{"id":1387,"date":"2013-08-01T13:02:18","date_gmt":"2013-08-01T03:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=1387"},"modified":"2013-07-30T19:10:41","modified_gmt":"2013-07-30T09:10:41","slug":"essay-veterinary-practice-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=1387","title":{"rendered":"Essay: Veterinary practice 101"},"content":{"rendered":"Veterinary Practice 101\r\n\r\nThere can surely be few more stressful episodes in a veterinary career than day one, first case.\r\nIn the thousands of alternative scenarios I had conjured up whilst lying in my little cot at the veterinary school not one was even remotely like the way my first case actually turned out\u2026\r\n\r\nDriving into the Thompson\u2019s dairy farm there were no grateful, smiling farmers waving with relief, no music, no flags, just an uncaring laneway leading in. My dreams had lacked the hollow, empty sense of dread that fear and an overwhelming sensation of loneliness injected into that moment. I contemplated turning back at this point to tell my bosses that I had developed some incapacitating disease such as, say, malaria, and needed to start again some other day \u2013 any day \u2013 just not now. Instead, I drove in.<!--more-->\r\n\r\nIn the weeks and months that followed I eventually became used to being welcomed to farms with clever one-liners such as: \u201cDoes your mother know you\u2019re out?\u201d but that was still in the future. So, on this first visit, the elder Thompson brother floored me with his opening gambit:\r\n\u201cHow long have you been out, son?\u201d It was days later that I eventually came up with a great riposte. Sadly on that actual day I could only mumble something about it seeming a lifetime since I was a student.\r\n\r\nNevertheless I eventually got through this, my first case! It should actually have been something of an anticlimax if all had gone as my employers anticipated because I only had to vaccinate two calves. This should really have taken about five minutes. It didn\u2019t.\r\n\r\nForty minutes after arriving (but now filled with elation at having signed my name on an official form appended, for the very first time, with the letters \u201cBVSc\u201d) I gave a friendly wave to the grinning Thompson brothers and backed straight into their tractor. I suspect eventually they would have helped me, when they got over being convulsed with laughter, but I wasn\u2019t waiting. A quick three-point turn and I was gone.\r\n\r\nOf necessity, I soon worked out quite a few \u2018strategies\u2019 to get me out of other troubles and embarrassments. One of the first was to find ways of not looking so brand new. After being asked: \u201cAre you as green as your overalls, son?\u201d I learned that before wearing overalls in practice you cycled them a dozen times through the washing machine to produce that well used and experienced look. My new gum boots went into storage and my tatty, old ones re-emerged.\r\nI learned some face saving replies. For example: \u201cYou look so young!\u201d Reply: \u201cThank you.\u201d The two practice principals, Peter and Wes, also offered up a few suggestions, so between the three of us I was able to wriggle out of many potentially awkward situations.\r\n\r\nWhen farmers (quite understandably) indicated, as I descended from my car, that they would rather have had Peter or Wes come, I would appeal to their Australian sense of fair play. My opening speech varied a little with the occasion but basically went as follows: \u201cFair enough. I know you would prefer Peter or Wes \u2013 and so would I, if I were in your position. However, as I\u2019m here, let me have a look and if I can\u2019t help you then maybe one of the other boys can drop in later for a second opinion.\u201d I never had a knock-back. Every single one of these farmers was prepared to give me a go as long as I wasn\u2019t going to be \u201ca young, smart-arse from the Uni.\u201d\r\n\r\nMany of my other survival strategies were simple but effective. The first suggestion for new players, from Wes and Peter, was to always park the car a little bit away from the dairy, milking shed, barn or whatever \u2013 preferably facing towards the scene of the action. This meant that when said young player (me) got into trouble I could suddenly claim to have forgotten my thermometer, stethoscope, plastic gloves or whatever which gave me the excuse to return to the car. Once back at the car the next move was to lean over to the back seat and consult one or both of the two textbooks cleverly left open on the floor \u2013 in my case The Merck Veterinary Manual (everything you ever wanted to know about veterinary science in a Reader\u2019s Digest condensed book format) and the Veterinary Physicians&#8217; Handbook (drugs: their indication and, more importantly, their correct dose rates). These days you could use your iPad or smartphone.\r\n\r\nIf this didn\u2019t work, I went to Plan B. My two-way radio handset had a cord that was long enough to reach over the back where I could not, I hoped, be seen or heard. With any luck either Peter or Wes would be available and in reception range for some more, quick, get-out-of-jail advice, over the radio.\r\n\r\nIf neither of these strategies solved the current dilemma then Plan C came into play \u2013 buy time.\r\nBuying time in small animal practice is easy. You just have to take a sample \u2013 it doesn\u2019t really matter of what: blood, urine or faeces will do. Then, simply tell the client: \u201cThe results will be in tomorrow,\u201d and Hey Presto! you now have 24 hours of research time.\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, it\u2019s a lot more difficult in large animal practice. If, for example, you are standing with your left arm inserted up to the shoulder in a dairyman\u2019s prize milker, with not the slightest idea of what is amiss with her and the farmer is standing at the other end demanding to know what\u2019s wrong with her, then you have to come up with SOMETHING. There is always the stethoscope!\r\n\r\nStick the stethoscope in your ears, mutter a lot and claim deafness: \u201cWon\u2019t be long. Mutter, mutter, hmmm &#8230;\u201d then bow your head and think hard. Of course you can hear everything that is said even with a stethoscope in your ears. You just hope the farmer doesn\u2019t know that.\r\n\r\nI had many adventures that first year. Of the hundreds of mistakes I have made in my career around 95 per cent of them were made then. One of my biggest mistakes was driving around the Strzelecki Ranges on cheap tyres. That was nearly my last. The only award I gleaned was the local panel beaters\u2019 \u201cNew Client of The Year\u201d. I did however get through. That I did was largely down to Peter Carter and Wes Southgate to whom I will be eternally grateful.\r\n\r\nMy parting advice to everyone new in veterinary practice, whether as a nurse, a vet, practice manager or receptionist is to ask for advice often and be prepared to take it. As it says in the airline pilots\u2019 manual: \u201cLearn from the mistakes of others. You won\u2019t live long enough to make them all yourself.\u201d\r\n\r\nThis essay was an entry in the In The Black Essay Competition for 2012.\r\n\r\nEric Allan is an author and the director of Turn Right Consulting \u2013 a business with the mission of assisting young vets to acquire the skills and knowledge they need for practice and life.\r\nJohn Heath of Boehringer Ingelheim, Mark Amott of Southern Animal Referral Centre and the AVBA and Susan Halloran of In The Black judged the competition.\r\nVisit www.avba.com.au for information about the In The Black Essay Competition for 2013.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Veterinary Practice 101 There can surely be few more stressful episodes in a veterinary career than day one, first case. In the thousands of alternative scenarios I had conjured up whilst lying in my little cot at the veterinary school not one was even remotely like the way my first case actually turned out\u2026 Driving [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[227],"tags":[1213,1212,290,930,929,1182,330],"class_list":["post-1387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays","tag-advice","tag-day-one","tag-essay","tag-essay-competition","tag-in-the-black","tag-practice","tag-stress"],"rise-blocks_total_comments":1,"rise-blocks_categories":[{"term_id":227,"name":"Essays","slug":"essays","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":228,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":16,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":227,"category_count":16,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Essays","category_nicename":"essays","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"Veterinary Practice 101 There can surely be few more stressful episodes in a veterinary career than day one, first case. In the thousands of alternative scenarios I had conjured up whilst lying in my little cot at the veterinary school not one was even remotely like the way my first case actually turned out\u2026 Driving into the Thompson\u2019s dairy farm..","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","full":""},"categories_names":{"227":{"name":"Essays","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?cat=227"}},"tags_names":{"1213":{"name":"advice","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=advice"},"1212":{"name":"day one","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=day-one"},"290":{"name":"essay","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=essay"},"930":{"name":"essay competition","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=essay-competition"},"929":{"name":"In The Black","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=in-the-black"},"1182":{"name":"practice","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=practice"},"330":{"name":"stress","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=stress"}},"comments_number":"0","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","cvmm-medium":"","cvmm-medium-plus":"","cvmm-portrait":"","cvmm-medium-square":"","cvmm-large":"","cvmm-small":"","full":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1387"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1406,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387\/revisions\/1406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}