Uncharted Member Spotlight: Jay Thrush, DVM
We invite you to take a peek into part of what makes the Uncharted Veterinary Community so unique: our members! We sat down to interview some of the amazing people who have joined us on our amazing journey since the first conference in 2017. Our first interview was with Dr. Jay Thrush, a veterinarian from Ontario, Canada! Enjoy! For anyone who doesn’t know you, could you tell us a little about yourself? I am a small animal vet, practice owner…
UVC Conference Survival Guide
by Dr. Katie Berlin, DVM I’m not sure how it happened, but we are less than 3 weeks out from the April Uncharted Veterinary Conference in Greenville! From your comments in Workplace, I know there are a lot of people who are trying to prioritize physical wellness in one way or another right now, and there is nothing that disrupts good habits like a fabulous conference. I went to VMX this year as I was just getting going with training…
4 Reasons You Should Be Firing More Clients
by KELSEY BETH CARPENTER, RVT As veterinary professionals, we walk a tricky tightrope: Caring for patients while still caring for our team. Sometimes, those things happen to be mutually exclusive. How do you choose sides when it comes down to that? I’ve worked at many hospitals that have allowed clients to abuse and take advantage of their staff. Is this because they were terrible hospitals? Absolutely not! Quite the contrary, actually! When I see a clinic allow an abusive client…
Mic Drop: Wear Your Own Crown, It’s the Only One That Truly Fits
by Dr. Jackie Parr BScH, DVM, MSc, Dip ACVN Dr. Jackie Parr, aka The Kibble Queen, is a board-certified veterinary clinical nutritionist that is passionate about veterinary team members “finding and wearing their own crown.” She created this talk to not only share the life and career lessons she has learned in a humorous way, but to encourage others to keep looking until they are “wearing a crown that truly fits.” She focuses on three main lessons that helped…
I Am Not a Runner
by Tyler Grogan, CVT In 2017, I turned 26. Naturally, I started to realize I was creeping farther from my 20s and closer to my 30s. So what do many women I see do as they also notice their approach to a time when certain things may no longer be an option? You sign yourself up for a half marathon. I went throughout my year with the mantra, “This will be my Year of Accomplishment.” Running a half marathon was…
What Happened When I Owned My Mistake
by Anonymous I made a mistake. I am embarrassed it happened, but I can’t deny that it did. A patient was transferred to me after spending the weekend at the emergency clinic where she had been treated for possible diabetic ketoacidosis. The patient was stable, but since she had just started on insulin, I wanted to monitor her for the day. The clients called me every hour to ask how her dog was and making demands for treatment. It was…
Test All Shiny Objects Before Ingestion
by Carrie Jurney, DVM DACVIM Dr. Phil Zeltzman recently admitted to the room at the Uncharted Veterinary Conference that he suffers from a chronic condition with severe and repetitive flair ups: S.O.S, which of course stands for Shiny Object Syndrome. Phil went on to explain to the room a great and important goal setting strategy that he uses to manage this terrible burden. I too suffer from S.O.S. I would argue that S.O.S. is a highly contagious disease. Many of…
Getting Back to Bedside Manner
by Tyler Grogan, CVT Over the past several years, the importance of client experiences in veterinary practice has become evident and discussed in detail. The way we approach conversations with clients regarding everything from medical advice by the veterinarian to billing by our client care representatives can make or break your hospital’s reputation. The client experience is one of the most important parts of our profession, but I also feel our expectations about providing excellent client experiences may be skewed…
Reach Down, Reach Up
by Michael W. Miller, DVM How many of us would be in veterinary medicine if someone didn’t reach down to pull us into this profession? I owe my career to the first veterinarian who hired me as a part-time kennel technician before I even knew what a heartworm test was! After getting seasick on a deep-sea fishing trip my first semester of college and switching my career path from marine biology to pre-vet, I was desperate to spend time at…
6 Ways to Criticize with Kindness
by Dr. Andy Roark, DVM I have a friend who dreamed of doing a veterinary residency. During her internship (a one-year program which, for some, serves as vetting for residencies), my friend — like a lot of first-year doctors — struggled with insecurities and doubts. She didn’t want to “get anything wrong,” and she dealt with that by frequently asking for advice, input, and reassurance on her cases. Nine months into her internship, when she requested letters of recommendation for…
5 Tips To Bring Out The Innovator In You
by Dr. Brandon Thornberry, DVM I have a strong feeling that when someone wants to share advice with you, they are really just asking for an opportunity to share some hard-earned wisdom with a previous version of themselves. So here I am. Writing to an earlier version of myself, who as a student in veterinary school, wanted to learn how to build his own creativity in pursuit of becoming an innovator for the benefit of both people and animals. Can…
A Newbie's Reaction to Her First Uncharted Conference
by Dr. Maureen Noftsinger, DVM I have to admit that I didn’t know much about Andy Roark or anyone else in the Uncharted community before being added to the Facebook page. I received an email about the conference and it appealed to me. I am in that stage of my life where I am trying to do things differently by embracing change and acknowledging that I needed to grow both personally and professionally. I have been on a personal development…