The Golden Rule: One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.

It’s a simple concept really. By no means am I trying to say that I am perfect and haven’t fallen victim to stress and meanness so don’t go thinking that I haven’t made these mistakes myself. But here is an important lesson that I think you should know before graduation. 

Treat your Fellow Colleagues with Respect

Before I went to veterinary school I worked at a cancer research hospital in Boston. I made very little money being a research technician but it was one of the best jobs I ever had. Since I was so poor, and couldn’t afford to join a gym, I volunteered at a gym for a couple of hours a week in exchange for a free membership. It was an awesome deal. I worked the same shift every week and it was during a Tai Chi class.

The instructor, Bill, owned a bakery and would bring goodies from his shop. I know, donuts at the gym? They were delicious. Bill was a really nice man and always chatted with me before starting his class. Often, after class we would walk to the subway station together and he would impart little wisdoms.

Don’t wear your hair in a pony tail, you should never wear flip flops, if a man attacks, these are the places you should hit him. Lots of his advice was about self defense. I don’t even know how we got on the subject but one evening Bill said to me, “You should never put up with someone’s abuse, people can be angry or upset but that doesn’t give them the right to abuse you.” At the time, I was confused about why anyone would ever be mean to a man who makes donuts, but his words stuck with me. You may not know this yet, some of you may know this all too well, but people can be really nasty.

I’ve been a technician, a student, a vet at a referral hospital, a vet in a general practice and currently a vet at a tech company. It AMAZES me how horrible people can be to each other. Often, our clients can be really rude and ruthless with their critiques but I feel like this comes from a place of severe distress. Their loved ones are in the hospital and it is expensive and they are scared and they take their fear out on us and our “money grubbing” profession. These people really used to hurt my feelings, especially when I was an intern and made like $7 an hour and owed the federal government $150,000 in student loans.

After a few years in practice I realized that these abusive clients are not usually upset with me but with the situation. It doesn’t give them the right to be rude but often with compassion and empathy we can reach common ground. Remember this compassion with your fellow veterinary colleagues too. It’s not ok to bash the referring veterinarian in front of the client because they missed a diagnosis. It’s not ok to yell at the laboratory customer service technician over the phone because a sample was mishandled. It’s not ok to belittle your technician in front of a client because they made a mistake. It’s not ok to berate your professor because you got a B+ and you thought you deserved an A-. The veterinary profession has a really high burn out rate. Perhaps if we took the time to respect one another and support each other we could help prevent some of these losses. In this day and age with increasing computer skills and decreasing personal skills, the trolls have come out to play. Tai Chi Instructor Bill was right, I don’t deserve abuse, but I don’t have the right to dish it out either. Just be kind to one another, even if someone made a mistake, help them learn from that mistake. Obviously there is a time and a place for yelling:

“I need 0.5 mL of epinephrine, stat!”
“No! that’s an oral medication, it doesn’t go IV!”
“Careful! This horse is likely to kick and you are in the danger zone!”
“Personal protective equipment!”

Veterinary medicine can be a high stakes situation and there will always be moments when you lose your cool, but just remember if we can treat each other how we would like to be treated, then we will all get along a lot better.

And on a closing note, while I point out that you should be nice to everyone, it is especially important that you treat your technicians like GOLD!!! They area highly valuable resources that are often under appreciated, overworked and under paid. These veterinary superstars are vital to the survival of your practice and your patients. They can make or break you, so treat them with respect. For real, this is the most important advice that I can give you :)

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