Navigating Change
Let’s Hope That Godzilla Doesn’t Decide To Show Up
The only thing more constant than death and taxes is change.
2020 has shown us that we all have to be mentally nimble and develop acceptance of change as the constant operating system; I suspect that we were already attempting to navigate constant changes in years past, but there’s nothing like a global pandemic to force contemplation.
Navigating constant change as a veterinarian and veterinary practice owner is many times like jumping out of an airplane with a faulty parachute. We never have all the information we need, but we have enough to make and take educated risks to help our patients and our patients’ owners while juggling employee needs. Certainly, in vet school, we never covered proper pandemic pet care procedures.
Medicine is never as black and white as we would like, and outcomes are not always positive. COVID-19 has illustrated this time and time again in the number of sympathy cards awaiting signatures for our animal patients while we hear and see the human toll daily in the news.
In our own practice, the turbulence of this year has bounced us in unexpected directions. We never wanted to operate an urgent care, but there are many days that we felt we are one due to the volume of sick patients. The pandemic has changed how we welcome clients and patients into the practice – initially only allowing in pets, then opening to one healthy masked owner accompanying their pet. We miss allowing our clients simply to walk in and say hi.
Most certainly, our current times have led to unprecedented events, such as having to remind clients to be civil and kind to team members on the phone and in person. We are blessed to have mostly a great clientele, but some of the stories reported by my veterinary colleagues in other places have been truly frightening. They’ve been on the receiving end of not only verbal threats but physical altercations when a person becomes too angry or distraught.
Some of the constant pressures of simply working in the veterinary field combined with pandemic changes, have wrought change in our staff.
One of our doctors, tired of the stress of a long commute, elected to go to smaller practice, trading 90-plus minutes in the car daily for a 20-minute commute. By the time this goes to press, another will be also off to a small, slower practice to allow her and her husband to focus on their IVF treatments to hopefully welcome a new family member in 2021.
Other team members have found that they needed or wanted to move closer to elderly parents or grandparents back home in other states as health became a significant concern. One of our longtime veterinary nurse/CVTs moved closer to her ailing mother, but also so that she and her boyfriend can explore the option of creating a safe home for young adults in need of care due to congenital physical/mental issues – because it’s been their postponed passion.
Here’s hoping that Godzilla doesn’t turn up between now and the end of the year. May your own contemplations and changes bring you to better things.
Dr. Margot Vahrenwald is the owner of Park Hill Veterinary Medical Center at 2255 Oneida St. For more information, visit parkhillvet.com