Qualifying from the University of Nottingham School of Veterinary Medicine in 2013 allowed me to begin working (literally within a few days) at a small animal hospital in Lancashire where my love for Internal Medicine and mentoring stemmed from. After a couple of years, I was appointed Senior Veterinary Surgeon and a mentor which entailed supporting vets with less experience with their GP cases or out-of-hours emergencies.
After almost 4 years of blood, sweat, tears and severe sleep deprivation, I decided it was time to move on. When I left, I set up my own limited company and spent the next couple of years locumming – I needed a break, to re-charge, spend time with loved ones and experience other veterinary practices (and their teams) before I committed to something again.
It was during this time I finished my certificate in Small Animal Medicine, moved to North Yorkshire with my (now) husband and decided to take a role as the Clinic Director (CD) of a busy small animal practice. Since becoming CD, I have become a mother to two children, as well as undertaking a second certificate – this time in Diagnostic Imaging… I like to keep busy as you can see.
Why Did I Choose to be a CD?
At that point in my career and personal life, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to look into locum work. Having said that, locum work was a short-term solution for me. To start, I wanted that job security back and all the ‘adult’ things job security brings with it such as maternity pay, paid holidays/sick leave, and payslips to help get a mortgage! Boring, but helpful! I suppose what I really wanted was a bit of a new challenge with a path to progress within my career; more than what my last (and only) permanent job had to offer. I envisioned the standard of care I wanted to offer and wanted the clinical freedom to do this.
During my time locumming, I felt so disheartened with the way that the profession was feeling, a difference needed to be made somewhere. I had witnessed first-hand the widespread unhappiness of so many colleagues within our profession due to burnouts, lack of support and compassion fatigue due to working inappropriate hours, all of which is something I have experienced myself.
And so, I wanted to be someone who could nurture a team of like-minded veterinary professionals, to support, inspire, and encourage one another to reach their full potential and recreate a healthy working environment and subsequently revive our passions for veterinary medicine once more. You can’t do this is a locum, so ‘why not be a CD?’, I thought!
What is my role as CD?
Every CD I know in terms of how they work or manage a team is different. This is because we are all are just that – different.
Being a CD – The Clinical Work!
I will start by saying I had no experience of being ‘management’ before I took this role, and I made that clear from the get-go.
So, as a CD my priority has always been to remain as clinically present and supportive as I can be. By this I mean I am fully on the rota myself for consults and procedures/surgeries with my own caseload.
I practice all aspects of GP from doing reconstructive surgery following tumour removals, doing BALs on coughing cats, to dental procedures (albeit less as my back isn’t great…) or sitting in my ‘imaging suite’ (aka a tiny box room) doing all the ultrasound!
I devote time to support my colleagues with their cases/surgeries which we discuss daily and jump onto their cases/surgeries for help if they need me.
Being a CD – The Money Side
I’ve never really been overly concerned with the ‘business’ side of the practice (e.g., looking at figures) because I truly believe that if you dedicate enough time to making sure your team are happy, working to a high standard and you work up your cases appropriately, then the figures side of things should naturally work out.
Now that’s not to say having targets, and/or being aware of figures or where the practice is financially isn’t p art of my role, because it is.
A business needs to be successful to be able to reinvest back in itself to improve the standard of care for the pets that you see. Having a successful business enables you to purchase new equipment, for example, we have recently received a new ultrasound machine, dental X-ray machine and another multiparameter. I am now patiently awaiting a tonopen… fingers crossed!
This means the hard-working staff are rewarded and paid appropriately for their dedication and skill set. But let me make this clear, this is by no means an area I devote much time to, and I certainly do not hold any members of staff accountable for not hitting targets.
CD ‘admin’ – The Non-Clinical Aspects!
As someone who loves the nitty-gritty vet work, this side is of less interest to me. I do try and find the time to do some administrative duties, although being my own critique, I don’t spend enough time doing this when I probably should.
Anyhow, the other aspects of my job that I try and undertake include organising vet rota/holidays, delivering weekly vet and monthly team and clinical meetings, doing appraisals, having 1:1’s with staff, dealing with complaints or unhappy clients (and staff), diary management, creating/reviewing or improving ‘protocols’, monitoring stock (boring!), going to CD meetings and just generally making sure (or hoping) the practice runs smoothly.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The great part of being a CD is watching your team grow and thrive with their knowledge and skills and feeling like you’ve at least had some small part to play in it! I get an immense amount of satisfaction from this. I recently showed my vets how to find an adrenal gland and use the diamond burr for a non-healing ulcer.
Seeing how excited they were afterwards was really humbling. I have 3 vets and 3 nurses doing advanced qualifications now which is so exciting considering nobody was doing one when I took the role! There’s truly nothing better than observing people find their calling and thriving at it.
The bad parts are sometimes feeling that the ‘book stops with you’ and feeling a bit overwhelmed with any ultimate decision-making. Even CD’s like to ask for help and that’s when the bad parts come into play, it’s that feeling that the ‘book stops with you’.
Do I Recommend Being a CD?
That all depends on you personally, what you want from your career and what that specific job role in that specific practice entails. I genuinely love my role, but in all honesty, I’ve had colleagues say to me they’d hate my job!
I think to be in management you must have a certain amount of discipline, resilience, and detachment whilst remaining friendly and approachable. A certain level of respect is earnt to assist in fulfilling the role that allows you to remain impartial to any drama or have those more uncomfortable conversations without the fear of losing a ‘friend’ at work.
Leading by example is a crucial part of the job – your team is ever-evolving, and you want to be growing with them, learning together, seeing what they see and never ever being stagnant. It’s a balance that many struggle to get right, but I absolutely refuse to ever be called ‘old school’, to me that’s such an insult!
The way I see it, if you want a challenge that’ll inspire others and make a difference, then blooming well go for it!
Written by Louisa Graham BVM BVS BVMedSci (hons) PGcertVPS CertAVP(SAM) MRCVS
