Written By This Author
Government/Regulations
Our Three-Legged Stool
The veterinary profession would evolve faster, for the betterment of all, if one segment were more open to change.
Innovation/Technology
Ready or Not
The future of veterinary medicine is no game of hide-and-seek. Our profession has the chance to take an active role in shaping what pet care looks like in the years to come.
Veterinary Education
Learning to Innovate
Look no further than Lincoln Memorial for a shining example of new ways to educate the next generation of veterinarians.
Veterinary Education
Ready, Willing and Able
At some colleges, a newer approach to teaching and learning leaves new veterinarians well-prepared for their first day on the job.
Veterinary Education
Building a Career Ladder
Our profession desperately needs more credentialed veterinary technicians. Human medicine stands as a shining example of progress.
Human Resources
Cultivating a Team
Explore 15 ways to support your employees personally and professionally and keep them at your practice longer.
A H.O.T. Topic
Tweaking to-do and don’t-do lists and supporting better ways to practice can help us leave at a decent hour.
Government/Regulations
10 Trends Worthy of Attention
Knowing that only fools predict the future and knowing further that I qualify as a fool — my kids regularly remind me — I’ll take a stab at 10 veterinary profession trends to watch.
Practice Management
Some Creatures Great and Small
Can we still practice like James Herriot and offer all things to all people?
Human Resources
The Great Renegotiation
Talented employees are more likely to stay if you treat and compensate them better. Exercising your pricing power will pay the tab.
Patient Care
Tear Down the Wall
A spectrum of care approach might better address clients of limited means, lowering the barrier to care.
Personal/Professional Development
Up, Up and Away!
The consequences of the workforce crisis include the risk of losing business to non–veterinary professionals, not delivering necessary care and overworking our teams. Ultimately, we risk our health and that of the pets we swear to care for.
Practice Management
Afloat in a Sea of Opportunity
The old do-all-things-for-all-people practice model is increasingly difficult to work in, lead and administer, and satisfy growing consumer needs.
Veterinary Nursing
Calling All Superheroes
With an assist from technology, we can maintain and improve the deep client-doctor relationships for which our profession is known.
Patient Care
The Paradox of Preventive Care
Preventive care benefits pets, people, providers and practices.
Innovation/Technology
Let’s Embrace Techs and Tech
Not enough veterinary technicians, you say. There would be if we honored, empowered, paid and retained the ones we have.
Personal/Professional Development
‘Just’ a GP
By honoring GPs, might we better embrace preventive care, resulting in healthier patients, healthier doctors and healthier teams?
Innovation/Technology
Make Digital Client Service Stick
Keep pet owners and the veterinary team happy by continuing to digitize six key services.
Practice Management
Mercenaries and Missionaries
Consolidators who push profits first leave veterinary teams feeling neglected, leading to less-than-optimal pet care and reduced profits.
Practice Management
Onward and Upward
Forced to adjust amid the pandemic, we proved we’re capable of radical change. We can do a lot more, from pushing for portable licensure to embracing asynchronous learning.
Veterinary Education
The Post-COVID Learner
Change is coming to traditional veterinary education. Colleges long isolated from each other would do well to share resources, expand online teaching, embrace distributive clinical training and even rethink admissions requirements.
Veterinary Nursing
Two Out of Three Is Bad
We have technology and wellness care down pat. So then, why are we so slow to empower veterinary nurses? They are capable of so much more. Doctors, it’s your move.
Patient Care
A Long-Term Answer
Under a subscription wellness plan, pets and their owners return time and again. Ongoing preventive care is great for the patient, good for compliance and a net gain for practices and their teams.
Practice Management
What the Corporates Get Wrong
Successful, happy practice is more about commitment than compliance.
Practice Management
Do We Really Want to Postpone Preventive Care?
In these pandemic days, wellness visits might not be a priority, but the risks to animal health aren’t going away.
Innovation/Technology
We Can’t Afford to Wait
Virtual care and reinvention of the veterinary nurse will take our profession to the next level. The taxi and recording industries were asleep at the wheel at crucial moments in history. Look where it got them.
Innovation/Technology
Always Be Learning
The path to enlightenment is paved with lecture halls and PowerPoint presentations. Or we can try something different. In the end, we need to be engaged, excited and current.
Staff Training
A shared journey
The evolution of veterinary education and successful practice requires open-mindedness and a willingness to change. Universities, employers and students all have key roles to play.
Veterinary Education
What vet school could look like
Four-year programs? No. Blockchain technology? Yes. Income sharing? Perhaps. We have a lot to learn about veterinary education and how knowledge is shared and absorbed.
Client Communication
The future is PetGen
Make way, boomers and Gen Xers. Millennials and Generation Z are remaking how Americans view pets and veterinary care.
Human Resources
Unintended Consequences
How to implement key performance indicators in your veterinary practice that track employee satisfaction and success.
Veterinary Industry
Come aboard!
The veterinary industry has a lot going for it, starting with the historic role pets play in everyday life. Staffing issues and the cost of care deserve attention, however.
Diversity and Inclusion
It Was Meant to Be
“Mentern” relationships between baby boomers and millennials allow for the exchange of knowledge and the smooth handoff of the veterinary profession from one generation to the next.
Innovation/Technology
Bricks and Clicks
Veterinary medicine will be in a world of hurt if it doesn’t embrace new and better ways of serving pets and clients.
Innovation/Technology
The Future Has Arrived
Call it distributive education or community-based learning. Either way, veterinary students want it and benefit from it, and so do affiliated practices.
Human Resources
Life First, Work Second
For today’s young veterinary professionals, an excellent quality of life is a must-have. Practice owners need to embrace a new employment model if they want to hire and keep the best and brightest.
Innovation/Technology
One step at a time
Try not to underestimate the power of incrementalism — one step at a time, bit by bit.
Personal/Professional Development
Choose optimism
Optimism is about learning to see the positive and acting on the opportunities presented despite the negativity.
Personal/Professional Development
Let’s get personal
Through a white coat off/on approach to personal and professional development, we are committed to coaching, mentoring and sponsoring the next generation of veterinary profession leaders.
Veterinary Industry
Opportunity Knocks
The bond PetGeners share is remarkable. As they leave their parents’ homes, they are getting a “fur baby,” for whom they provide the very best in food, holiday gifts, veterinary care and beyond.
Practice Ownership
The Goldilocks concept
Corporate consolidation is well underway. It’s a natural economic response to a very successful and fragmented industry.
Personal Wellness
Put vets before pets
Our default setting is generally to place the needs of others over our own, which breeds a backseat approach to our own health.
Veterinary Education
Turn Your Exam Room Into a Classroom
A simple name change — think of it as rebranding — and a new mindset could boost client education and collaboration.
Innovation/Technology
What Do Dentists Know That We Don’t?
Veterinarians could learn from how dentists have adapted and thrived.