Throughout your professional journey, has anyone contributed to your success or inspired you to take on new challenges while making you feel valued, appreciated, and included? Have you ever felt empowered and supported by your superiors or colleagues who pushed you to be your best? Our Practice Playbook expert, Senani Ratnayake from Vet Alliance/Globalvet calls upon some colleagues to share how their career paths were positively influenced by someone who set them up for success.

It’s a common scenario, particularly in healthcare settings such as veterinary medicine. You have a star employee, a top performer – whether it’s a veterinarian, technician or other member of your support team. This person might have consistent practice-leading production numbers or brilliant surgical skills. Maybe they’ve been with you so long they know the ins and outs of your protocols and procedures like the back of their hand and are able to do the work of two people. They might be the...

Does your clinic have a policy manual? If so, is it up-to-date? Do you view policy-making as a dreadful necessity or as a helpful guide for your employees, one that reflects the values of your practice and your team? Our Practice Playbook expert, Lucie Langevin-Neil shares best practices and five key principles for integration of effective policy-making into your practice. These insights will allow you to develop policies that reflect who you are and will help foster trust, collaboration and...

We are living in a time of continuous disruption, turmoil and uncertainty. Many of the challenges we face are beyond our immediate control, but how we survey our veterinary practices and prepare for an uncertain future is something we do have control over. What we need is a plan to help us deal with our current staffing challenges and the demands of our clients to ensure the future viability of our practices. In other words, we need a strategy. What is a business strategy? We want to compete...

How do you handle tough cases and difficult situations in your clinic? Does everyone just vent to their colleagues when they need to or is there a safe space where team members can share their frustrations and traumatic experiences? Our Practice Playbook expert, Dr. Shona Kowtecky explains how to implement low-impact debriefing in your practice, so team members can learn how to properly share their stories with the right person, at the right time, and in the right way.

In 2019, Dr. Andy Roark sent out a survey that would shine a light on something that impacts all of us in the veterinary profession. It allowed him to test his theory that some of the darkest moments for a veterinary professional come at the end of a long, challenging shift. His survey garnered over 8,000 responses. When asked “if you were alone in your veterinary clinic and needed to access the controlled drugs, could you do so?”, 71% of respondents said they could access the controlled...

How is conflict handled or perceived in your clinic? Are there any subtle signs you are missing that could help you prevent or manage conflict within your team? Our Practice Playbook expert, Dr. Cyndie Courtney explains how to effectively address interpersonal conflict and what you can do to help avoid conflict in the first place, including policies you can implement to support your team's well-being and ensure optimal patient care.

Veterinary services are in high demand at a time when many practices are already stretched beyond their capacity, while simultaneously struggling with recruitment and general staffing challenges. For this reason, practices need to make sure they are optimizing their ability to reinvest in their business to support sustainable growth. While we are all finding recruitment to be an overwhelming challenge with no easy solutions, inventory management is something we are all capable of controlling....

Are you a leader? Do you have the power to lead? If not, do you know where it comes from and how to get it? The answer may surprise you! Our Practice Playbook expert, Senani Ratnayake from Vet Alliance/Globalvet shares her advice and key tips to help you better understand leadership mindset and what being a good leader is really about. This session isn't just for owners and managers. To truly inspire, you need to understand the behaviours and attitudes that will ultimately lead to success with...