I must tell you that I’m not a very good role model for good work–life balance. Here I am, wide awake at five o’clock in the morning while on holiday in a little cottage in beautiful Pembrokeshire when I should be fast asleep. Yet I’m up and thinking about what to write for you in this month’s Veterinary Practice opinion piece. And yesterday, I was hard at work on a stunning coastal path, having a text conversation with the owner of a little kitten whose eye was getting worse, not better.
Whatever the changes to the RCVS “under care” guidance entail, I feel it’s still my responsibility to be there for the owners of the patients I deal with 24:7. Well, 18:7 – I aim to be asleep for six hours overnight (apart from tonight, when I’m wide awake). I’m not just thinking about the animals (and the eyes) I see, though. I am also excitedly looking forward to the start of term and teaching the four teenagers we’ve given places to at St John’s to read veterinary medicine, who, thankfully, got their grades. I’m so thrilled to be teaching them for the next six years.
Whatever the changes to the RCVS ‘under care’ guidance entail, I feel it’s still my responsibility to be there for the owners of the patients I deal with 24:7
Then my thoughts wander to the three students we sent out into the wide blue yonder after completing their six years of veterinary training. I’ve just arranged to see an animal in a practice where one of these new graduates is starting in the next few weeks… I wonder if I’ll see her there. What a joy it is to see previous students working as vets, realising that all the stress and strain they went through with the panoply of lectures, practical classes and exams really is worth it.
I love organising a dinner each term where we invite alumni back to tell the current students where they are and what they are doing. That way, the students see the light at the end of the tunnel and get a chance to meet one another and chat over a meal. The one rule is that you can’t sit next to someone in your year. That way, we mix everyone up, and the freshers can meet the final-year students and learn from them how to survive the course! Oh, and there’s also a chance to sample some of the excellent catering that St John’s provides. This reminds me – I must book a room for the event before they are all taken up with boat club dinners and other society dos… Gosh, and yes – I must book an overnight room for an A-level student I have coming to work with me for a couple of days next week! I enjoy having them work with me to see how we meld clinical work, research and fun together.
Which takes me back to the work–life balance thing: surely if you enjoy your work, be it treating clinical cases, teaching students or a mix of the two, does it matter if your work is your life? If every morning you wake up excited about what the day has in store and go to sleep at the end of the day content that you’ve helped animals and their owners too, what could be better?
Surely if you enjoy your work, be it treating clinical cases, teaching students or a mix of the two, does it matter if your work is your life?
Now, I realise I am very much a “glass half full” sort of person. No, truth be told, I’m the “glass brimming over” type. And I do realise that life isn’t like this for everyone. If most of the animals we treat do well and most of their owners are happy with the result you give them, then the few times things go wrong can be coped with. But if most of your day is spent in what you consider to be routine tedium, then I guess the cases when there is a problem or the owner makes a complaint loom much larger at night when you can’t get to sleep. And if your practice requires you to charge fees you have difficulty justifying, that adds cost as an extra problem, doesn’t it?
Thankfully, most of the time I’m working for myself, with the only overhead being the price of petrol. So, for me, the cat for whom surgery didn’t go as well as I hoped at the vet school can get a free home visit or two to check how they are doing. That lets me reassure the owner that as long as their animal isn’t bothered, they shouldn’t be either.
So work, if you can call it that, never stops. But if work is helping and supporting people, then it never should, should it?
Which reminds me, I must text them tomorrow to check how things are going – that way, I can feel good even when things don’t go quite as planned. And while I’m at it, I must ring the owner whose dog had to be euthanised last week just to check how she is. At least she still had the animal’s sister to keep her company… And I must send an email to the student who failed her exams but has been diagnosed for the first time with dyslexia, which shows why she was having so much trouble with the workload. She’ll be able to cope much better with the support we can give her now that she has that diagnosis.
So work, if you can call it that, never stops. But if work is helping and supporting people, then it never should, should it?
