So it became my routine to finish as much of the clinic chores as I knew how to do (a good hours worth of work after everyone left) and then sit for the next 2 hours doing my notes and looking up the patients for the next day to prepare their treatments. Thus I was working 13-15 hour days routinely.

The staff began to have some light conversation with me about six months after I had been working there, but much of this was used to discuss patients. Every conversation was about something that was wrong or annoying. All this negative talk gave me a constant stomachache. I tried to point out positive things but no one ever had anything nice to say about anyone.

I remember a client who had been with the clinic for years sitting on the floor with her dog one day after we were done. I was cleaning up but eventually, I made my way over to her to see if she needed help. She told me that she was waiting to see the person that she normally worked with because she had decided to euthanize her dog and wanted to say a last goodbye. I sat on the floor with her for about 20 minutes discussing end-of-life issues and euthanasias while she held her baby. Finally, she decided to leave.

Once she left the person she was waiting for came out of the office expressing frustration that she had to “hide” from that client for so long. Her insensitivity towards a longtime client who was wanting to share the last hours of her pet’s life with us was beyond my ability to understand or accept. This was just a minor example of the contempt that the staff seemed to have for the majority of clients and patients.

I finished my coursework and studied for and passed my final, achieving my certification. I was exhausted from the continuous running around all day , the appointments running over, and the draining atmosphere with all the negative and sarcastic conversation. The overall morale in the clinic deteriorated to the point that we reached out to the boss to ask for some encouragement. Instead of the “yea, go team” talk that I expected, the boss expressed anger and frustration at the staff in general.

Instead of having any patience for me or addressing any of the concerns I had about the work situation, I was told that “my therapies were an insult to the other therapists” and that I had been doing a poor job since I had been hired. I asked for specific examples but none could be provided to me. That night my frustration bubbled over and when everyone else left the clinic I stood in the middle of the treatment area and screamed at the top of my lungs. I became certain that if I stayed my health would start to suffer, and so I gave my notice.

I have over a decade of experience as a clinician and yet have never worked so hard to gain approval and be a good employee. This job has left me anxious and insecure. I have been unwilling to even apply for another veterinary job and as a result I am probably going to lose my house. I confess my experience here because I cannot understand how we can have so little care for each other- how employers can have so little care for the employees who are busting their butts making money for them and instead of building the team up, are very content to try to tear them down.

I have experienced this before, but never to the degree that I did in this position. Yes, there are employees who have problems. Yes, there are employees who need a lot of hand-holding. But these are people! How can we claim to love animals so much and be so hurtful to each other? While fear or intimidation can be great motivators, they will not create a sustainable staff and it certainly creates a horrible work environment. I urge everyone to look at the energy that is created in the workplace and see if it is something that you would be proud of. Why should an emotionally abusive work environment be part of the dark side of veterinary medicine?

The views and opinions featured on There, I Said It are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the DrAndyRoark.com editorial team.

There, I Said It: Your Medical Records Stink

February 18, 2016 by Anonymous

“Your medical records stink.”

Yep, I just said that. Right now you may be thinking, “Who is this person and where do they get off being so self-righteous?” Well, have I got news for you. If you are the one thinking these things, then your medical records probably do stink.

You know who you are. You are the one that is two weeks behind on medical records and somehow has the uncanny ability to extract from the nether regions of your brain accurate details of each pet’s comprehensive exam. You are the one that writes a two line history for a pet that presents for vomiting and lethargy for a week. Or maybe you are the one that frequently uses “PE = WNL” for the main body of your medical record.

[tweetthis]If you are the one thinking these things, then your medical records probably do stink.[/tweetthis]

By now, some of you are rolling with laughter and others are just rolling their eyes. You’re part of the problem too, even if you are one who does it right. This type of medical record keeping is so common that everyone shrugs it off. How many times have you been to a veterinary conference and people joke about medical record keeping when really it is not that funny? It is actually shameful.

Think about this for a moment. Everyone learned proper medical record writing in veterinary school. The state VMAs have been recommending and in some cases borderline begging us for almost two decades to put more effort into our medical records and have pretty much waved the white flag.

Uh oh, I know what’s coming. I just heard someone use the most common excuses: “We are still much better than the human side”, “My boss complains that I take too much time”, “I do not get paid enough to stay and finish my records”, or “I am the only one that is ever going to read it”. Any of those sound familiar? They probably do.

So, who is to blame? You are. I am. We all are. Why? Because as individuals, we should have enough pride in our education and skill set to strive to maintain a higher written standard. Because as business managers and owners, we should have enough intestinal fortitude to enforce a standard and lead by example. Because as veterinary medical governing bodies, we should hold businesses and individuals accountable for egregious medical record keeping.

It would not be fair to end this editorial without proposing some solutions. If you are an individual that truly believes in writing thorough medical records and maintaining a standard, do not sacrifice your ethics for others. Ask for time to finish your medical records during your shift. Ask for more “warm bodies” so you can spend less time “doc-teching” and more time completing your medical records. This isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity.

If you are a business manager or owner, you need to have enough respect for medical record standards to enforce them with your veterinarians and hold them accountable. Value your doctors enough to provide them with sufficient staff for them to be able to spend more time on their medical records. Recognize that you may need to sacrifice on your bottom line in order to hire another doctor to create more time for all your doctors to be able to finish their medical records without each one working 60 hour weeks in four days. And, if you are part of a veterinary governing body, please start holding accountable those who blatantly disregard the written standards of our profession. Our integrity depends on it.

[tweetthis]We should have enough pride in our education and skill set to maintain a higher written standard.[/tweetthis]
The views and opinions featured on There, I Said It are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the DrAndyRoark.com editorial team.

There I Said It

Regular blogging allows you to be in charge of the image your clinic presents to the world and gives Google® something to deliver when people are searching for you.

The views and opinions featured on There, I Said It are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the DrAndyRoark.com editorial team. Submissions may be edited for content and clarity.

The views and opinions featured on There, I Said It are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the DrAndyRoark.com editorial team. Submissions may be edited for content and clarity.

The views and opinions featured on There, I Said It are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the DrAndyRoark.com editorial team. Submissions may be edited for content and clarity.

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