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Should you employ a new grad?
This weekend, I helped out with a talk at SPVS-VMG Congress on employing new graduates.

It gave delegates – vets, VNs, employers and new grads themselves – the opportunity to reflect on how wildly different each new grad’s experience can be, and appreciate the challenges employers face when hiring new grads.

The fact those in attendance had chosen to come to a talk on ensuring practice is right for new grads suggested most of our audience were forward-thinking employers who wanted to provide their new grads with a good start to their career.

The others

However, and sadly, not all employers have that at the top of their priority list. I would like to think such employers – who, as a result, are maybe not treating their new grads well – aren’t doing it maliciously, but rather just don’t have the time to teach and mentor properly, but also don’t have a choice but to take on new grads, given the employment crisis the profession faces.

However, that is still no excuse. I should also mention, of course, the minority of employers that will hire a new grad simply for cheap labour – meaning there is little to no interest in them at all. If you cannot provide adequate support for a new grad, don’t employ one – it isn’t fair on anyone.

My generation

Lazy? Or valuing non-work time? Image © Free Photos / Pixabay

Many of the challenges of employing a new graduate stem from the difference in attitudes between different generations. The new grads moving through the system now are of the “millennial” generation often stereotyped as lazy, entitled and needy.

Being a millennial myself, I inherently disagree with these generalisations – they just need looking at differently:
- We are not lazy, we just don’t want to work horrendous hours. We are more than happy to work strange shifts (evenings/nights), but that doesn’t mean working the traditional expectation of five long days, a full weekend on call and a further five days.
- We are not entitled, we just cannot justify the negatives of the profession long-term. The “love of veterinary medicine“ is very idyllic, but just isn’t sustainable in the real world. We could work less hours, be paid more, take holidays when we want and be paid reasonable sick pay in many other sectors, so why wouldn’t we? It’s not about the money, here – it’s about the injustice.
- We are not needy, we just crave feedback. How do we know we’re doing okay unless you tell us? How do we know how to improve if you don’t guide us?
Wake-up call

Some vets of the older generations still have the attitude of “we had to go through it, so you have to get on with it too” – as though the horror of being left to your own devices, being unable to contact anyone in the middle of the night when you are out of your depth, and the sleep deprivation of internships are just a “rite of passage” of being a new grad. It may be news to these bosses, but the new grads of today just won’t put up with that crap.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result” is a quotation often attributed to Einstein. Whether he ever actually said it is questionable, but it has applications in many walks of life. When these old-style partners still expect their new grads to be on call for 17 nights in a row, is it any wonder there is an employment crisis?

If you want to attract any staff, not just new grads, you’ve got to adapt to the present. Veterinary is changing and the modern new grad doesn’t want – and won’t settle – for the same things they did 50 years ago.

Let’s talk

Support… it’s all we need. Image © 135pixels / Adobe Stock

So, what do new grads want? Well, how long is a piece of string? The simple fact is: we are all different. The key to having a successful working relationship with a new grad is communication and flexibility.

The one thing all new grads want is support, but what that support actually looks like can vary wildly. For example, sometimes the new grad themselves will underestimate or overestimate how much support they need, which is why it is important for the learning process to be continual, with frequent check-ins.

It’s all very well saying I’ll only need second on-call backup for two months, but if, after that time, I still haven’t done a caesarean or calving, how can I be expected to be able to handle it alone?

Of course, this works both ways – new grads need to be upfront and honest about what kind of support they think they need, and practices likewise need to be honest about what they can provide.

If either party are overselling themselves to secure a job/vet, the arrangement will not work out long-term and both of you will be on the hunt again much quicker than you would like.

What we can do

So, why should you bother employing a new grad if you have to put lots of extra effort and time into it compared with employing an experienced vet? We new grads have a lot to offer:
1. We are tech-savvy (usually much more than our older counterparts).
2. We have lots of new ideas and experiences from a variety of placements in different practices.
3. We have up-to-date knowledge since we are fresh out of universities undertaking research into the newest techniques and treatments.
4. We are enthusiastic – despite refusing to put up with the poor working environments of the past, we are yet to become cynical about the veterinary profession.
What we lack is experience – and that is what we ask of you. Sure, the harsh truth may be that you don’t really have a choice in the employment climate as it stands, but if you get it right – and your new grad stays with you for years to come – it will be a true investment.
January 31, 2018
New vet schools are not the solution

We’ve barely had a day of news in the past year that didn’t include Brexit. Yet, do any of us really know what the real consequences will be?

Within the veterinary profession, specific factors are undoubtedly going to be influenced by Brexit, even if we don’t know the extent of these yet. They do, however, include a great deal of legislation on welfare and meat hygiene, but also the future of the UK veterinary workforce.

It has been suggested the proposed coalition of Keele University and Harper Adams for yet another UK vet school may help boost numbers of veterinary professionals in the UK post-Brexit, especially when it is suspected we may be facing a shortfall.

I disagree.

Not a new problem

Is training new vets going to be of detriment to the health and well-being of those in the profession already? IMAGE: GianlucaCiroTancredi/Fotolia.

Yes, the veterinary profession has a shortage of experienced veterinary surgeons right now, but this was the case before the EU referendum was even in the pipeline – SPVS, for example, called for veterinary surgeons to be added to the UK’s shortage occupation list in 2015.

Sure, post-Brexit, it is likely to get worse – for example, the uncertainty surrounding the whole situation is (anecdotally) already seeing some of our EU vets searching for jobs overseas and leaving. This isn’t just “vet news” either – the BBC (despite the ambiguous statistics quoted) also recognised the effects of Brexit on the veterinary profession in an article this week.

But opening new vet schools isn’t the answer. For example, there is increasing awareness in the veterinary profession of the importance of mental health and a resultant expanding of the resources available for those who are struggling.

We also frequently hear buzzwords such as “compassion fatigue” and “burnout”, which we need to do more about.

My point is: we need to look after our current vets. This would prevent them getting tired and fed up, and ultimately leaving the profession – or, at least, leaving a clinical practice role.

Sold the wrong idea?

The Voices from the Future of the Profession report produced by the BVA/RCVS Vet Futures initiative in 2015 stated 50% of recent graduates thought their working lives did not meet their expectations. This disillusionment, set among a feeling of being undervalued, overworked and lacking a good work-life balance (something I’ve written about at length) leads to vets turning to other careers before they have a great deal of experience – this is what should be addressed.

We need to focus on the well-being of the vets we have instead of luring even more school leavers into a profession they have false preconceptions of.

More new graduates will not solve the problem – and this is coming from one. They will simply dilute the profession and struggle because there are less “experienced vets” to mentor them and help them hone their skills and knowledge. Ultimately, a large proportion of these will become stressed and leave within a couple of years – the vicious cycle is thus complete.

Teaching tussles

On a vet school level, irrespective of Brexit, this announcement is too not welcomed. At Glasgow, I have met clinicians that have chopped and changed between vet schools because there aren’t enough experts willing to teach, resulting in a bidding war between the universities.

We now have nine vet schools across the UK and Ireland. The Aberwysth-RVC programme (for which updates on their plans were announced earlier this week) and the Keele-Harper Adams course are only going to add fuel to that fire. Where are we going to suddenly magic up so many more diplomats and EU specialists to teach? Or, for that matter, clinical skills and first opinion teachers?

Couple-of-years-qualified graduates aren’t going to have the same breadth of experience to prepare students for a variety of surgical or clinical scenarios – they are not an adequate substitute.

Reasoning questioned

Is it simply a case of money, as Jordan claims?

The plans for new vet schools is not about saving the profession, nor is it about Brexit. It is down to academic institutions seeking high-achieving school leavers to attract more undergraduates and gain more funding.

It is ludicrous a university can just decide to open a vet school off its own back and threaten the resources of current vet schools, which include teaching staff and the availability of EMS placements, especially since many of the new course models (Nottingham, Surrey and the two proposed courses above) do not have their own teaching hospitals and, instead, use external practices.

It is true the new courses will be monitored and analysed once they have an intake of students to assess whether the graduates will be allowed to practice as veterinary surgeons, but by then, it’s too late.

There needs to be regulation to prevent it getting to that point, for the sake of the profession and the disillusioned school leavers applying en masse to these new courses.

July 30, 2017
The gender pay gap – don’t put up with it
I used to consider myself a bit of an anti-feminist – but before the majority of the profession tear strips off me, let me explain…

There are a number of very strongly opinionated feminists around – on your Facebook feed, in the news and also friends or colleagues – you know the type; those who rant on and on about how a builder whistled at them when out running or how it’s disgusting women can’t walk home alone at night without fearing some sort of assault.

Don’t get me wrong, these are issues that shouldn’t be ignored – but by the time I’ve read the 17th Facebook essay about an objectifying song lyric, it starts to get a bit boring.

Keyboard warriors

In my opinion, these sort of things need to be considered sensibly.

Yes, it’s horrible we live in a world where a female is less safe than a male at night in a city, but what are you going to do about it?

Moaning on Facebook isn’t going to save your life. Swallowing your pride and spending a couple of quid on a taxi, instead of walking, might.

I hated being associated with these hardcore, self-proclaimed feminists, because I think those who aren’t campaigning for equality – but are just man haters – give the rest of the female population a bad name.

The ‘real’ working world

I also used to be naive to things like the gender pay gap, because it didn’t affect me at the time. However, now I’m about to enter the “real” working world, in a predominantly female profession, a recent headline caught my eye.

An article in The Guardian regarding the gender pay gap of university graduates stated: “Women who studied veterinary science experienced the widest gap, earning about half as much as their male counterparts”.

I’m not really sure about the accuracy of the study they refer to, and I’m certainly not aware of such a drastic gap among any of my colleagues, but it did get me thinking.

For new grads, I struggled to see how there could be such a gap, where so many internships and graduate programmes having standardised remuneration packages. However, concerning those who are a few years into their careers, there is the theory women are less likely to ask for pay rises than men.

In this day and age

Hardcore, self-proclaimed, man-hating feminists who aren’t campaigning for equality give the rest of the female population a bad name, says Jordan. IMAGE: dundanim / Fotolia.

The pay gap is undoubtedly noted across the profession as a whole, with the SPVS Salary Survey in 2014 noting a gap of 10%.

This begs the question, why? How on earth, in the 21st century, despite being a predominately female profession, can there be this difference?

This does, of course, depend on what is being taken into account.
- Do men progress quicker to partnership roles?
- Are there more men than women in these senior positions?
- Is that accounting for the increased number of women in part-time veterinary work compared to men?
We have a private profession where salaries vary so much depending on the employer, the value of an employee to a practice, location, and other benefits or job perks. Therefore, it is hard to speculate without being able to compare colleagues with similar abilities and experience in like-for-like roles.

Unacceptable

All that aside, there certainly is a pay gap in some form within the veterinary profession, and this is unacceptable. It should be unacceptable in any profession.

Maternity leave may well be inconvenient and expensive for employers, but that should not result in discrimination, purely for being born female.

To all the veterinary feminists out there, instead of getting angry at the world, do something for yourself and for the rest of us in the profession – ask for the pay rise you deserve and do not allow yourself to be undervalued purely because nature made you this way.

Don’t put up with financial discrimination. There are enough women in the profession to drive a change, and that we should do.
June 30, 2017
The consequences of making a mistake
Beef farms in Scotland can be quite picturesque.

Fertility work makes up a large proportion of cattle veterinary work in the UK and, after spending a month on the farm rotation at university, I can appreciate the importance of getting it right – and how hard it can be.

Experienced large animal vets make it look easy – they scan the uterus and ovaries, and decide what drug to give to aid getting the cow in calf, all in a minute or two.

In the meantime, I’m still fumbling about trying to palpate what, I think, may be the uterus or ovaries while the cow squeezes and gradually cuts off the circulation in my arm until I can barely feel my fingers.

Meanwhile, the vet has zipped through several cows already.

When things go wrong

What happens if you misdiagnose a pregnant cow as negative and administer prostaglandin, or give a cow steroids without realising she’s in calf?

On one fertility visit this week, we discussed when things go wrong. For example, what if:
- you misdiagnose a pregnant cow as negative and administer prostaglandin (PGF_2α)?
- a vet gives a cow steroids for any number of reasons without realising she’s in calf?
The outcomes of both of these scenarios are almost inevitably abortion, which can have a number of repercussions on the farm – and, potentially, the vet.

Negligence or misconduct?

Many new graduates are terrified of being called up for “fitness to practice” for making a mistake such as those aforementioned. However, during a Veterinary Defence Society (VDS) workshop at the SPVS Lancaster weekend earlier this year, it was emphasised a difference exists between negligence and misconduct in the eyes of the RCVS.

What I took away from this session was, in simple terms, negligence involves making a mistake – such as missing a diagnosis, giving the wrong treatment accidentally, eliciting side effects from something due to missing something in the case history – whereas misconduct is actively doing something you know you shouldn’t – such as trying to cover up a mistake, lying or misleading a client.

Mistakenly giving PGF_2α to a pregnant cow would be classed as negligence and, on the whole, the VDS would have your back; the farmer may receive some compensation for his losses, but the incident wouldn’t tarnish your career. In the same situation, misconduct would be denying you had administered any treatment.

In short, you won’t get struck off for easily made, one-off mistakes, but you may if you lie about them.

In the news

Our conversation about accidentally aborting cows led us to discuss the case of Honey Rose, the optometrist convicted of gross negligence manslaughter. News reports vary, but, from what I can gather, she failed to diagnose papilloedema (swollen optic discs) in an eight-year-old boy, which would have been an indication of the hydrocephalus he died of five months later.

It is reported she claimed to have been unable to examine his eyes properly because he had photophobia – a claim considered false by the judge. However, she had also failed to look at retinal photos taken by a colleague, on which the papilloedema was evident.

Going by the RCVS’ rules, missing the diagnosis or not looking at the retinal photos would be negligent. However, denying she’d been able to carry out a thorough examination, despite written records suggesting otherwise, would be misconduct.

Rose was found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter and was handed a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, and a 24-month supervision order, and was ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work.

In your defence

As vets, we have the VDS to help us in these situations – and, while it would be truly awful to make a mistake resulting in an animal’s death, we would not be at risk of imprisonment.

Doctors and dentists also have defence societies that will fight their corner, but optometrists? To my knowledge, an equivalent does not exist – and this was the first case of an optometrist convicted of manslaughter in the UK, which added to the complexity of the legal battle.

The death of a little boy is devastating, but, as medical professionals know, death is a risk with many procedures, no matter how small the risk may be. It’s frightening to think jail could be a consequence for those in the medical profession.

So, while I gradually lost the sensation in my right arm as I tried to reach an ovary of the 10th cow in a row, I mulled this over and realised I was extremely thankful for the safety net the VDS provides and would not take working with animals for granted.

After all, if I’d decided to be a doctor instead, I could be rummaging around in another human’s back end rather than a cow’s!
- For further details of the Veterinary Defence Society and its services, visit www.thevds.co.uk
October 19, 2016
RCVS council election manifesto: Christopher Barker

CHRISTOPHER BARKER

BVSc, MLitt, CertVR, MRCVS

Ashlea Veterinary Centre, Unit 2b, Port Road Business Park, Carlisle CA2 7AF.

T 01228 549177

M 07703 753758

E ctbarker@supanet.com

PROPOSERS: Anne French, Iain Richards

Since qualifying from Bristol in 1980, I have worked in a wide range of first-opinion practices (mixed, pure equine and pure small animal) and, for seven years, was involved in the tuition of final year veterinary students while working for the former Glasgow University Practice in Lanark. I achieved the CertVR from practice in 1991 and obtained an MLitt for archaeological research in 1989.

Since 1994, I have run a small animal practice in Carlisle with my wife Kirsty, which has grown to employ five veterinary surgeons and four RVNs, and accepts student VNs from three different colleges. The practice achieved the Investors in People Award on three occasions. I take primary responsibility for cardiology, imaging and orthopaedic work.

Beyond work, my interests include skiing, cycling and DIY, keeping my English setter fully exercised and watching cricket.

Before offering myself for election to the RCVS, I spent two years on SPVS Council; I was elected to RCVS Council for the first time in 2012.

Manifesto

I have been fortunate to be a member of the standards committee throughout my first term on council. Currently its vice-chairman, I have sought to ensure demands made of practitioners are both reasonable and deliverable.

I was part of the post-Chikosi 24/7 review, which, we hope, has more clearly defined the responsibilities of both owners and veterinary surgeons. Another review may prove unavoidable as consumer choice leads to the fragmentation of veterinary service provision, with resultant confusion as to who exactly carries responsibility for the emergency care of those animals “registered” with more than one supplier.

A recent survey, part of the Vet Futures initiative, has revealed worrying levels of disillusionment among younger members of the profession. Further analysis will, I hope, help us to understand the reasons for this. While dedicated emergency services have improved work-life balance for many, as 10-hour days become common have we simply changed the nature of work-related stress? I find it sad fewer graduates now express an interest in running their own practice; while it is undoubtedly challenging to run your own business, you can at least take control of your professional life. If this trend continues then the number of genuinely independent practices will inexorably decline.

Next year should see the conclusion of the current review of RCVS governance, a review likely to lead to a significant shrinkage in the size of council. Elected members will remain in the majority, but their numbers will be reduced. It will be important council retains members with relevant and recent experience of first-opinion practice. In this regard, I believe I can continue to make a worthwhile contribution and would ask for your support in this election.

March 24, 2016
Money makes the world go around…

Do you see many of these?

…unless you’re a member of the veterinary professions according to the latest edition of the SPVS Salaries Survey, which has revealed “an overall dip” in vets’ pay packets.

The figures – which cover the whole salary package, including accommodation, company cars and CPD (when provided) – are particularly disappointing for small animal practitioners, revealing that the only vets to see any increase in wage since 2012 are those in mixed and large animal practice. However, salaries for these vets are still lower overall than they were in 2010.

Veterinary nurses fared slightly better, with the average RVN salary continuing to rise over the past year, in marked contrast to veterinary surgeon wages. However, the average RVN salary – now at £20,208 – is still more than £6,000 behind the national UK average of £26,500.

Commenting on the incongruity of the results, SPVS spokesman Peter Brown speculated that demographic differences in the two professions (more vets entering the UK market, compared to a paucity of RVNs) could be behind the stronger nursing trend – something the profession should be particularly aware of with new vet schools set to open.

September 19, 2013