Essential Skills
Be the best YOU: Skills they don’t teach you at Uni
Essential Skills for everyone working in the veterinary industry
Improve Your Communication with Clients
Making It Stick – How to Improve Client Information Retention (AAHA)
“Within 1 hour, a person will forget 50% of what they were just told. Within 24 hours, they will have forgotten 70%. Within a week, they will have forgotten 90%. Houston, we have a problem.”
Click HERE to read the article
The Hidden Toll of Microstress (Harvard Business Review)
Small, difficult moments can zap your performance. Here’s how to restore your well-being.
- what are microstressors,
- the science behind how they impact you, the sources & impact, and
- how you can fight back against them.
For Veterinary Graduates & Students
Improve Your Communication with Clients
Making It Stick – How to Improve Client Information Retention (AAHA)
“Within 1 hour, a person will forget 50% of what they were just told. Within 24 hours, they will have forgotten 70%. Within a week, they will have forgotten 90%. Houston, we have a problem.”
Click HERE to read the article
From the Vetanswers Blog:
The BEST advice for new veterinary grads…
The Vetanswers Community has come together with a collection of advice for new graduate veterinarians considering their future within our industry.
Read their advice in our Blog Post: The BEST advice for new veterinary grads…
Other resources:
Top 5 Tips for Guiding Pet Owners Through Difficult Decisions (Clinicians Brief)
In your role as a veterinarian, you’ll be faced with challenging conversations with clients that involve decisions such as whether and when to stop care. This article discusses how to best manage these difficult goals-of-care (GOC) conversations.
“A well-developed ability to fully share in decision-making with owners is important because productive GOC conversations can help reduce moral distress in clinicians and staff.”
Resources
1. AVA Website: Employment of new veterinary graduates
Here you’ll find the AVA Policy for employing new graduates: “Veterinary graduates should be given professional support and opportunities for improving their knowledge and practical skills in exchange for demonstrating a willingness to commit to employers, practice policies and procedures, continuing professional development and engagement with their profession.”
Along with guidelines for employers including:
- Employment agreement
- Support
- Working hours
- Safety & health
- Induction program
As well as new graduate responsibilities.
Click HERE to visit the AVA website.
2. Australian Veterinary Boards Council (AVBC) Day One Competencies
The AVBC has released the new ‘Day One Competencies’ (D1Cs) for veterinary graduates. The D1Cs replace the current “AVBC Attributes of Veterinary Graduates” and the “RCVS Day One Competences” and come into effect on 1 January 2024.
“AVBC’s D1Cs are an essential benchmark for veterinary schools and programs, guiding the outcomes required for the profession. The competencies will help ensure that veterinary graduates in Australia and New Zealand have the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed for their professional careers and continued career development post-graduation.”
Articles
Top 5 Tips for Guiding Pet Owners Through Difficult Decisions (Clinicians Brief)
In your role as a veterinarian, you’ll be faced with challenging conversations with clients that involve decisions such as whether and when to stop care. This article discusses how to best manage these difficult goals-of-care (GOC) conversations.
“A well-developed ability to fully share in decision-making with owners is important because productive GOC conversations can help reduce moral distress in clinicians and staff.”
10 Lessons New Graduates Learn In Their First Year of Employment (Enterprise UK)
Although not specifically about the veterinary industry there are still some very useful points to take on board.
14 Tips For My Younger Veterinary Self (by Samantha Toy, RVT on Dr Andy Roark’s Blog)
“When you’re fresh out of school, you think you’re prepared for the world of veterinary medicine. Years later, you realize you had NO IDEA what you were getting yourself into. I recently thought back on what I would tell my younger, newly graduated veterinary technician self.”
Advice To New Vets. My Top 10. (Diary of a Real-Life Veterinarian)
Dr Krista Magnifico writes a regular blog: Diary of a Real-Life Veterinarian. In this blog post, she offers 10 pieces of advice she would like to have heard as a new graduate.
Looking for a New Job?
Interview Tips
Here’s the Counterintuitive Question Really Smart Candidates Ask During a Job Interview (Inc. Australia)
“If you could change one thing about this company, what would it be?” ….if you’re being interviewed for a job, it’s a very, very smart question to ask, because the answer can give you great insight into an organization before you start working there. And if you’re a hiring manager conducting an interview and a candidate asks this question, it’s smart to put some thought into your answer.
Ten Simple Steps to the Perfect Job Interview (LinkedIn)
Don’t just be happy to get an interview – work hard to make sure you nail the interview.
Your Veterinary Library
Books written by Vetanswers members for those working in the veterinary industry.
The Mini Vet Guide to Companion Medicine by Australian veterinarian Dr Gerardo Poli
“The MiniVet Guide is a small easily portable booklet containing what you need to know to get you through everyday presentations. It is designed to help students through their final year of rotations as well as aid new graduates through their first years of clinical practice.
Veterinary Ethics: Navigating Tough Cases By Siobhan Mullan, Anne Fawcett
Veterinary Ethics presents a range of ethical scenarios that veterinarians and other allied animal health professionals may face in practice. The scenarios discussed are not only exceptional cases with potentially significant consequences but often less dramatic everyday situations.
The Mini Vet Guide to Equine Medicine by Australian veterinarian Dr Gerardo Poli
“Everything you love about the MiniVet Guide Companion Animal Medicine: pocket-sized, concise, practical, and relevant, but all about Equine Medicine.
You can expect the same style and format such as individual chapters, flowcharts and drugs tables.
Veterinary Success Secrets Revealed: How to Have an Amazing Practice and Achieve Work-life Balance By Dr Diederik Gelderman
Discover how other veterinarians have achieved happiness and success and how you can too!
Dr Diederik Gelderman interviews highly successful practitioners and reveals the simple yet profound keys, mindsets, behaviours and strategies that have helped them to achieve their success.
Click HERE to find out more
Coping with Stress and Burnout as a Veterinarian By Dr Nadine Hamilton
This book provides a cost-effective, highly accessible way to empower vets in their everyday work lives to use psychological knowledge and skills to combat stress, burnout, anxiety, depression, and suicide.
It is an easy read for individual vets both experienced and freshly minted and provides a clear call to arms for veterinary industry leaders.