The Real Reasons We Can't Keep Veterinary Professionals in the Veterinary Profession - Episode 5 of 5

Before I crack into my fifth (and final) Reason Why We Can’t Keep Veterinary Professionals in the Veterinary Profession, I want to reiterate the point I made in the very first article.

If you’ve been following along, and have laboured through the poignant Loneliness, the surprising Boredom, the contentious Leadership, and the lengthy Failure to Adapt articles, you’ll be noticing by now that I’ve skipped a few elephants in the room. It’s important to note that I don’t think that hours, pay, clients, burnout and unrealistic expectations AREN’T reasons why people are leaving in troves. Obviously, they matter.  I even do a lot of work in most of those spaces.

But other people are talking about them. They already have some limelight, industry bodies and corporate sponsors and wonderful charities trying to shed more light and find more answers to those challenges.

So when narrowing down this list, it’s not that I have ‘ranked’ what I believe are most important. I just wanted someone to actually articulate the things that few people are talking about. Bring conversation, debate, interest, and yes maybe some industry support to finding solutions and ways forward.

So number five doesn’t end the list of things our profession could improve. It’s just here to open a conversation about stuff that too few people are having conversations about.

And cracking right on in then, and in full awareness of the irony of the next statement; I believe that the fifth Real Reason We Can’t Keep Veterinary Professionals in the Veterinary Profession is because we keep talking about it…

The narrative of our profession is doom and gloom.

How many vets that graduated in the last 15 years had, on their first day of vet school, something akin to the “look around the room; most of you wont be vets in 20 years and some of you will be dead!” talk?

How many nurses go their work experience and are told early and loudly that they’ll be underpaid, overworked, and probably won’t last?

How many technicians’ social media accounts are filled with the reasons why they’re not respected, not taken seriously, and not given enough (or given too much) responsibility?

And no one is doing this will ill-intent. In fact, for the most part they’re trying to do good. They’re hoping to set the next generation up for a more realistic expectation of the industry, and to make them aware of the risks in the hope they’ll take steps and learn tools to protect themselves.

And some do. But many don’t know how. And most, those 99% of us who have the standard susceptibility to confirmation bias, start down a spiral pathway from which it is very hard to return.

When the stories you hear are about burned out nurses, disillusioned vets, bullied receptionists, your brain starts to become hyper aware of them. And then we talk about them with our colleagues or on social platforms and the people who feel the same way echo how we’re feeling and confirm for us that it is, indeed, pretty shite out there. And then our negative mindset attracts others with a negative view of the situation, or worse – sucks them into the spiral with us – and we start to be pretty confident that our industry IS going to break us or kill us. That we ARE underappreciated and underpaid and undervalued and being bullied and taken advantage of and used like wheels in a cog.

But what happens in this echo chamber is that the rest of the profession remains absent.

The tens of thousands of vets around the world who have enjoyed long, fulfilling, engaging careers, aren’t in those groups. Aren’t joining those tearoom chats. Aren’t shouting from the digital rooftops about how GREAT the profession is. They’re just cracking on with the job. So their echo chamber is quiet.

Where are those voices in our student training? Where are these mentors for our new graduates? Where are these heroes in our social media feeds? Who is helping these stories get out?

Just like mainstream media, bad news sells. Stories of burnout, disillusionment and frustration get more clicks. Engage more people. Offer a higher dopamine hit. Not to mention the irresistible spiral of being on the in-crowd with people who feel like you do, and of being a part of a tribe of people who echo your frustrations.

The narrative is negative and spiraling ever rapidly downwards.

So I want to finish this series with a challenge you. There are two options, and which you choose will depend on where you are in which echo chamber. But please, if you’ve stuck with me this far on this journey, I know that you care. I know that you want to make a difference. So instead of asking you to sign up to my leadership mastermind, or have me support your team with resilience, or mentor your new grads, I’m going to skip right past how I can help you and right into how YOU can help the rest of our profession.

a)      TELL YOUR SUCCESS STORY!

If you ARE one of the many many many fulfilled, satisfied veterinary professionals out there, let’s do more talking about it. I know I for one absolutely love my veterinary career, and don’t for a moment regret this interesting, exasperating, meaningful, exhausting, wonderful profession that we share. Let’s do our part to lift up those voices, challenge the prevailing narrative, and support others to come on the journey we’re on.

But if you aren’t in this lucky cohort, then you have a different challenge:

b)      SEEK OUT A NEW NARRATIVE

Remember that the algorithm – of life, not just of social media – feeds you want you’re expecting to see. So I challenge you to FIND positive narratives, and boost them. Ask questions of the HAPPY staff in your clinic, with genuine curiosity. Seek out the balance, and even hit like occasionally so your brains (and Zuckerberg’s) feed you more of it. Keep your echo chamber to yourself when you have young, impressionable team members or students in ear shot.

Change the narrative not by removing the negative, but by seeking to balance it with the HUGE number of positive stories out there.

But which ever side of that challenge you’re on, the exact same message is true: what you focus on is what you get.

So balance the narrative.

For you, for your peers, and for our profession.