I've been thinking about technology- specifically technology for networking and communication- a lot lately.
I've come to the conclusion that, by and large, veterinary medicine is either uninterested or stuck in the past. For example, love it or hate it, Twitter is continuing to increase in prevalence as a way that businesses and organizations choose to connect with customers, consumers and otherwise interested parties. There are a handful of veterinary related organizations on Twitter (AVMA, AVMA's governmental relations arm, some individual animal hospitals and vets, a few professional organizations- Texas Veterinary Medical Association, American Animal Hospital Association and American Society for Veterinary Journalists are especially active- and a few vet schools with varying degrees of activity.) But overall, vets refuse to take the time to do it.
I, however, really love all of the technology that exists right now. I blog, I tweet, I post. I want more of my peers and colleagues to come do it with me!
Monday, February 14, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Things I’m Tired of Hearing
There are some things that they tell us a lot during vet school that I’ve gotten really tired of hearing.
1) “Grades don’t matter!”
That is just, quite frankly, not true to me! It may be that nobody’s really going to look at your GPA when you get a job (though, I don’t really believe that), but that doesn’t mean grades don’t matter. What if you want an internship or a residency? Or what if you just don’t not want an internship or a residency? (You just don’t want to close that door yet?) Or, what if you’re just accustomed to getting good grades? What if just the getting of good grades is what matters to you?
2) “You’ll get this later.”
We hear this a lot in lecture. They’ll be talking about something and mention a caveat or a detail (or even sometimes another major concept) then backpedal with “but you’ll get that later.” Uh, guys, we’re nearing the end of third year; there’s not a lot of later left!
3) x% of you will be divorced
That’s not very nice… but they’ve been telling us that throughout vet school. In orientation it was that some percent of you will get divorced by the end of vet school (and some more by the end of vet school.) Later they start telling us that x% of us that have gotten married in school or made it past the relationship killer that was vet school will get divorced once we start in practice because we apparently can’t balance our lives. It feels kind of like the people who tell you that you shouldn’t bother getting married because half of marriages end in divorce (although, I read recently that statistic is changing and fewer marriages are ending in divorce.)
1) “Grades don’t matter!”
That is just, quite frankly, not true to me! It may be that nobody’s really going to look at your GPA when you get a job (though, I don’t really believe that), but that doesn’t mean grades don’t matter. What if you want an internship or a residency? Or what if you just don’t not want an internship or a residency? (You just don’t want to close that door yet?) Or, what if you’re just accustomed to getting good grades? What if just the getting of good grades is what matters to you?
2) “You’ll get this later.”
We hear this a lot in lecture. They’ll be talking about something and mention a caveat or a detail (or even sometimes another major concept) then backpedal with “but you’ll get that later.” Uh, guys, we’re nearing the end of third year; there’s not a lot of later left!
3) x% of you will be divorced
That’s not very nice… but they’ve been telling us that throughout vet school. In orientation it was that some percent of you will get divorced by the end of vet school (and some more by the end of vet school.) Later they start telling us that x% of us that have gotten married in school or made it past the relationship killer that was vet school will get divorced once we start in practice because we apparently can’t balance our lives. It feels kind of like the people who tell you that you shouldn’t bother getting married because half of marriages end in divorce (although, I read recently that statistic is changing and fewer marriages are ending in divorce.)
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Practice Management
It's been a long time since I updated; I haven't been very good at keeping this up. But I'll try to do better.
This past weekend was a rough one for the third years.
While it seemed like everyone else in Texas- from Dallas to Houston- was celebrating having Friday (or more) off due to snow, the third years took their lives in their hands and came to school anyway for a seminar about Practice Management. (We did get to start an hour late...)
It was good information- very good information- but with 2 8 hour days, I'm not sure how effectively we absorbed all of it. That's just a really long time to be listening to the same topic.
I enjoyed the information on how to operate a succesful practice. The things clients say they want (a coat hook in the exam room!), the amount of time a client will wait in your lobby before they give up and leave (15 minutes) and how to use financial statements to evaluate the success of your business.
I found the stuff about contract negotiation to be important, but hard to absorb. Most of what I got from that is that you should hire a lawyer to look over your employment contract before you sign it.
This past weekend was a rough one for the third years.
While it seemed like everyone else in Texas- from Dallas to Houston- was celebrating having Friday (or more) off due to snow, the third years took their lives in their hands and came to school anyway for a seminar about Practice Management. (We did get to start an hour late...)
It was good information- very good information- but with 2 8 hour days, I'm not sure how effectively we absorbed all of it. That's just a really long time to be listening to the same topic.
I enjoyed the information on how to operate a succesful practice. The things clients say they want (a coat hook in the exam room!), the amount of time a client will wait in your lobby before they give up and leave (15 minutes) and how to use financial statements to evaluate the success of your business.
I found the stuff about contract negotiation to be important, but hard to absorb. Most of what I got from that is that you should hire a lawyer to look over your employment contract before you sign it.
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