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  • Research the change you want to see in the world

    Research the change you want to see in the world

    As a good 60% of my masters is research based, there will come a time, all too soon, when I must decide definitively what avenue of research I want to explore.

    We don’t have much time to touch upon research or develop our skills in the area on the vet course due to the huge level of content we need to consume throughout the five years, but those skills are both highly transferable and infinitely invaluable in the field of exotics and conservation.

    Choices, choices…

    I’ve been looking forward to the research aspect of this course for the best part of the last six months but it’s shocking just how difficult it is to pick a single topic to dedicate yourself to.

    Topics include:

    • one health
    • immunology
    • genetics
    • behaviour
    • marine biology
    • climate change
    • wildlife
    • domestic animal studies

    …the list is quite something.

    Making your mark

    What it all boils down to though, is what really sparks an interest in you? What questions do you want the answers to? What species hold a special place in your heart, and what field do you want to expand your knowledge in?

    For me, the question I’ve begun to ask myself is: what is the change I want to help bring about?

    As a veterinary professional you can’t always let yourself be swayed by issues of the heart, yet there are many aspects of animal welfare, captivity and treatment that make this far easier said than done.

    The trouble is that we live in a world of law and legislation and attempting to enact change driven purely by an emotional standpoint will get you nowhere. You cannot simply request for laws to be changed or regulations to be put in place because it’s “the right thing to do”. You must scientifically enforce your argument, and that means peer reviewed, tried and tested research.

    Agent for change

    It wasn’t until 2012 that battery farmed eggs were outlawed in the UK, and only in 2016 did SeaWorld – a multi-million dollar entertainment enterprise – pledge to end their removal of Orcas from the wild and their captive breeding programme.

    Some might argue that these changes are on completely different levels and have different value, but neither would have been brought about without the tireless work of countless dedicated professionals who took the time to bring facts together into a case that changed laws that had been around for decades.

    It’s a long old process, the documentary Blackfish (which inarguably had a hand in the decline in SeaWorld’s popularity) took months to produce, and it took an additional three years after it’s release for it’s impacts to come to fruition. With this in mind, I wonder just how much change I’m really capable of with my three-month research project – which, due to COVID-19, is almost certainly set to be entirely desk-based.

    Little by little

    I believe even the small changes are important; even those made by collecting data and typing up hypotheses and conclusions from home – even if you don’t actually get to spend any time working with the animal whose quality of life you’re trying to improve.

    I have a particular interest in stereotypies – which, for those not in the know, are repetitive movements, sounds or behaviours displayed by captive animals due to frustration or a lack of mental or social stimulation. They are the direct consequence of human intervention in their natural behaviours, and ever since learning about them in the first year of the vet course the topic has stayed with me.

    If I’m lucky enough to explore this field at the start of next year I’ll be grateful for any minor contribution I can make to the far too-small pool of research that is thankfully starting to grow.

  • The power of affirmations and using them properly

    The power of affirmations and using them properly

    Affirmations are positive phrases and sentences you repeat to change either the language in your head or the beliefs you have about yourself. These affirmations can be incredibly powerful when it comes to personal development.

    Our brain is wired to notice the negative outcomes of our actions so we can prevent them from happening again. But it doesn’t stop there – instead of just stopping, being objective, looking for the main lesson and moving on, our brain adds meaning to what happened; and we attach that to how we think of ourselves and, over time, begin to believe it is true.

    A prime example is when you didn’t achieving something and you made that mean you are not smart enough or not good enough. Instead of being objective and looking at how the failure resulted from approaching the problem the wrong way, or preparing incorrectly, your brain jumps to the simple conclusion you are not good enough.

    Brain training

    Affirmations can help rewire our brain, and begin to challenge and eliminate those negative and limiting beliefs we have about ourselves.

    An affirmation that tackles this example could be: “I am smart and resourceful, and put in the work to achieve what I want.”

    You may not initially feel you believe the affirmation when you begin, and you may feel a bit silly; however, with time and repetition this affirmation will eventually become a belief. You can train your brain to think differently if you want to.

    Using affirmations

    Some pointers on how to use affirmations:

    • They are best in the morning, as this has the added benefit of setting up a positive mindset for the day. You begin the day with empowering beliefs that will give you momentum to push through the challenges you will face. You essentially set yourself up for success. You can then continue to remind yourself through out the day.
    • Repetition is the key. Don’t just say it once, say it over and over again. Put reminders in your phone or alarms that go off that have the affirmation on it. Put sticky notes on the mirror or fridge, or in your car…
    • Combine it with emotion and intensity. Say the affirmation with confidence – shift your body into a powerful stance, shoulders back, chin up, breathe in deep. This combination will help you feel that what you are saying is indeed true, as you feel it in your body.
    • Start to give an example of when the affirmation is right. “I am smart and resourceful, and put in the work to achieve what I want… because yesterday I solved problem x that was presented to me.”

    Affirmation is powerful when used correctly – and can be life-changing for eliminating negative self-doubt.

  • Good intentions

    Good intentions

    Less than a month into my master’s degree in wildlife health and rehabilitation, and it’s already become apparent that a vast array of misconceptions are held by the public concerning local wildlife.

    I’m already armed with far more wildlife facts than I ever thought my brain had room for. For example, did you know that a group of hedgehogs is called a prickle? Or that bees have five eyes?

    The vet course is a lengthy and arduous endurance, and even so a whole wealth of animal knowledge gets left out because, for the average vet, there’s little need to know that a kangaroo has three vaginas. Unless, of course, you’re a vet working in Australia – in which case, g’day!

    The unfortunate facts

    In my lectures, alongside these charming facts came the statistic that in the majority of wildlife rescue centres, more than 50% of “abandoned orphan” admissions are a mistake on the well-meaning public’s part and are, in fact, just young fledglings still getting used to their wings.

    That’s in excess of 50% of “avian orphan” admissions that have to be assessed, put through the system, housed and then released back into the wild – more than 50% of resources wasted.

    It’s also true that feeding hedgehogs milk and birds bread can make them ill, and that setting out food or bird feeders can provide a breeding ground for disease transmission and propagation.

    And it’s a truth that is kept somewhat from the public that, for a large proportion of wildlife casualties, there is little to be done but palliative care and euthanasia.

    Small acts of kindness

    This topic really gets me down, because with all of the ecological, environmental and diversity destruction ongoing around the world, small acts of kindness and sympathetic good deeds seem few and far between – and as someone passionate about wildlife and conservation, the last thing I want to do is discourage them.

    A lot of problems exist in this world, and humans cause 99% of them, so when someone goes out of his or her way to try to do the right thing and it ends up causing more harm than good – whether he or she knows it or not – it seems like such a waste of good intentions.

    swallow
    Image © raquel / Adobe Stock

    Can’t do right for doing right

    The real crux of the matter is the paradox of education. It’s understandable that the public make mistakes regarding wildlife when so much is still unknown to the professional community.

    That being said, if the wide range of new data at our fingertips could be available for the layman, such mistakes might be mitigated. However, there’s only so much unrequested education people can tolerate before they just give up.

    Similarly, if you let every member of the public who brings in an injured animal know the percentage of animals that have had to be euthanised that day, they might just take it on themselves not to bring it in at all, or (an even worse possibility) attempt to care for it themselves.

    Sad, but true

    Stories of people attempting to hand-rear everything from birds to large cats are, while superficially admirable, most often doomed to failure.

    Research is constantly being conducted into nutritional requirements, behavioural norms and habitat necessities on all the species we’re still not 100% on… and that’s pretty much all of them.

    If the leading minds in the field are still messing it up, there’s not much hope for the average Joe – even with all the good intentions in the world.

  • The new etiquette of dog walking, post COVID-19

    The new etiquette of dog walking, post COVID-19

    Having been lucky enough to spend the past few days in Cornwall – at a time of year where dog walkers are plentiful and you can hardly take two steps without tripping over something small and fluffy – it’s struck me that COVID-19 has not only shaped the way we interact with one another, but also with other animals.

    Although the British public as a whole has never been labelled as “overly friendly”, we never used to go out of the way to cross the street to avoid each other; now, however, that’s become a regular occurrence.

    The way we behave around other people has had to change over the past few months, but I think it’s worth arguing that a change in the way we behave around pets is equally necessary.

    Group walks

    Dog walking in groups has obviously been reduced to a maximum of six (furry friends notwithstanding of course), along with many other social activities across the country, but it is still important to maintain social distancing and not be tempted to go back to old habits.

    Taking care when holding another dog’s lead, or getting tangled in a web of leads as your dogs are overwhelmed with seeing each other again – it’s also important to obviously be mindful of other members of the public, as six dog walkers marching down the street, each with one or two dogs in tow, is now the closest thing to a booked out concert and can seem quite intimidating to some poor person just trying to get to the shops.

    Up close and personal

    Approaching dogs you aren’t familiar with is a situation that should always be treated with caution, but coronavirus adds an extra element to consider.

    I was enjoying a pub dinner recently when a couple came in with the most adorable 10-week-old border collie and made the whole room erupt into a cooing, aww-ing mess (myself included). It seemed that everyone’s instinctual reaction was to approach, but in the current climate almost everyone stayed seated – if a little mournfully.

    So much has been written in the papers about whether our animals can transmit the virus, whether they carry it on their fur from where their owners have touched them, if they’re asymptomatic carriers (etc) that I don’t think a lot of people know what they should or shouldn’t do around other people’s pets. There is also the question of whether the owner would feel comfortable with you getting close enough to pet them in the first place – and as a further minefield, the addition of face masks can make it very difficult to read a persons facial expression to gauge their reaction.

    mask
    Face masks can pose a problem for dogs. Image by ivabalk from Pixabay

    Facing the facts

    Face masks can also pose problems for dogs, being a species that relies heavily on physical over verbal communication. The absence of facial cues can be disconcerting for some dogs and make them more nervous or prone to aggression than they might ordinarily be.

    Furthermore, if the dog in question did not grow up in the world of face-masks and visors, or has had a negative experience with a person wearing a similar item, it can cause it to be excessively wary, stressed and defensive. If a dog is too young to remember pre-COVID life, he/she may also not be used to heavy traffic or large numbers of people.

    It’s perhaps more important than ever to consider an animal’s individual circumstances before engaging with it. If in doubt, ask the owner for his or her permission and a little bit about the dog. For reference, a yellow harness or lead is often used to indicate a particularly nervous dog.

    Assistance dogs

    A final consideration that I’d hope would come naturally to everyone is to give way to people with service dogs, whether they are guide dogs or for other purposes.

    Although training is already underway for some guide dogs to learn to social distance, a lot of dogs were never prepared for these circumstances and a full two-metre distance isn’t always entirely possible or safe (for example, two people passing each other on a thin kerb beside a busy road).

    Being mindful of service dogs and taking care to give way when possible goes a long way in ensuring everyone can stay safe and well.

  • Paying it forward

    Paying it forward

    Towards the end of what has been, regrettably for me, a distinctly non-“vetty” summer period, I was delighted to receive an email from the headmistress of my old secondary school, asking if some of her students who were applying to vet school in the near future could get in touch.

    Coming to sudden terms with the fact that I was now considered someone “in the know” rather than someone on the outside looking in made me feel grateful, nostalgic… and just a little bit ancient all in one go.

    As my school has a custom of bringing in old students to speak to sixth formers aspiring to the same fields of interest, I had always thought that I may some day be called in to bring my experience full circle.

    Share and share alike

    Until now I think I subconsciously assumed my old stomping grounds had simply yielded no aspiring vets in the past few years, but it seems that I was mistaken – and happily so.

    I enthusiastically agreed to share details with the wannabe vets in question.

    As I prepared to answer any queries they might have about the application process, interview preparation or what the pearly gates of veterinary medicine at university were actually like, it got me thinking about how the veterinary community seems to stand out from the crowd in terms of rallying around each other – no matter their level of study – and holding the idiom “pay it forward” very close to heart.

    From the ground up

    The truth is, even the most experienced, knowledgeable and Yoda-like veterinary surgeon that ever walked this earth started off a lowly Padawan just like the rest of us – probably cleaning kennels, hoovering after hours and just trying his or her very best not to get in peoples’ way.

    I think it’s this that unites us all; no matter our age, gender, race or background, we’ve all been stood on by cows, moaned at by sleep-deprived farmers and pooed or peed on more times than we can count – often both at the same time in a terrifying feat of Mother Nature’s ingenuity.

    Climb every mountain

    Every veterinary student works incredibly hard to even gain a foothold on one of the UK’s coveted university places, and he or she works even harder still to graduate five to six years later.

    I’ve been assured the journey that awaits me on the other side of my cap and gown is no easier. The veterinary career can sometimes seem comparable to mountains piled on top of each other – each one larger than the last, with less footholds, and more treacherous and difficult terrain to navigate.

    Is it any wonder those at the top want to throw down the ropes to those standing in their footwells, or climb back down and take the time to show them how they scaled the mountain in the first place, right by their side?

    So grateful

    I digress, but – mushy and, perhaps, overly elaborate metaphors aside – I am so deeply grateful for all the help I have been given on my journey so far – from the vets in my lecture halls to the vet nurse who first taught me how to hold a scalpel – and for all that I am still yet to receive.

    I also feel so privileged to be in the position to help people myself in any way I can, and hope I never forget the value of paying it forward and how far it brought me.

  • Connection: step seven

    Connection: step seven

    Before discussing the final element of building connections with clients, let’s recap what this series has explained so far:

    Our clients need to feel four things if we want complaint-free consults with optimum buy-in and compliance: Connection, Trust, Reassurance and Clarity (CTR-C).

    And our mnemonic for connection is: IS IT CHE(esy?) – Set your Intention, Smile, Introduce yourself, Touch, Common ground, Humour and Empathy.

    Now, lets take a deeper dive into what I consider one of the most important ingredients for working with people…

    Empathy

    The ability to be sensitive to your client’s feelings and experiences, and then being able to show them that you “get them” is not only essential for fostering connection – it will also give you the best shot at a long and fulfilled career as a vet.

    Most of us understand this, but how easy is it to maintain an empathetic approach on those long days when it feels like the entire world is trying to tap into your empathy reserves? And how do you fill up your empathy tank?

    For me, it starts with a conscious decision. Before every interaction – before I open that door to the consult room or pick up the telephone – I take a moment to take stock of how I’m feeling: am I frustrated, tired, hungry? Then I ask myself whether this is how I want to feel and if not, how I would prefer to be. And the number one thing I need to be at any one moment is empathetic.

    So, I reset my intentions by saying to myself “think empathy” and asking myself: “How are these people likely feeling right now?”

    That single step is probably one of the most important things I’ve learned in my years as a vet. It’s good for my clients and improves my relationship with them, but it also shields me against compassion fatigue and burnout.

    It is for me as much as it is for them.

    Empathy statements

    Once you’re in the right headspace, you can use empathy statements to show clients you are sensitive to their experiences.

    Here a few examples of phrases that are super-simple and not too soppy that, in my experience, will instantly change the tone of client interactions from cold or even confrontational to collaborative:

    • “I’m sorry you had to wait so long.”
    • “I’m sure this is not how you a planned to spend your Friday night.”
    • “I can see you are very worried about…”
    • “How terrible. I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
    • “I realise it’s way past bedtime for your children (if there are young children present), so let’s see if we can find some answers so you can get them home.”
    • “You look all dressed up. Did you have big plans? I’m sure your plans didn’t include hanging out with me!”

    If we start our interactions like that, we immediately signal to our clients that we see them and respect their experience. We show them we are on their side, which puts them on our side.

    Instead of potential adversaries we become a team – and once we’re on the same team every other interaction becomes smoother.

    Conversely, if you omit these kind of statements it could be perceived that you judge your time to be more valuable than that of your client and that he or she should “just be grateful for the privilege of your time”.

    I’ll be the first to confess that this is sometimes exactly how I feel. This is why it’s so important to remain aware of your thoughts, because if your client senses even a sniff of superiority you’re setting yourself up for a rough ride.

    Subconsciously, they’ll be looking for opportunities to bring you back down to earth.

    Quick aside

    I mention the word team, which is exactly what we should aim for with our clients.

    I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “there is no ‘I’ in team”, but did you know there actually is  an “i” in team:

    The “i” in team…

    See, it’s right there in the A-hole.

    Yes, you will meet A-holes – probably on a daily basis. People who are going to try to find fault with what you do regardless of how perfectly you consult and how much you try to connect with them. People who have no intention of paying, people who think they know better than you because they’ve googled or spoken to their breeder.

    This is not written for them. These are not the people you will connect with. They are a challenge you need to face and a cross you’ll have to bear, but if you use these techniques for fostering connection you will reduce the effect these people have on your work life, because:

    A – they will have nothing to complain about
    B – you will find so much more joy in your other clients that the negative effects the A-holes have on your day will be massively reduced in comparison, and the effect they have on your psyche will become a lot less significant
    C – sometimes the interaction is ruined by an A-hole, but it’s not the client… this approach will ensure you are not inadvertently being the A-hole in the story.

    • When this series resumes, it will look at the next step in the CTR-C approach: Trust.
  • Connection: steps five and six

    Connection: steps five and six

    The right intentions, a friendly smile, a warm introduction and appropriate touch – four easy ways to help you foster connection with your clients, as described in the previous post.

    This part will look at two more common-sense strategies to help you forge fast bonds with your clients and ensure problem-free consults: finding common ground with your client, and using humour to expedite connection.

    Common ground

    Like it or not, us humans like to belong to a “tribe”. We’re very quick to judge a stranger as “one of us”, or “one of them”.

    Hopefully we’re all fighting against our biases, but it’s very likely parts of your subconscious mind is still making snap judgements about those around you, including your clients – and that your clients are making similar judgements about you.

    It’s in everyone’s best interest if you’re able to find common ground with your clients, to put you on the same “team”. When a client can relate to you around one or two shared interests, your level of connectedness will instantly jump up a few notches.

    Sometimes you’ll get lucky with an obvious commonality – like a shared background, an accent, or a T-shirt from a favourite sports team. Case in point: whenever I hear a Welsh accent in a consult room I point out the fact I lived in Wales for three years earlier in my career and tell them how much I loved it there. This ridiculously small incidental bit of shared history almost always assures that the client in question will insist on only seeing me in future.

    Other times you have to dig a little bit by asking a few questions about their work, their children, their hobbies, their holiday… anything you can bond around. And if all else fails, you can be certain you have at least one thing in common – animals, and in particular their animal.

    A sincere comment about their pet, or even just the breed of pet, shows you are paying attention and suggests you care. You don’t even have to lie – no need to go on about how lovely little Lucifer is after he’s tried to slash your eyes out; instead, an anecdote about your angry cat, or another patient, or why Lucifer is so angry, or about how hard it must be to get him in his cage at home…

    Any shared experience will lubricate the path to connection almost as much as a glass of wine lubricates a social event.

    Humour

    Here’s another hack straight into the workings of the limbic system of those around you: humour makes people feel good. It buffers stress and increases intimacy by reducing cortisone and adrenaline levels, and increasing the activation of the dopaminergic reward system.

    People who are seen as humorous are perceived as more intelligent and trustworthy. Research shows it even makes you appear more attractive.

    You may think a visit to an emergency vet clinic is no laughing matter, but even in the midst of a crisis very few situations exist where it’s not possible to find a little bit of humour, even if it is bittersweet.

    Besides the obvious comedic gold that surrounds rectal thermometers and the shamelessness of most animals (okay, maybe not cats), humour can be found in just about every situation. Yes, even euthanasias can offer opportunities for an appropriate remark or anecdote – perhaps about the animal when it was younger or a shared memory with enough nostalgic humour to increase the warmth in the situation without detracting from the gravity of the situation.

    Added benefit

    The jokes will not be lost on your own brain. The same feel-good chemicals that you’re inducing in your clients will be hitting your neurones and improving your own sense of well-being.

    Most vets who still love being vets after a decade or more in practice will cite “having fun” at work as one of the most important safeguards against burnout.

    • The next post will take a deeper dive into what I think is the most important tool for good client relationships and a happy career in veterinary science: Empathy.
  • Advice for first year vets beginning university in a pandemic

    Advice for first year vets beginning university in a pandemic

    With first year on the horizon in the midst of a world that is far from the normal we knew, some newbie vets are bound to be feeling nervous at the prospect of a fresher’s year like no other.

    Having spoken to a number of students due to begin their vet journeys later this month, I thought I would address some of their specific concerns, and offer advice and comfort to anyone out there who might need it.

    Fear #1: loneliness

    I think every first year is worried about making friends and fitting in, so, when socialising is legally restricted, it’s only natural for those worries to intensify.

    For any students who had their heart set on midnight raves seven days a week, I’m not sure I can offer much in the way of a solution. However, I would like to say that I managed to make several good friends before even moving into halls.

    Social media made it possible to connect with people from my course and accommodation far in advance of the start of term – and some of those early connections went on to form long-lasting friendships after meeting in person.

    Social media made it possible for Eleanor Goad to connect with people from her course and accommodation in advance of the start of term. Photo by bongkarn thanyakij from Pexels.
    Social media allowed Eleanor to connect with people from her course before it began. Photo by bongkarn thanyakij from Pexels

    Get connected

    If you’ve yet to find an online group like that at your university then I encourage you to have another look. Whether you want to connect with course mates, room-mates or people who enjoy the same activities as you, I promise, your people are out there waiting for you to find them.

    If you’re not the most socially inclined person, it can be easy to feel isolated at the best of times, so I implore you to take advantage of every online resource your university has to offer.

    Community

    First years I’ve spoken to have worried about the lack of group learning and practicals because they already know the value of teamwork in the veterinary industry. Studying with friends is an incredible tool, and a strong sense of community is one of the defining features of every vet school.

    Although your social bubble will of course be no substitute for a lecture hall of 150 people, it is no lie that most students make their best friends on the first day with the person sitting next to them.

    Fear #2: mental health

    The veterinary course can be intense and highly demanding – both mentally and emotionally. It’s why this course and profession have higher incidences of depression, anxiety and suicide than almost any others.

    The general uncertainty surrounding local lockdowns can make visits home to family and friends to recuperate and unwind challenging or impossible – especially to foreign students who may already feel isolated.

    It has never been more important for the veterinary community to rally around and support one another. We are all in the same boat – from first years, to lecturers, to vets out in the field. All of us are a little uncertain, but we are strongest when we work together.

    Fear #3: access to learning resources

    I’ve spent many an hour studying cadavers of all sizes at length in the lead-up to an exam, or simply when I just couldn’t wrap my head around something. I know from first-hand experience that sometimes looking at something on a computer screen just isn’t the same, and when it comes to the vet course, there’s no better way to learn than hands-on, up close and personal.

    I must have had tens of hours’ worth of lectures about the bovine reproductive tract and how to perform a rectal exam, but I think I learned more in 15 minutes with my hand inside a rectum than I did in all of those lectures combined.

    rectum
    Eleanor claims she learned more in 15 minutes with her hand inside a rectum than she did in all her bovine reproductive tract lectures combined… Image © A / Adobe Stock

    No substitute

    There truly is no substitute for live instruction, so it is incredibly important for all vet students to make the most of all the face-to-face content their university can provide.

    Taking the time to study the content beforehand can be extremely helpful for this. Not only do you (hopefully) know enough to understand what you are looking at (a leg versus an arm, for example), but you’re also more aware of what you really don’t understand and can perhaps prepare some questions in advance.

    Just ask

    Take advantage of any personnel on hand when you have them – don’t be too anxious to ask questions or raise your hand because you’ll be kicking yourself when you’re trying to discover those answers on Google and it tries giving you recipe ideas when you look up the parts of a chicken wing.

    Of course, I don’t have all the answers. If you are worried, unsure or have any questions about how the vet course is evolving then, regardless of the year you are in, email or call into your vet school to help put your mind at rest.

  • Connection: steps one to four

    Connection: steps one to four

    Offering a handshake may be off the menu for now, but introducing yourself and smiling help create a connection with clients. Image © glisic_albina / Adobe Stock
    Offering a handshake may be off the menu for now, but introducing yourself and smiling help create a connection with clients. Image © glisic_albina / Adobe Stock

    In the previous post I told you about my mnemonic to help me remember the seven tools we can use to help us connect with our clients: IS IT CHE(esy).

    Intention, Smile, Introduction, Touch, Common ground, Humour and Empathy.

    Let’s look at the first four.

    Setting your Intentions

    Is it easy to always be the kind of person who people instantly warm to and trust? Especially by the end of a long day when you’re doing your 27th consult? But does that 27th client deserve the best of you as much as everyone who came before?

    Sometimes this is hard work – and, like all work, you have to decide to commit to it. This will come easily at times, but other times you will constantly need to reset your intentions to remind yourself of how you want to be before you start each new interaction.

    This decision will show in your demeanour and shine through in your voice, and register loud and clear in the subconscious of the client within seconds.

    Smile

    This may sound trite, but a lot of science exists behind smiling. The contraction of your facial muscles into a smile is an involuntary reaction stimulated by the release of endorphins in your brain when it receives a pleasurable impulse. But this is where it gets interesting – this process also works in reverse.

    The contraction of the facial muscles involved in smiling feeds back into the brain and causes the release of more endorphins. In other words, while feelings of pleasure will cause a smile, a smile also causes feelings of pleasure.

    Chicken and egg, right?

    The second important thing to know about smiles is that they are contagious. When we see a smile, our brains want to mirror what we see – so we smile. And what happens when we smile?

    Introduce yourself

    If our goal is to connect, then starting your interactions by at least telling your clients who you are sounds too simple to even have to say. Yet many of the client complaints I’ve dealt with include comments about clients not knowing who they saw – or even worse, about them not knowing they ever saw a vet.

    How are people going to connect with you if they don’t even know your name?

    Also, remember to be clear to the client about your role in the care of his or her animal. For example: “Hi, I’m Dr Hubert. I’m the senior vet on shift, and I’ll be taking care of Fluffy tonight.”

    Touch

    At the time of writing this, in 2020, shaking hands is officially off the menu. Which is a shame, because appropriate touch is a very easy hack to increasing feelings of connectedness.

    Physical touch has been shown to reduce stress hormones and cause a release of oxytocin, which directly increases feelings of connectedness – you’re drugging the person into liking you.

    Touch, as a tool, can go beyond the handshake. Of course there is a fine line between “warm” and “creepy”, but appropriate touch at appropriate moments can mean a lot to your clients.

    A quick squeeze of the forearm or a momentary hand on the shoulder can reassure and foster connection faster than anything you can say. It’s a simple reminder to both you and the client that we’re human.

    • The next post will continue the connection hacks with the next two tools: Common ground and Humour.
  • Connection: is it cheesy?

    Connection: is it cheesy?

    In my previous post, I listed four key feelings that clients need to experience in their dealings with us if we want to achieve great client relationships.

    In this part, we’ll start by looking more closely at the first of these four feelings – connection.

    Foundations

    Connection serves as the foundation the entire relationship will be built on. When a strong sense of connection is established early on in our dealings with clients, everything else becomes almost frictionless.

    Have you ever experienced the situation where you hit it off with a client, and when the discussion turns to a possible surgical procedure they insist you be the one to do the surgery, even though they don’t know anything about your surgical skills?

    For all the client knows, you’re a complete butcher – but because they like you, they trust you will have their best interests at heart.

    When someone feels a connection with you, they want to trust you. Hence, the client will be more open to what you have to say to overlook problems.

    It’s not logical, but then nothing about emotions is.

    Creating environment

    So, how do we create the right environment for connection?

    What follows are some very practical tips to make it happen. Some of these may seem very obvious – if someone tells you the first step to running a marathon is to remember to tie your shoelaces, you may think it’s too basic to even mention; however, I’ve seen many vets stumble (indeed, I’ve often stumbled) at the starting line amid the chaos of a busy practice because they forget those very basics.

    Which is why I’ve created a structured format to help me remember the steps.

    Part one introduced you to the CTR-C acronym to help memorise the broad outline. Now, I’ll present you with my silly mnemonic to help me memorise the ingredients that will help you foster connection.

    IS IT CHE(ESY)?

    • Intentions
    • Smile
    • Introduction
    • Touch
    • Common ground
    • Humour
    • Empathy

    -ESY is just to finish the sentence. Maybe you can come up with three more?

    • The next post will dig deeper into how to use each of the connection tools.