#132: Beyond the Bottom Line: Redefining Veterinary Business Success and Mastering Money Conversations. With Dr. Paul Harrison

Get the show notes for this episode, plus a very neat treatment guide for hyperkalaemia, ⁠here.⁠ Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up-to-date, easy-to-consume clinical episodes at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vvn.supercast.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Get help with your tricky cases in our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Specialist Support Space.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Subscribe to our weekly newsletter⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week. You may have heard about a condition where greyhounds can become dangerously hyperkalaemic under anaesthesia, but did you know that this isn’t something that happens exclusively in greyhounds? And do you know what the risk factors are for this happening, what you can do to try and prevent it, or how to preempt it? If the answer to any of these is no, and you ever anaesthetise non-human species, then this is one of those “will probably save a patient’s life one day” episodes. Our guest is Dr Stacey Jones, who was involved in publishing the first ⁠paper on anaesthesia-associated hyperkalaemia⁠ in greyhounds that brought this condition to the veterinary world’s attention. She joins the podcast to share what she learnt while conducting the research for this paper, as well as to provide an update on the work that has been done since that first publication. This update fleshes out our understanding of the condition, focusing on what you need to know about it in practice. Episode Topics and Timestamps 04:06 Symptoms and Detection 07:27 The Greyhound Project: A Case Study 19:15 Hyperkalemia Beyond Greyhounds 22:05 Practical Takeaways 27:53 Conclusion and Additional Resources

Lift your clinical game with our RACE approved clinical podcasts at ⁠⁠vvn.supercast.com⁠⁠  for more clinical confidence and better patient outcomes, or check out our Advanced Surgery Podcast at ⁠cutabove.supercast.com⁠.  Get case support from our team of specialists in our ⁠Specialist Support Space⁠. ⁠Subscribe to our weekly newsletter⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week. “This is not a women's issue: this is a societal issue. We all have women in our lives that we love, that we work with, that we care for, and we MUST be putting these conversations on the table.” If you’re listening to THIS podcast, chances are you’re a veterinarian. That means that statistically, there’s about a 70% chance you’re a woman. That makes an honest, in-depth conversation about menopause not just relevant, but essential. This is that conversation.  And even if you’re not a woman, or menopause is still decades away for you, you almost certainly work with or live with someone for whom this topic is, or will be, very significant. You should absolutely care about it- and know about it. In this question-and-answer conversation, recorded live at the Greencross Symposium 2024, we unpack the science, symptoms, and solutions with Dr. Nicole Avard, menopause specialist, and Georgie Drury, founder of Metluma, a digital health initiative that supports women through menopause. From understanding the biology of menopause to tackling its impact on mental health, career, and workplace culture, this is the conversation you didn’t know you needed—but one that will make a difference in your life and practice.  Topics and Timestamps [00:04:00] Menopause 101 [00:06:00] Biological Changes During Menopause [00:08:00] Symptoms of Menopause [00:12:00] Mental Health and Menopause [00:15:00] Challenges in Diagnosis and Treatment [00:17:00] HRT Safety and Benefits [00:22:00] Myths and Misinformation [00:32:00] Organisational Responses to Menopause [00:40:00] Menopause Q&A Gradual discontinuation of HRT. Role of diet in managing symptoms: [00:45:00] Advanced Questions on Treatment Using IUDs vs. transdermal progesterone. Blood tests for diagnosing postmenopause. Role of testosterone in symptom management. Speaker bios: Nicole Avard Dr Nicole Avard is a dedicated Menopause Specialist GP with 18 years of experience as an Integrative GP. As the Medical Director and Co-founder of Metluma, she is passionate about guiding women through the complexities of menopause. Dr Nic has supported thousands of women on their menopausal journey, offering compassionate and individualized care.  Georgia Drury Georgie is an experienced entrepreneur and CEO, with a passion for health and technology. As founder and CEO of Springday, she built the business into a multi-million-dollar global organisation, operating across 13 countries in ASPAC before exiting and moving onto her next venture. With Hummingbird Innovations, Georgie advises, invests, and collaborates with boards and organisations. She is currently Co-founder and CEO of Metluma, an exciting and innovative digital health initiative aiming to support women by taking a proactive approach to menopause. We love to hear from you. Leave a review here, or get in touch with questions or feedback at [email protected]. And if you like what you hear, please share the love by rating us on your podcast player and hitting that share button and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this. 

Lift your clinical game with our RACE approved clinical podcasts. Get your first two weeks free at ⁠⁠vvn.supercast.com⁠⁠  for more clinical confidence and better patient outcomes, or check out our Advanced Surgery Podcast at ⁠cutabove.supercast.com⁠.  Get case support from our team of specialists in our ⁠Specialist Support Space⁠. What if you asked the head of a famous business school for some veterinary business advice, but instead of telling you about a new system to increase productivity or some new marketing hack, he tells you to ‘focus less on the business side of veterinary practice’?  "You have to stop imposing a managerial mindset on these types of businesses - a 'business mindset.' Managerialism has seeped into everything - into industries where it shouldn't be. " An interview that started with the goal of helping vets get better at having difficult finance conversations quickly detoured into a discussion about: - The philosophy of veterinary business, - Why the managerialism  that works in some industries doesn’t always translate well into ours, and - What true success could look like.  (Don’t worry - we do also get insights on how to make those money conversations less stressful!)  Dr Paul Harrison is the Director of the MBA program and Co-Director of the Better Consumption Lab at Deakin University's School of Business, and Adjunct Professor at Sacred Heart University in Milan.The MBA program that Paul designed for Deakin ranks 1st in the world for class experience. Paul is a renowned  international speaker on issues related to consumer behaviour, public health and well-being, governance, and marketing.   Topics and Timestamps Money Conversations: Challenges and Strategies 04:50 Balancing Business and Values in Veterinary Practice 07:29 Rethinking Success: Beyond Financial Growth 12:17 Exciting News: Clinical Podcast Updates 17:24 Embracing Uncertainty and Value 19:32 Controlling the Customer Experience 24:08 Philosophical Approaches in Business 24:29 Understanding Customer Needs 25:45 Money Conversations in Veterinary Practice 27:15 Human Decision-Making in Emergencies 34:05 Emotional Management in Emergencies 40:30 We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via our contact form at ⁠thevetvault.com⁠, or catch up with us on ⁠Instagram⁠. And if you like what you hear, please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this. 

Lift your clinical game with our RACE approved clinical podcasts. Get your first two weeks free at ⁠⁠⁠vvn.supercast.com⁠⁠⁠  for more clinical confidence and better patient outcomes, or check out our Advanced Surgery Podcast at ⁠⁠cutabove.supercast.com⁠⁠.  Get case support from our team of specialists in our ⁠⁠Specialist Support Space⁠⁠. If you scroll through any veterinary chat group you won’t have to scroll for long before you see a conversation along the lines of:  “My career as it is now isn’t really working for me, but I don’t know what my other options are.  I feel… stuck.” So how do you become unstuck? Dr Jess Moore Jones is a bit obsessed with what keeps vets engaged and fulfilled, and she helps individuals and teams figure out how to create resilient and thriving cultures and careers through  her business, ⁠Unleashed Coaching and Consulting⁠, and in this episode we unpack a few of the talks she presented at WVAC 2024:  The choices we make: taking back the power as veterinary professionals to be in control of our own resilience and our own wellbeing. YOU ARE NOT STUCK: helping veterinarians discover that a meaningful, fulfilling career (and life) is possible. Jess shares her thoughts on where the line is between being a good team member and having healthy boundaries, why being selfish in the short term can be generous in the long run, and we talk about the ‘four doors’ available to you with every challenging situation. We discuss Jess' first steps to becoming ‘unstuck’ from your career rut, and we ask the big question: are the new generations of vets ‘soft’, or just wise?! Join Dr Jess on 28 November 2024 for her online ⁠Women in Veterinary Leadership Summit. ⁠ Topics and Time Stamps 02:21 The Generational Debate: Are Younger Vets Soft? 03:43 Resilience in Veterinary Medicine: Good vs. Toxic 10:30 Balancing Boundaries: Soft vs. Hard 15:15 Long-term Resilience vs Short-Term People-Pleasing 20:02 Career Coaching: Moving from Stuck to Fulfilled 22:55 Challenging Traditional Work Structures 23:34 Discovering Your True Self 25:06 Overcoming Fear and Taking Action 26:22 Exploring New Opportunities 29:05 The Power of Choice in Your Career 34:27 Mindfulness and Self-Awareness 36:01 Choosing Your Perspective 40:31 Embracing Negative Emotions We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via our contact form at ⁠⁠thevetvault.com⁠⁠, or catch up with us on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠. And if you like what you hear, please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this. 

If you work in emergency practice, or you're considering it, then this episode is for you. ⁠Dr Brooke Schampers ⁠and ⁠Dr Taleta Hompas ⁠are ECC veterinarians with more than two decades experience between them who create resources and coach others on how to thrive as an ECC shift worker through there ⁠EMV4Life⁠ program. In this episode they will tell you: How to better structure your shifts to optimise for sleep and health. How to navigate the swing between night and day shift. How Taleta manages shift work as a parent of young children. How to increase productivity on shift to reduce cognitive load and stress and get you out the door sooner. How to bring more joy into your emergency shifts.   We discuss what there is to love about emergency vetting, what to consider if you are thinking of a career as an ECC vet, and what other challenges there are beyond sleep and shift work. Contact us⁠ to find out about our Vet Vault/EMV4Life resource bundles to help you up skill and navigate life as an emergency vet. Lift your clinical game with our RACE approved clinical podcasts. Get your first two weeks free at ⁠⁠vvn.supercast.com⁠⁠  for more clinical confidence and better patient outcomes, or check out our Advanced Surgery Podcast at ⁠cutabove.supercast.com⁠.  Get case support from our team at specialists in our ⁠Specialist Support Space⁠. Topics, Time Stamps and Chapters 00:00 Intro 03:22 Why ECC? What’s to love about it?  06:38 Are Certain Personalities Better Suited for ECC 15:39 The Impact of Shift Work on Health 22:21 Brooke’s Routine for Sustainable Night Shifts 32:51 Balancing ECC Work with Family Life 46:18 Setting Yourself Up for Long-Term ECC Careers 50:32 Rostering 54:17 Increased Productivity On Shift 01:06:17 Finding Your Joy in Veterinary Work We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via our contact from at ⁠thevetvault.com⁠, or catch up with us on ⁠Instagram⁠. And if you like what you hear, please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this. 

Lift your clinical game with our RACE approved clinical podcasts. Get your first two weeks free at ⁠⁠vvn.supercast.com⁠⁠  for more clinical confidence and better patient outcomes, or check out our Advanced Surgery Podcast at ⁠cutabove.supercast.com⁠.  Get case support from our team at specialists in our ⁠Specialist Support Space⁠. Topics and Time Stamps We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via our contact from at ⁠thevetvault.com⁠, or catch up with us on ⁠Instagram⁠. And if you like what you hear, please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.  07:35 The Role of Compassion and Innovation12:08 Leadership and Management in Veterinary Practices17:55 Addressing Risks and Governance24:51 The Importance of Communication and Training43:23 Implementing Change in Veterinary Practices44:04 The Role of Coaching and Mentoring44:56 Different Models of External Support46:27 Cross-Industry Learning and Its Benefits56:06 Delegation and Managing Multiple Roles01:00:31 The Importance of Trusted Networks01:09:15 Balancing Client Relationships and Clinical Work01:17:13 Innovative Solutions for Veterinary Practices01:23:55 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

et access to our clinical podcast series with our ⁠⁠⁠30% off IVECCS Special.⁠⁠⁠ Get case support from our team at specialists in our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Specialist Support Space⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Hands up if you still remember much of the statistics you learned back in vet school… Some of us have looked at way more P nappies than p-values since our student days! But this is veterinary SCIENCE after all, and part of science is reading the occasional paper. Reading papers—beyond just the abstract and the conclusions—and with at least a little bit of discernment, does involve some degree of understanding statistics, just to make sure you’re not being misled. So, in this episode, we’re talking about statistics, and we have the best person for the job. (Don’t skip it because of that word—I promise it’s actually quite fun!) Dr. Steven Epstein is a Professor of Clinical Small Animal Emergency and Critical Care at the University of California, Davis. His research interests include CPR, diagnostic testing in the emergency room, and antimicrobial resistance patterns, and he loves a bit of statistics. Join us for an easy-to-understand, practical, and entertaining update on statistics, recorded live at IVECCS 2024. You’ll even learn a nifty tip to help you (finally!) remember the difference between sensitivity and specificity! Sign up for our ⁠⁠⁠free weekly newsletter⁠⁠⁠ to hear about my favourite 3 lessons I learnt in that week from making the podcasts.

Lift your clinical game with our RACE approved clinical podcasts. Get your first two weeks free at ⁠vvn.supercast.com⁠  for more clinical confidence and better patient outcomes, or check out our Advanced Surgery Podcast at cutabove.supercast.com.  Get case support from our team at specialists in our Specialist Support Space. Contact Credabl  for questions and help around personal and professional finance for medical professionals, and apply for their $10000 Helping Hands Business grant here. If you’ve ever wondered about starting your own veterinary practice, then this episode is for you. We speak to Dr Amber Christie and Brooke Goodwin, a vet and vet nurse team who are the owners of a brand new clinic, about the highs, the challenges the lessons learnt from building their new practice.  Dr Amber is on new practice number four, and she tells us what they're doing differently this time around - from the practicalities of setting up the practice, like practice design, business structure, and finance, to how they’re thinking about things like boundaries, values, and growth. Brooke shares her perspective from a first time business owner’s point of view, and tells us how they are making the vet nurse/business owner structure work for them and for their clients. Finance specialist Caroline Willemse from Credabl took care of the money side of practice ownership for Amber and Brooke, and she joins us to answer common questions and bust some myths about business finance.  Topics and Time Stamps 05:21 Balancing Personal and Professional Life as a Practice Owner 10:49 The Importance of Flexibility  16:15 Designing the Perfect Vet Clinic 19:51 Financial Planning and Support for New Practices 30:22 Misconceptions and Realities Starting a Vet Practice:  31:17 Choosing Your Path: Independent vs. Group Practice 31:38 The Joy of Building from Scratch 32:58 Financial Considerations for New Practices 34:48 Renting vs. Buying: Pros and Cons 36:18 Fixed vs. Variable Borrowing 38:51 The Unique Partnership: Vet and Nurse Co-Ownership 46:00 Picking Your Values and Goals 54:33 The One Question We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via our contact from at thevetvault.com, or catch up with us on Instagram. And if you like what you hear, please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this. 

You’ll hear a lot of complaining and blaming of leaders for everything that’s wrong with veterinary science. But the reality is that leading people is a very hard job, especially in a profession as complicated and nuanced as veterinary science. So this episode is for our leaders. We hope that it helps make your job of making our profession better just a little bit easier. David Liss is the Director of West Coast Operations for Veterinary Emergency Group (VEG), and in this episode he’ll tell you about the three essential ingredients of great veterinary teams, and what this has to do with The Avengers and how they defeated Thanos! David also shares his strategies for giving hard-to-hear feedback, and tells us why goal setting is so important for building a great team and how to get the team excited for these goals. But we start with what might be the most important question: how do you, as a leader, stay motivated to keep motivating others?! This episode was recorded live at IVECCS 2023, the conference of the Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society. Join me at IVECCS 2024 for MUCH more content like this, and more ECC clinical content than you could ever wish for.  Get access to our highlights and key takeaways sessions, plus the show notes, from all of the conferences we’ve attended this year by joining our Vet Vault Nerds at vvn.supercast.com for more than 500 short sharp and practical podcasts in Small Animal Medicine, Surgery and Emergency and Critical Care.  If you need expert help with those tricky cases that you can’t refer - we have a team of specialists on standby to provide you with some extra brains. Contact them here.  Topics and time stamps 02:54 Motivation and Inspiration in Leadership 11:14 Back to the Avengers: Team Dynamics 15:43 Setting Goals and Achieving Buy-In 19:19 Profit: It's not a dirty word! 21:26 Handling Difficult Conversations 29:30 Carrot or Stick? Motivators

In a world of Amazon and Uber-level convenience, where digital disruptors are changing the way the world interacts and how we do business, why do we think that the vet profession won't be impacted? "We're facing a lot of disruption. There is this class of digital disruptive dis-intermediators that are emerging and trying to displace the position of the veterinary clinic. Many of them explicitly have the mission to become the most trusted, most convenient touch point in the pet care journey." Dr Thom Jenkins is the co-founder & CEO of PetsApp, a client engagement platform the streamlines client interactions, and in this episode he'll show you why the veterinary profession is, and should remain, at the heart of animal care, why disruptors  think they can compete for the role of ‘most trusted’, and how they’ll do it. You’ll hear how practices are integrating telemedicine and online services with the physical touch points of traditional bricks and mortar clinics, how we’re our own worst enemies when we overpromise and underdeliver, and how a tech-savvy vet sees the role of AI in the future of veterinary science. Thom also tells us about his experiences of working as a vet in China. Please give us your feedback on how to make the podcast better by answering 12 questions here. Join me at the combined ASAV/VBG Conference on 12-16 August on the Sushine Coast, or, for our US listeners, at IVECCS in St Louis on 7-11 September for more emergency and critical care content than you ever imagined possible! Join our nerds for better patient outcomes and more clinical confidence by signing up for our RACE approved clinical podcasts at vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial. We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at [email protected], or catch up with us on Instagram. And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.  Topics and timestamps 05:30 Bad Decisions, Good Stories: Dr. Jenkins' Adventures 11:21 Veterinary Career in China: Challenges and Opportunities 21:51 The Future of Veterinary Medicine: Challenges and Solutions 35:48 Managing Expectations in Veterinary Practice 36:01 The Culture of Martyrdom in Veterinary Medicine 36:46 Setting Realistic Expectations for Customer Delight 38:52 The Role of Disruptors in Veterinary Medicine 40:47 Balancing Quality, Convenience, and Cost 42:29 The Importance of Physical Touchpoints 45:35 Leveraging Technology for Better Client Communication 50:47 The Role of AI in Veterinary Practice 56:37 Addressing Bottlenecks in Veterinary Business 01:09:55 Final Thoughts and Advice for New Graduates