It’s that time of year when veterinary students become doctors, and our profession gets an infusion of fresh blood, perspectives, and calls to just come stand in the surgery suite. It’s the time when us old hands feel an urge to tell the young folks everything they should watch out for, when we should instead be reminding them of everything to look forward to. Our profession is a great one, and while there are always pitfalls, the potential for our young colleagues to find a vocation they will love for the rest of their lives should not be ignored.
I suspect medicine will be very different in the future, but I don’t see any reason why it has to be worse than what has come before. I understand looking at the rise of private equity ownership, AI, and outside pharmacies with distrust, but I suspect each of these changes to vet medicine will bring about as many upsides as down.
I’ve written before about why I think veterinary medicine needs more bold general practice veterinarians. I’ve also talked about why I don’t think the future of the profession will be dominated by specialists. My belief that pets and pet owners in the future will benefit from vets who are willing to work at the top of their license is steadfast. I also think there is great strategic value for young doctors in positioning themselves where they are least likely to be disrupted by AI, midlevel practitioners, and even a glut of future veterinary school graduates. To me, the most likely “safe spots” are high level surgery, housecall medicine, and anything other vets would call “tough cases.”
The need for surgery beyond spays and neuters is never going to disappear, and we are on a path for a smaller and smaller percentage of pet owners being able to afford a referral. In general practice surgery today, I see the possibility of serving pets and families, doing rewarding work, and making a decent living. I don’t see AI taking this job anytime in the near future, and there seems to be fewer practitioners who are excited to master these skills than there used to be.
Alternatively, housecall medicine is the epitome of interpersonal work. It also involves providing a service that pet owners see as a luxury, and are not expecting to purchase at the most bargain basement price possible. Housecall medicine involves entering someone else’s home, putting them and their pets at ease, and serving them without the support of a team in the building. It’s a deeply human engagement, and excellence here relies as much on the heart of the practitioner as it does on any operational system for delivering care. Whether it’s hospice or wellness care, developing skills around connecting with people as individuals while providing a concierge service is probably a good early career investment.
And if neither of these options is appealing right now, then figuring out what sort of tough cases you prefer and leaning into them is also a solid strategy. Become the doctor other doctors call when dentistry goes wrong, or when a corneal ulcer starts to melt, or when the standard derm solutions come up short. Be the vet that every local German Shepherd breeder knows by name because you have a reputation for conquering the most frustrating perianal fistulas (and isn’t that what you have always wanted for yourself?!)
No one knows what the future will hold for us animal caregivers, but one thing is certain: change will be constant. I wish I could tell my new grad friends that they have arrived and now they can lean back and let the profession they have paid dues to enter take care of them. Alas, that’s not the case (and it really never has been). It’s okay to be tired, and also to prioritize other parts of your life. But it’s important to be intentional about how you want to develop professionally as well. After all, reputations for perianal fistula mastery (or dentistry, I suppose, if you prefer the other end of the patient) don’t just happen. They are earned by doctors who see value in the tough stuff, and lean into it.
To all the newbies entering the vet profession this year: welcome! I hope you will love it here, and that you’ll see your degree as a building permit to construct the best version of yourself possible. Practice is not the end of the road for doctors. It’s also not the gentle river that we can lay back and ride upon. It’s the sandbox where we build our careers, shape our impact on our communities, and cultivate relationships with the families we serve. Practice is where we differentiate ourselves from every other clinician who has passed through the ivory towers, and we do that by leaning into the areas that speak to us and where we see potential.
Find the areas of practice that speak to you. Seek out the experiences that energize instead of drain you. Sit at the feet of mentors who can help you grow, and push yourself to be uncomfortable and to do hard things. Finally, if you’re looking for places to start growing, perhaps start by looking at surgery, housecall medicine, and hard cases!
Good luck!
