Do you know what we get to do today, Brooks?

My career in veterinary medicine started as a high school student working as a “kennel boy” in a small animal veterinary practice in Kansas.  I kept the cages clean and took care of people’s pets as instructed with the same or more compassion than I applied to my own pets.

Fast forward a few decades (and a few career steps along the way) and the magic that was there then is ever present. Don’t get me wrong, the profession could hardly look more different today than it did then, but the core elements are still the same.  Yes, there has been massive consolidation of practices, both primary care and specialty. Yes, pet owners have become pet parents and there is MUCH that has and will continue to go along with this transition.  But there are core elements that are the same … and they must not escape our notice.  I think back to a scene in the movie The Rookie in which Dennis Quad plays the role of Jimmy Morris, an older minor league baseball pitcher that is getting pretty beat up by the day-in/day-out grind of the profession and his dream of playing major league baseball is fading.  Feeling defeated and sorry for himself one evening he happens upon the joyous sights and sounds of Little League players out on the field and a revelation of sorts befalls him. Renewed by this newfound perspective, Jimmy looks to his younger teammate in the locker room the following day and says, “You know what we get to do today, Brooks?  We get to play baseball”.  His reality was the same … there are good days and there are bad days in his occupation, but his perspective has much to do with the relative proportions of each.

I feel the same way about practicing veterinary medicine. I’ve practiced as an associate, as a practice owner and as an academic veterinarian … through it all, most days I’ve marveled that “today, I get to be a veterinarian”.  I’m not saying that what we do is easy or without stressors. I AM saying that what we do is worthwhile, and many have had the dream, but WE are the ones who get to DO it.

First of all, what we do matters. It matters to pets and to the people who love them.  What we do actually helps others … that is important to remind ourselves.  Think of those thousands of jobs that nobody cares about and that don’t really help anybody (I don’t want to even think about those jobs that are designed only to take advantage of others).  It is gut-wrenching when our efforts to help a patient fall short of our goals … but that gut-wrenching sensation is our reminder that what we do MATTERS – it matters to us and it matters to others.  Second, we get to play with pets. Seriously, who gets to do that for a living?  I get to snuggle with pets down on the floor and the more that I do so, the more people seem to value what I do.   I get it … not all pets are a piece of sunshine in our veterinary clinics, but how many of those would look at the experience differently if we did something to make our vet clinics a bit of sunshine for them?  As an orthopedist, I daily seek to gain enough of my patients’ trust that they will feel comfortable telling me where they hurt.  That is an art form that I get to practice each day.  Bottom line: I get to reach out with a calming and compassionate touch to another being to help them to be more healthy and more comfortable … who wants more from their job?  Third, we are in a phase of unprecedented growth, innovation, and opportunity in our profession. Now is the time to dare ourselves to dream big dreams and to strategize how to seize them. As I’ve mentioned in other blogs, look for the “win – win” opportunities.

Okay, for the naysayers in the room … it is true that vet med has shifted from Main Street USA to Wall Street and that comes with new and different challenges. There are now pressures placed upon us by those outside the profession more so than ever before … to that I say that now is also the unprecedented opportunity to be a leading voice within those groups. We need to step forward rather than backward to voice what it is that has made veterinary medicine special and what has made veterinarians amongst the most trusted of all the professions. Yes, there is a give and take in those delicate and nuanced conversations … but now is the time to offer a winsome, strategic, and compelling voice for what it means to engender trust as a veterinarian and how that character is what has and will always bring value to our profession.

We are not, in some dead-end, lifeless occupation that brings little or no value to society. Instead, we are in a dynamic profession that embodies what it means create trust in the way that we use our art and our science to bring value to society.

“You know what we get to do today, Brooks?  We get to practice veterinary medicine.”  

Ross’ career has spanned both private practice and academia. Along the way, he has been actively engaged in orthopedic training of veterinarians for more than 30 years. Ross is a professor Orthopedics at Colorado State University, Associate Director of Education at the Translational Medicine Institute and a frequent educator at orthopedic courses held here at CSUVetCE and around the world.  If you, too, believe that “what if … thinking” is the key to innovation and advancement beyond that status quo, please get to know us at www.CSUVetCE.com because nothing fuels our passion like rubbing elbows with those who are similarly driven.