Long before COVID-19 arrived, veterinary professionals were quiet hard workers, not complaining about their less than ideal work conditions. Challenging conditions were the norm. Now that the pandemic has hit, those challenging conditions have been placed on steroids. Most of us don't talk about our work stresses outside of the work enivornment, because quite honestly, most people won't understand or don't want to hear about the patients we lost. Our clients get our compassion, symphany, knowledge, and communication skills. Our vulnerabilty is never shown. Our clients don't understand burnout, being overworked and undervalued. Our clients don't understand that they are commonly the source.
What you need to know:
1) Veterinary clinics across the US are seeing a surge in volume of cases. This could be attritubed to new adoptions over this quartaineed period, or clients analyzing their pet's every movement due to being home more. Because of this volume, client-wait times and phone call hold times are tremousously increased, therefore clients are getting more impatient and taking it out on the veterinary staff. And unfortunately, we have no control over the volume that we are seeing, and trust me the managers are constantly trying to figure out how to better handle this. At my clinic, the phones DO NOT STOP RINGING.......I wish I was exaggerating. It is a constant ring of one client after another, asking about prescriptions, charges, appointments, opinions, estimates, and advice. The yelling and rudeness to the receptionists won't make us do our job any faster. We beg you to be more patient, we will get to your call when we can.
2) Appointments are filling up fast because everyone "needs" to be seen. If your pet is sick, and you are unable to be seen right away, that doesn't mean come in right away. We are constantely seeing emergencies that aren't actually emergent which takes time away from the true emergencies. Your pet's diarrhea that has been going on for TWO WEEKS is not an emergency now. This is another reason we are getting behind and your wait time is going to be longer. The fact that I haven't called you back right away when your pet comes in for an "emergency" is a GOOD sign....it means your pet is stable and I'm attending to other more critical patients that need my immediate and undivided attention. List of actual veterinary emergencies
3) Your pet's vaccines can wait. Just because you got a reminder in the mail saying the exact date that they due, doesn't mean it has to be done on that exact date. That reminder is from a computer system that is scheduled to send out cards one year from when the last vaccines or tests were performed. It's ok if your pet is even a month overdue on most vaccines. The rabies vaccines is something that your county or state may need you to stay up-to-date on however. So if you know that your pet is going to be due soon, schedule your appointment sooner rather than later, because chances are we still aren't going to be able to fit you in for 1-2 weeks. Puppy and kitten vaccines are also a different story - check with your vet for their recommended schedule and try to schedule all the appointments ahead of time so that you have the slots. Worse case if you schedule the appointments early, is having to reschedule, which can be easily done, but you also may be on hold for a few extra minutes.
4) Social distancing isn't feasible in our field. Yes, we are all wearing masks, all day, running in and out of the building, in the heat; we expect that you will wear one as well when we talk to you in person. A techician/assistant needs to be holding the pet that is being examined at a close distance, not 6 feet away. We have kept clients outside in the car and outside of the office in order to limit the amount of people in the building. My clinic already has over 60 people working at one time, including maybe 10 doctors working at one time. That means we have at least 10 pets being seen at a time by different doctors. If each of those doctors allows their client to come in with their pet, that's even closer to reaching 100 people in the same building at one time. I understand that you want to be with your pet during the exam, but we simply cannot allow more people into the building safely.
5) Veterinarians and staff constantly ask ourselves why our clients can't treat us like they treat their own doctors. Would you treat your doctor the same way you treat your vet? In most cases if you did, they can turn you away and tell you to go elsewhere. We have that privelage too, but chances are we are still allowing you to behavior the way you do. This was a post I saw the other day:
Can we please normalize Veterinary Medicine and treat it like human medicine?
-Call in ADVANCE to make wellness appointments. We are extremely busy, especially now, so it may take a week or two to fit you in.
-If it's an emergency, by all means, call your primary care veterinarian first, but if we can't fit you in, GO TO AN EMERGENCY HOSPITAL. Don't yell and scream and demand to be seen because you've been "a long time client". You wouldn't call your pediatrician in the middle of the day and demand them to treat your son/daughter's broken leg would you
-If going to an emergency hospital, be prepared to wait. Animal ER works just like Human ER. Most critical cases are seen first. Doesn't mean you won't get care, it just means you may have to wait a couple of hours.
-Yes, ER may cost more, but they're eqipped with more staff and equipment to accommodate emergency situations.
-It takes time to do things. Lots of time. Running bloodwork, taking xrays, filling meds, etc. IT TAKES TIME. Be patient. Veterinary Nurses in ER will usually have multiple cases at once, and most times there is only ONE Veterinarian.
-We are ALL VERY OVERWHELMED and STRESSED. We love our jobs and our patients but we only have so many hours in the day.
PLEASE BE KIND. Be courteous, be understanding and please, please, please just be better prepared. Veterinary Medicine is not here to cater to you.
5) Burnout and comparisson fatigue is a real problem and something that they actually prepare you for in vet school. Recently, everytime I check my email, my veterinary information networks, or social media, there have been more and more articles about veterinary professionals becoming burn-out and exhausted. What many people don't know is that mental illness and suicide is extremely high in this profession. We aren't perfect and we've never claimed to be, yet our clients expect us to be.
Facing The Wellness Crisis In Our Profession
Burnout And Compassion Fatigue
Worst Experiences With Clients
This poem has been circulating for years and will come up again in these times of stress, so if you fall under any of these statments, then please take a step back and realize the butterfly effect it can have on someone:
Every Time
Every time you say vets are money grubbing or ‘too expensive’ or just in it for the money,
Every time you decline all diagnostics, yet demand to know “what’s wrong with my pet”,
Every time at a social function or other completely inappropriate place you find out that someone is a vet you ask them for free advice about your animal,
Every time you feel justified posting a s&^**y practice or vet review when everything was done according to the standard of care but your pet died anyway,
Every time YOUR lack of preventative care resulted in your pet’s early death, yet you blame the veterinarian,
Every time she gets in early and stays late and works an 80-hour week because your pet that had been ill for days suddenly becomes an emergency at 5pm on a Friday, and you demand to be seen, claiming these heartless vets won’t treat your baby,
Every time someone complains about the cost of veterinary care, comparing human medicine and insurance subsidies to pet ownership,
Every time someone doesn’t pay their bill and thinks they are entitled not to because pet ownership is their “right”,
Every time someone walks in to a clinic and threatens to “sue your ass if you make one mistake with my baby”,
Every time a graduate vet looks at the hundreds of thousands of dollars in crippling debt and listens to clients driving Mercedes and BMWs complain about the cost of a spay using good anesthetic care and adequate pain management,
Every time – You are part of the problem.
Think before you act or speak.
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