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Picture this: You head home after a long day at the clinic, ready to crash. The day has been especially tiring, but it hadn’t been the poor adorable patients who’d needed help, nor had it been the load of taxing paperwork. It had been the people. Client after client, with all kinds of different questions, problems and demands. Every practice has them: clients who make you want to find a task to do all the way in the back. Who set off a frantic game of rock-paper-scissors amongst the workers to determine who has to deal with them. Anything to avoid another confrontation. In August 2017, surveys were taken from almost 225 veterinary clinic employees, regarding clashes and disputes at work. Almost all respondents said they’ve experienced some manner of conflict within their practice. Clinic workers realized that they had knowingly been engaging in conflict by engaging in unhelpful behaviours, such as raising their voices, yelling at the clients, or giving the silent-treatment to colleagues, i.e. contributing to or fueling a conflict. This means that we are part of the problem. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but the fact is we need each other's help. We need to learn to handle disputes maturely and work towards avoiding it in the first place. Let us take a look at some of the regulars that you find at every clinic, and how to better deal with any problematic behaviour instead of resorting to unprofessional conduct like avoiding them, ignoring them or getting into an argument with them. The Regular ClientThe Regular Client has the best intentions. They visit at least twice a week, with a detailed account of their pet's status, often going beyond their allotted appointment time. They feel familiar enough with you and the staff, to stop you guys if they see you around town, and pepper you with questions. This kind of client sounds exhausting to deal with. However, they are likely some of the top patients at your clinic. Losing them will put a huge dent in your practice's revenue. Tips to handle them:
The Miserly ClientThe Miser wants their pet treated for free. Apparently, they do not have hard cash, or NetBanking or any of their cards on them at the time, and they only inform you of this at the end of the appointment. Now, these clients are a bother, but it is imperative to deal with them as soon as possible because they are taking advantage of your services, resources and time. Tips to handle them:
The Skeptical Client
Tips to handle them:
The Critical ClientThe Critic is rude to the staff and even to other clients. They like to slam anything within sight, including coworkers and other clients. They come in many different shapes and sizes but we’ve all seen them and, inspite of yourself, you may have even let your frustration get the better of you while dealing with them. Tips to handle them:
The Disapproving ClientThis client has something to complain about everytime they walk into the clinic. "Why was I made to wait for so long?" "Where is half of your staff?" "Why have the charges increased?" "Why can't I just use the same medication again?" And (our personal favourite) "Why can’t you tell me what's wrong with my pet without any diagnostics?" Tips to handle them:
The 'Intellectual' ClientThe Intellectual already knows what is wrong with his pet. They have researched the symptoms on Pet WebMD and the signs are the same as when they had brought him in a few years ago. They are sure that they just need a simple prescription. Clients that are not ready to listen to the doctor's advice can be very difficult, but if properly handled, you can reach out to them. After all, if they truly believed they had all the answers, they wouldn't have to come to the clinic. Tips to handle them:
The Panicking ClientThese clients are scary for even experienced vets to deal with. It's an emergency. This client rushes in with their pet, almost hysterical, needing immediate help. But in addition to their fright about losing a beloved one, they're worried about how costly the treatment may be. Some unfortunate vets might even have to hear. “If I can’t pay, you’re just going to let my pet die?” Given that 95% of pet owners consider pets family members; most of them feel the same about their pets’ emergencies as they would their child's. They are often daunted by the thought of being in debt after expensive procedures and treatments and act out. Tips to handle them:
These are a few ways how you can avoid conflict in the workplace, but they're more guidelines than sure-fire methods. Learning how to deal with difficult people is usually something that comes with time and practice. So rather than avoiding going in to work, or hiding in an alleyway when you see a client you recognize walking down the street. Face them and be firm, and you will be a better vet for it! Resources:
1. NAVC Veterinary Solutions for Dealing with Difficult People https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGf2OzJ-ANk 2. How to Approach Difficult Situations: It's Not Always About the Medicine Elisa A. Rogers CVT, VTS(ECC) Matthew J Ryan Veterinary Hospital, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa 3. 5 most difficult veterinary clients - Hall Johnson, Debbie Allaben Gair https://www.dvm360.com/view/5-most-difficult-veterinary-clients
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It's New Year season and we're all making a mental list of resolutions and of things we didn't get done last year. So where's the motivation that's gonna see us through and get us to complete what we hadn't the year before? Lack of motivation has a variety of causes ranging from not achieving set goals in an imagined timeframe to lacking skills or knowledge to complete the task to just being plain bored. And so we’ve compiled a few reasons why you may be avoiding your work or not getting to the task at hand and how to deal with them. 1. Your goal is overwhelming you.When you think or talk about this task, all that comes to mind is ‘Aghh’. You are dreading it so much. You can’t see yourself getting it done — it’s just too much! As a result, you procrastinate on getting started and the work snowballs. What to do: Break it down. If you read our last article on Time Management, then you must already be a pro with splitting a seemingly insurmountable load of work into manageable chunks to take one step at a time. Take each day as it comes, and keep yourself organized by noting down what you’ve accomplished. 2. You don’t believe in yourself.You want to do this, but deep down, you truly don’t believe you can. And it’s eating away at your motivation with thoughts like “Why are you even trying? You won’t get there anyway…” For a quick fix: Look at your past achievements and remind yourself how much you managed to achieve to get where you are today. You’ve been through so much- you’re not about to give up now. If you find yourself constantly struggling with your self-esteem and doubting your abilities, you need to identify your limiting beliefs and replace them with empowering ones. In order to achieve big, bold goals, you need to upgrade your mindset with a new set of empowering beliefs that will get you the necessary confidence to take on your goals. “Life is so subtle sometimes that you barely notice yourself walking through the doors you once prayed would open.” ~Mounaks 3. You lack a strong reason why.You may not want to admit it to yourself, but you are not actually interested in doing it; you either just don’t see the point or the reward is just not attractive enough. Either you:
4. You are simply exhausted.There is too much going on in your life. So many things to do and to be taken care of. When everything else is taking up your physical and mental energy, there is simply nothing left for you to push hard towards your goal. What to do: Free up your energy and reprioritize! Rest, de-stress and sleep enough to recharge your batteries. Take a break to clear your head with meditation or something peaceful that you enjoy. If the will to continue is still in you, it’ll come back when your mind is less cluttered. 5. Fear of failure is holding you back.Your fear of failure is keeping you from gathering the motivation to get started. This goes for taking a big step in your career, changing the direction you’re going in and it takes courage. What to do: Get clear about what you are afraid of, how it is holding you back and how this fear shows up in your life. Understanding this is the basis for coming up with a specific strategy to deal with your fear. Talk to someone with more experience or a person who has taken similar steps and learn from them. "Great things never came from comfort zones." 7. You set your goals too small or too big.If you’re feeling dispirited i.e. demotivated from trying to achieve what you want, you may not be setting the correct goals. You may either be planning to do too little, which is practically equal to thinking, ‘It’s small, I’ll do it later.’ or you may be planning to do too much, which overwhelms you before you even begin. What to do: Both ends of the spectrum are not great for your morale. Plan enough to do in a day- don’t underestimate yourself. And yes, dream big — but let the big dreams stay in the big picture. Set your weekly goals in a manageable way and you’ll find yourself able to achieve them. 8. You are impatient.You’re frustrated because you thought you’d be there by now. You thought all that extra time you’d been spending at the clinic, those late hours studying would pay off. What to do: Understand that good things take time. Focus on the progress you’ve made so far and even celebrate little milestones along the way. Enjoy the journey, because it is as much a reward as achieving your goal. Nothing worth having comes easy.” ~Theodore Roosevelt These are a few of the most common reasons why the average person finds themselves feeling demotivated to continue to work at it. The simple ‘fixes’ and ‘what-to-do’s are not easy remedies and may not be for everyone.
But once you find what works for you, then you’ll figure out how to avoid getting demotivated in the future. And if you’ve already found what works for you, then hey! What are you still doing here? Go make New Year's resolutions that you can actually keep. Motivation is the process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviors in order to achieve milestones and dreams in one’s life. Motivation is not usually an ocean of abundance but more like a seasonal stream that will fill up and flow in the favourable conditions, while sometimes it may dry up or even freeze over. Getting motivated is easy enough for many of us. We can watch one TED talk by an inspirational doctor, or be super inspired by a sudden New Year's Resolution to do better which makes us want to hit the books. Everyone is a fan of the infamous work high, when for that one day, you’re ready to complete all your work and additionally take over the world. The hard part is staying motivated, through the cycle of success and failure that is life. Getting trapped in that never-ending spiral of procrastination feels like a one-way trip, when in fact with the right help and tools, you can get back on track and stay on track. But what happens when you do go off track?As to-be vets, we experience things like burn out, loss of motivation and compassion fatigue more often than in the average profession. Compassion fatigue is related to the burden felt from caring for suffering people and animals. It is the emotional residue and strain of being exposed to those with trauma. Burnout on the other hand is the physical and emotional exhaustion we feel when we don’t have control over things that are causing stress and frustration. A dvm360 survey in 2015 asked, “What is your biggest stress on the job ?” Only 1% of veterinarians answered euthanasia and only 5% mentioned critical patients. The largest groups answered time management issues (23%) and difficult clients (21%). To phrase it with less numbers and statistics, we know that demotivation from a certain job or task, stems from the unhappiness and stress that comes with doing that job or task. Everyone has heard of “Do what you love and love what you do.” Most of us try our best to adhere to it when making important decisions about our career and our relationships. But research shows that when our brain- the voice of reason- and our heart- the voice of passion, do not speak in unison, we tend to lose sight of our goal and why we wanted to achieve it. So when we get wrapped up in the problems that come with the territory, the desire to fight through them no longer burns inside. There are two basic ways to drive ourselves onward: Intrinsic motivation is the act of doing something without any obvious external rewards. You do it solely because it is enjoyable and interesting to you. This is the ideal type of drive because there is usually very little for you to turn away from doing something you love. Extrinsic motivation refers to behavior that is driven by external rewards such as money, fame, grades, and praise. While this inherently sounds like a bad idea, because not every task you do will always be rewarded, it’s a good way to get yourself to do an aspect of the job that you dislike. Both extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation spur human behavior. Understanding how each type of motivation works and when it is likely to be useful should help you get back to the work you've been avoiding. Finding MotivationSo chances are, you’ve been in a situation where you’ve had second thoughts about what you’re doing. “I can’t do this anymore” or “Why am I even here?” It's as simple as taking a break. Use this time to evaluate the work that you’ve done so far and to estimate what you need to accomplish your goal. This is to help you take a step back and re-prioritize, while looking at it from a different perspective; seeing at it as a big picture should remind you why you wanted to achieve this in the first place. Losing your motivation is common. Very common and not just among vets and aspiring vet students. After all, anyone reading this came here looking for a solution. It is our goal to help and we’re not about to lose sight of it. Regaining your motivation and getting back on track should be just as common. But how can you keep pushing on, even when you don’t feel like it? Check out our next article for some answers and on how to regain your motivation for this next year and get going! For more on the topics mentioned in this article and to check out where we got our information from, visit:
Regaining Motivation In Medical School- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6006981/ Factors associated with motivation in medical education: a path analysis- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6006981/ Burnout in veterinary medicine: Let’s talk action- https://vetidealist.com/burnout-veterinary-medicine/#:~:text=The%20recent%20Merck%20Animal%20Health,topped%20the%20list%20of%20problems. Burnout and health promotion in veterinary medicine- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3711171/ 1/2: Need Motivation? The 3C-Check for Success & Happiness- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9a-xrPjFqQ&feature=youtu.be If you use your phone while working, it’ll be hard not to switch between apps and get distracted. Even if you don’t use it, it takes a lot of self-restraint to keep the device away. But ironic as it sounds, some apps won't take up your time and should instead keep you from wasting it. P.S: clicking on the app logos will take you to their website! Scheduling AppsMaking a schedule Source 1. Tick Tick: It’s a simple and to-do list and task manager app which helps you make schedules and organize your day’s or week’s tasks and classify them based on urgency. Available on: iOS | Android | Web 2. Trello: It allows you to manage schedules & tasks and maintain to-do lists in the form of boards. Available on: iOS | Android | Desktop and Web 3. Evernote: It’s a planner and a daily organizer combined into one allowing the user to write and share notes. Available on: iOS | Android | Web Company specific appsThe apps in this list are from the three major players in the industry that essentially do the same work and allow the user to maintain notes and set up reminders using the specific calendar app of the phone.
Timer Apps"The key is in not spending time, but in investing it." ~Stephen R. Covey 1. Focus To-Do: Incorporates the Pomodoro technique along with maintaining task lists, calendar events, and setting up schedules along with task priority settings. Available on: iOS | Android 2. Timely: Timely allows you to track the hours of your day as well as keep project and task records. Available On: iOS | Android Phone Locker AppsPhone Lock Source 1. Forest – Stay Focused: The forest app allows you to plant a tree from durations of 10 minutes to 2 hours and disables apps to keep you focused and away from your phone. All apps or selective apps can be added to the list that have to be disabled so that if apps like email, gallery, contacts need to be accessed they can be opened. The app also allows you to play ambient sounds that may help you focus. The Pro version costs 2 dollars which allows you to plant along with friends and the company also plants real trees for a specific amount of in app currency that is earned by planting trees. 2. Digital Wellbeing (Android): Digital Wellbeing is an inbuilt app for android phones and a product of Google. It allows you to track daily screen time, set up parental controls and limit time spent on each app and schedule down times for your phone. 3. Screen Time (iOS): Screen Time is the Apple device equivalent of Digital Wellbeing but it is a setting option rather than an app and can easily be accessed via the main menu of settings. Phone Apps Source Steven Covey also said, "Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent, and not enough time on what is important." All in all, there are plenty of brilliant tools easily accessible for free that you can find. Make sure to have fun with the technology that surrounds you but also improve your work ethic in an easy way. We can give you the tips but to implement them is, of course, up to you!
What are you supposed to be doing right now? If the answer is taking a well-earned break, then congratulations! You must already be good at managing your time. However, if you are supposed to be working, and instead all you do is scroll through Instagram, play with your pet, watch a video about procrastination, or perhaps spend your time reading blogs, then this one could prove very helpful! "It's not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?" -- Henry David Thoreau We’ve all had days with too much piled onto our plates. But we all have the same twenty-four hours in a day. You can have all the tools a vet needs to be successful, but if you don't know how to organize your time, you cannot expect to achieve your goals to the fullest. So how is it that some people are just more productive than others and can get more work done?
Three key strategies There are many techniques for maximizing efficiency in the time you have, namely the ones given below. Here are a few, categorized according to what you might be looking to accomplish:
What kind of techniques do you use and has it proved to be effective? Do let us know, and check out the next post for some apps that will take using these techniques to the next level!
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What is SCoCA?The Standing Committee on Career Attributes (SCoCA) aims to complement veterinary education with opportunities to improve career attributes, aiming a successful future career in veterinary medicine for all veterinary students around the world. Archives
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