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Four-year programs? No. Blockchain technology? Yes. Income sharing? Perhaps. We have a lot to learn about education and how knowledge is shared and absorbed.

How can we better prepare the veterinary student of the future, and do it more cost-effectively? Let’s get provocative and toss out 10 ideas for consideration, debate, improvement and adoption. We’re ready for the tomatoes to be launched. We don’t claim to have all the answers. 1. Hybrid Distributive Model In this model, which is […]

Veterinary medicine is slowly becoming a female-dominated profession. The reasons are many. Having more role models and promoting the value of a college education are ways to draw males back in.

Every so often I field a call from a veterinarian inquiring about the declining numbers of men in the veterinary profession. These callers are mostly genuinely interested in the factors that have led to just under 20% of DVM students identifying as men. Occasionally, such calls devolve into suggestions that diversity programs have disadvantaged young […]

Make way, boomers and Gen Xers. Millennials and Generation Z are remaking how Americans view pets and veterinary care.

Every generation has its own approach to work and life. How these different groups interact with family, pets and lives are profoundly reshaping our world and professional landscape. This is particularly true of the generation I call PetGen. I define PetGen as the combination of millennials and Generation Z, or anyone under about age 38. […]

A “four eyes” approach to drug security and a well-publicized employee assistance program are two crucial steps your practice can take today to help prevent suicide.

Suicide in veterinary medicine is too big of a problem to ignore. At this point, almost all of us have stories of practice owners across town, technicians on weekend shifts and veterinarians we went to school with ending their lives. That’s a lot of loss to accept in any profession, much less one known for […]

Starting conversations about diversity and inclusion isn’t easy, but the payoff is well worth the time and effort.

Talking about diversity and inclusion is hard; it is uncomfortable sharing your innermost thoughts about how you see difference, what it means for you (or not) in day-to-day interactions, and how you think that might affect the way individuals move through the world. Talking about diversity sparks strong emotional responses around how we view fairness, […]

New York lawmakers approved the first statewide declaw ban and, along with New Jersey, is looking at imposing rules on groomers. Who’s next?

2019 is a watershed year for politics and the pet care industry. Issues that drew scant attention for decades have caught the public eye or, better yet, the eager eyes of politicians wanting to tap into the surge of interest in pets. New York and New Jersey are prime battlegrounds for the issues of declawing […]

If you don’t control your money, your money will control you and you will be unable to achieve peace and contentment.

Any given day we are bombarded with news that can terrify. Turmoil with North Korea and Iran, trade wars with China, Russia increasing its nuclear arsenal, to name a few recent headlines. One or all can impact our economy and world security. In addition, political battles between Democrats and Republicans continue to escalate and talk […]

Are you struggling to pay off your school loans? An income-driven repayment plan can be a path to financial freedom for student borrowers — and possibly to loan forgiveness.

Your choice to become a veterinarian likely came at great cost. Veterinary students who graduated in 2017 with outstanding school loans owed an average of $166,714, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. Compare that with a veterinarian’s median 2018 salary of $93,830 and your debt-to-income ratio is probably high. You might have trouble keeping […]

You might be tracking the wrong key performance indicators. Try a few that focus on the pet, the owner and your employees.

Did you hear about Wells Fargo? For years, the company served as a role model in the banking world for exemplary customer service. Wells Fargo set a goal, or key performance indicator (KPI), to sell eight products to every customer. To accomplish this, they created the “Eight is great” motto, which incentivized employees to cross-sell […]

Practice managers are hired to manage. Often, the best approach is to direct team members to make decisions and resolve conflicts on their own.

Recently, while consulting at a veterinary practice, I saw the manager being constantly interrupted by team members. Many times, a line of people formed at the door. One team member was requesting a day off, another was asking for authorization to dispense heartworm medication, another was upset about how a co-worker had treated her, and […]