What is the best fit for you?

There is a certain thrill that comes with working in a veterinary hospital. Having access to state of the art equipment, having a really interesting and varied caseload, and enjoying the buzz of always being on the go. For many Vets this is the type of environment that they love to work in, and they simply can’t picture themselves working anywhere else.

By comparison, it’s thought that general practice will be boring, they’ll have a limited caseload and that there won’t be opportunities for career progression. This aligns with a general perception that moving from a hospital environment to general practice is a step back rather than moving forward in your veterinary career. However, this is often not the case. There are many progressive general practices run by Vets who previously worked in hospital environments. Could you be missing out on a great opportunity because you think the grass can’t possibly be greener on the other side?

Is there a best kind of practice?

Many hospital practices have between 10 and 20 vets working there, so you’re surrounded by a lot of expertise and there are great opportunities for learning. Added to that the varied workload and it’s the ideal work environment to gain a great deal of experience. Some feedback we’ve received from vets working in hospitals is that it can be quite regulated in terms of decision making. After many years of working in that environment they feel they’d like to have more of an impact in their work.

But moving to a smaller general practice isn’t an easy thing when you’re used to having access to the latest technology and equipment and never have to hand over patients to an out of hours service. And these are the reasons some vets are hesitant to move. They feel that this could compromise the level of care for their patients. However, outsourcing is becoming more common. I’m yet to hear of a practice that turns away an emergency case without first stabilising the patient and arranging for further care.

A big draw card of working in a smaller general practice is that you get to know your patients and clients well over the years. Seeing pets grow up from being puppies or kittens can be extremely rewarding to some. This kind of continuity is not often experienced in hospital practice. There’s the opportunity to be more proactive in patient care rather than just being reactive to the cases presented. You can also gain exposure to interesting cases that in a hospital environment would usually get handed over to a more senior vet who has more expertise in that particular area, or can work up the case or perform the surgery quicker than you.

So what are your options?

Our experience is that there are a lot of variables when it comes to a general practice. How the practice operates will depend largely on the practice owners, their background, interests, and of course their location and type of patients they deal with. We have numerous examples of practice owners who spent some of their career in a hospital environment and bring their hospital-type standards and protocols with them, and practices that have equipment that you wouldn’t normally see in a non-hospital practice, one recently that has its own onsite CT scanner (but, they don’t have hospital accreditation and they outsource their out of hours after 10pm).

In a smaller practice there is also more opportunity to take on a leadership role or have some influence in the management or decision making. Many practice owners value having senior vets join the practice that can help shoulder some of the responsibility. Vets with hospital experience have a great deal of knowledge and experience that can be shared with junior vets and this can go a long way to helping build up the practice and contribute to shaping the future of the business. There may also be the opportunity to introduce new technology or new ways of doing things based on your hospital experience.

If you dig a little deeper, and explore what you’re really looking for, you may find that there are many opportunities that can help you progress in your career and be extremely rewarding outside of the hospital environment. There are many progressive smaller practices looking for experienced vets that can bring their expertise to help build up the business. If you’re looking to make a career move, don’t discard options before taking a closer look at what’s on offer. You may be surprised, with a bit more knowledge and information about the practice, it could turn out to be exactly the type of new challenge you’re looking for.

 

Want to find out more? Contact us here or call us on 01130 350 1308.