Latest / My Veterinary Life / Redefining success with Dr. Kirsty Husby

Transcript

Redefining success with Dr. Kirsty Husby · My Veterinary Life

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Welcome to this week's episode of My Veterinary Life podcast.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, doctor Annie Schavant, and my pronouns are
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: she Her and our guest today is doctor Kirsey Huesby.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Doctor Hughsey is an equine surgeon with an MBA and
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: organizational leadership who is pursuing her PhD in leadership studies
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: this fall. I am so excited to share doctor Husey's story,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: but before we do, I want to give a thank
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: you to our podcast partner, NVA General Practice. NBA helps
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: great vets become even greater with multiple paths to build
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: a career that's uniquely yours. Lead a team, explore a specialty,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: own a practice, or shape care across their network of
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: over nine hundred neighborhood clinics. Wherever you want to go next,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: NBA has a path to help you get there. Visit
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: careers dot NBA dot com to find your next role.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: And with that, Welcome to the show, Doctor Huseby.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much, thanks for having me, and I'm
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: really excited to chat with you today.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Likewise, I cannot wait to dive into your story, and
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: I think we should start at the very beginning of
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: the tale.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: So how did you first become interested in vadmed.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: So I actually grew up in South Africa and when
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: I was in high school, I had the opportunity to
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: do an externship at an equine clinic, and so I
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: spent the week at Summerfelt Equine Hospital in Durban, South Africa.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: And during my time there, I remember observing a colic
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: surgery on a horse and being so fascinated by the
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: skills of the veterinarians and the surgeons and the team
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: and just how they were able to get that done
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: and the horse survived, and it was just so inspiring
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: to me. However, in South Africa, there's only one veterinary
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: school in the country and at that time all the
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: classes were taught in Afrikaans. So I ended up coming
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: to the US and working for a few years at
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: a human curdierology office before ultimately going back to school
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: and getting my bachelor's and animal science and then going
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: on to veterinary school.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Wow, that is a fascinating start. Kudos to you for
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: not fainting an.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: Alcoholic surgery as a high schooler. That's very impressive.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: But then there were multiple barriers to you pursuing that dream,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: and so I love hearing the steps that you took
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: and the supplemental experiences that you had in order to
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: get you to that school.
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: So curious as.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: To what happened next then you got into that school.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: What was your plan for after graduation when you started?
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: And is that what you ended up doing?
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So I had then always planned to be a surgeon.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: That was my goal.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: So when I went to veterinary school, my intention was
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: to you know, work as hard as I could to
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: get the best internship I could and set myself up
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: on the best possible path to residency and becoming a surgeon.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: And I ultimately ended up getting a rotating equine internship
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: at the University of Missouri after graduation, and I had
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: a great intern experience there, made some lifelong friendships, met
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: an incredible mentor that has had such a positive impact
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: in my life, doctor Shannon Reid, and ultimately stayed on there.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: I did not match my first year for surgical residency,
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: but stayed on at Miszoo for an extra year where
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: I did some ambulatory work, some hospital on call duties,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: and completed a research project with doctor Reed that was
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: my publication for my ACBS credentials and then I matched
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: at Oregon State for a large animal surgery residency. The
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: second year, I applied and moved to Oregon where I
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: completed my surgery residency and then ultimately stayed on as
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: faculty for about four and a half years after completing
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: my residency.
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: Amazing.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: So, yes, you envisioned the dream and manifested it with
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: the internship, staying on at Miszoo and then pursuing that residency.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: I'd love when we hear about multiple paths to specialty
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: because it's not always internship check residency check. Maybe you
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: don't match the first time, maybe you spend some time
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: in private practice, and there are many ways to achieve
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: the same goal. And I do like normalizing and talking
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: about that on the podcast. It sounds like you got
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: some great experience staying on at Zoo and furthering that
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: relationship with doctor Reid as well.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Yes, I had a great time at Miszoo. Doctor Reed
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: has been very instrumental in my life and in my
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: career and I would not change it for the world.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: Fantastic.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: So you mentioned at the end there that you stayed
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: on as faculty at Oregon State. That's not a super
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: common path that we hear about on the podcast. I'd
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: love to talk to you a little bit about that,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: about being a large animal surgeon in academia.
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: How would you summarize that experience? What did that feel like?
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So, when I stayed on at Oregon State, my
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: position was officially a clinical instruction and I was working
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: as the large animal emergency clinician, so mostly I was
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: responsible for after hours emergencies as well as training and
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: education of those students' house officers and residents after hours,
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: and I loved the teaching portion of this position, so
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: I took great pride in the time that I spent
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: during rounds with the students and created different learning tools
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: for them. I loved spending time doing boards prep with
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: our residents, so I would do weekly boards prep with them,
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: and then also made sure I was asking thoughtful questions
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: in the or and debriefing about our techniques or how
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: a case went after it had been completed, And these
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: were things that really kind of brought me huge fulfillment. However,
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: the position that I was in was being on call
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: essentially for three weeks out of every four weeks, and
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: once I passed my surgery boards, I was really looking
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: to expand and refine my skills in non emergency procedures,
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: which at the time was not really an option and
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: at the university that I was at. So I ultimately
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: took a job in private practice after that, which led
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: me down a very different career path than I had
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: ultimately visioned for myself in my younger years.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: That makes a lot of sense, and I like how
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: you were able to clearly identify the things that you
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: enjoyed and additional goals that you wanted to pursue for
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: your career, and that helped guide that transition from faculty
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: position into private practice. So let's dig into that next
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: step a little bit more. What factors played into your
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: time in private practice or how would you describe that
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: period in your life.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so when I left the university, I took a
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: private practice position in another part of the country and
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: was really had looked for a practice that I had
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: hoped would provide me more mentorship and guidance in the
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: areas that I was hoping to get, which was specifically
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: more of our elective surgery. However, that position didn't work
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: out as I had hoped, and within a short period
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: of time, I ultimately decided to move back to Oregon,
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: where I had moved from, basically looking to move to
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: a place that I know was grounding to me personally
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: and to my life and build my career around that.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: So I ultimately moved back to Oregon and took a
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: job in small animal general practice, which for me at
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: the time, I felt very ashamed about. I felt embarrassed
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: about it because I had spent all this time in
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: my career post vet school doing internship residency, you know,
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: taking boards, becoming boards certified, and it felt like I
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: had taken a big step back, and this was something
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: that I could have done, you know, directly out of
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: VET school. And I personally had a hard time processing
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: all of this and was looking for you know, I
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: was looking around for something more that I could do.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: I felt like I had almost had a feeling like
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: I had failed at my career, and so was trying
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: to find other options. And so I started looking into
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: things like did I want to become double boarded. I
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: looked at law school. I looked at various different options
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: to kind of figure out maybe what my next step
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: was going to be. And I came across the veterinary
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: Leadership Institute and Betsy Charles, who has been involved with
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: the Veterinary Leadership Institute for a very long time. And
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Betsy had actually been a co author on the paper
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: that I wrote for my resident credentials that I had
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: done with Shannon Reid, And when I had come across this,
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: I had seen that Betsy had a master's in organizational
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: leadership and this really struck me as something that I
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: was interested in, and so I researched this for a
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: bit and ultimately decided to apply for and was accepted
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: into an MBA in Organizational Leadership program at Oregon State University.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: And you know, to this day, I still say it's
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: one of the best degrees that I've ever gotten because
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: it exposed me to concepts about leadership and business that
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: I feel we're lacking in my prior education to that point,
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: and that just kind of like opened the doors to
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: leadership development to me that has since really really affected
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: my career and my personal growth.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: Wow. What a journey.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: And thank you for being vulnerable about that transition from
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: equin surgeon to small animal clinician.
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: That is a path that is not uncommon.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: That we hear about in terms of career trajectories and
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: those feelings are certainly something that many folks struggle with.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: And in any situation that a lot of time and
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: effort is invested into a specific skill set and then
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: we are transitioning to a different skill set, a complementary
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: skill set, And so I'm glad you're able to work
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: through that, but also recognize that you were going to
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: be a looking for something more. I'm fascinated by the
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: fact that you chose organizational leadership and definitely want to
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: talk more about that.
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: I'm going to start with.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Very basics, actually, so for those who might not even
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: be familiar with what that is as a broad umbrella term,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: how would you define organizational leadership?
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so organizational leadership is basically looking at how can
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: we lead organizations or teams or businesses in a way
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: that they can be more successful. So how can we
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: influence our teams or our communities in order to drive
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: our organizations to be more successful.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: That makes a lot of sense, and I'm sure you
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: could see ties with that med all over the place,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: and it was probably very interesting to compare and contrast
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: the different points in your educational career. So pursue the
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: NBA and organizational leadership, And you said that that opened
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: up a lot of doors for your next steps professionally.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: So how else have you been incorporating leadership or what
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: does that look like now post MBA.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So, in addition to doing my MBA, one of
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: the other things that I did was I attended every
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: leadership veterinary leadership conference that I could find. So I
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: went to AVMA's Veterinary Leadership Conference. I went to a
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: program put on by the Veterinary Leadership Institute that I
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: mentioned called Trek in twenty twenty three, which is a
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: program where they put you through several different activities and
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: build those leadership skills, build that self awareness, that emotional intelligence,
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: that social awareness, and self management skills that we all
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: need in order to be better leaders. And this has,
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: you know, really just kind of again sort of opened
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: my eyes to what leadership is, who leaders are, And
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: actually just got that from attending the Veterinary Leadership Institute's
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: Veterinary Leadership Experience, which is a program they put on
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: in Post Falls every year mostly for veterinary students, but
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: also for other attendees. So I just got back from
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: that and that was a wonderful, wonderful experience that I
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: had there with the students and the attendees as a
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: facilitator in training. So since I just finished my MBA,
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: that's kind of one of the things that I hope
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: to continue to be a part of in the coming
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: years and hopefully potentially even incorporate it into my PhD research.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: Fantastic.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: Yes, I love that you're able to build on that
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: momentum from the MBA and sort of in that time
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: of professional development and really taking a deep dive into
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: your leadership skills and taking advantage of the many leadership
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: program opportunities that we do have in our profession. I
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: think it's valuable to have a nice mix of veterinary
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: specific and non veterinary specific proming and education to kind
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: of help round us out. And love that you found
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: some really quality programming to build on that super strong foundation.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: But you mentioned before, and I do want to touch
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: on you did not want to stop there. So the
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: next decision in your professional development was to pursue a
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: PhD and pursue further that concept of leadership.
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: So what motivated that decision.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So when I was finishing it, when I was
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: taking my last class for my MBA, and of course,
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: you know, when I went back to take my MBA
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: and everyone was like, why are you doing that? What
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: are you going to do with that? And I was like,
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: just wait and see, just wait and see. And when
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: I finished my MBA, I just felt like there was more.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: I felt like there was more to learn. And one
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: of the things that I had become really interested in
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: over the course of my MBA and over the course
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: of reflecting on my own career and having been involved
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: in many other people's careers, I have become interested in
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: this concept of professional development in terms of how we
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: become who we become as a veterinarian in veterinary medicine,
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: and I'm interested specifically in how we can be more
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: intentional about professional development so that we can have the
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: skills that we need to be more successful in our careers,
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: have more sustainable careers, and not be bogged down by
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: the things that weigh on us heavily in med that
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: affect our well being. And you know how many hours
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: we work and that bleeds into our personal lives. And
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: if we're more intentional about how we develop our professional identity,
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: we hopefully will have better abilities to deal with all
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: of the aspects that come with veterinary medicine, including those
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: challenging parts of it.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Very cool, yes, because I I think we have to
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: take continuing education credits. That's built in as a mandatory
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: professional development, but it's very easy to be transactional with
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: that of get the hours and move on, and you
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: are really trying to flip that on its head and
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: see what can we get out of the pursuit of
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: professional development. What do you foresee your trajectory looking like
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: after completing the PhD.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: That's a really good question. So what I'm really excited
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: about is being able to do some research into what
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: kinds of things can we provide for either veterinary students
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: or early career veterinarians that give them some tools to
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: be successful. So things like how do we reflect appropriately
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: after we've had a difficult scenario, or how do we
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: handle our emotions? You know, as a surgeon, I'm oftentimes
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: in an operating room where I'm faced with something I
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: haven't seen before, or a complication occurs, and you know,
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: we all have emotions that we experience during these time periods,
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: but we never really talk about it, and those emotions
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: can help shape who we become. The other thing that
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: we don't talk about a lot in VETMD is the
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: hidden curriculum or tacit curriculum, or the things that we
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: learn from the people that we are around or the
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: communities that we are learning in. So we often will
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: end up taking on the perspectives or what we have
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: picked up and learned from the people that are around
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: us in our training us. And while I would love
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: to say that everyone in our profession is always one
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: hundred percent focused on being the best that they can
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: be when they're teaching others, we all know that that's
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: not always the case, and so sometimes we pick up,
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: you know, bad habits or ways of being that are
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: detrimental to us in our professional growth and development. And
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: so I would like to have better ways, better tools
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: that can be utilized across vet MED that can help
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: to bridge some of those gaps.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: Very cool, Yes, it sounds like that's that will benefit
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: all of us kind, regardless of where we are professionally,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: species wise, or practice type or across the board. So
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: that's fascinating, and I love that there is a niche
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: where that research can be performed and we can get
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: a little bit more granular and specific about the tools
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: and the messaging that we are giving are students and
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: early career veterinarians, and now I do want to take
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: maybe a step back or retrace our steps just a
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: little and pick up the sort of clinical side of
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: your career alongside this professional development.
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: So was the NBA full time? Will the PhD be
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: full time?
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Are you maintaining clinical skills throughout this time or what
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: was the thought process there?
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I absolutely am still maintaining clinical skills. So
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: I did take a step back from clinical practice for
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: a while, having experienced my own you know, personal burnout.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: But now I do specifically surgery, surgical relief, and local work.
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: So I do have clinics that I go to and
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: do surgery specifically for them. I don't really see clients.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: I just go and do surgery, which which works great
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: for me, and I do that one to two days
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: a week. And I do both small and and large
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: animal which is mostly equine, so I do. I do
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: keep my feet in both of those areas now, and
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: I have started to do some mentorship, some surgical mentorship,
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: so I do have some clinics as well that have
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: some early career veterinarians, newer grads that are interested in
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: you know, growing their surgical skills, but they don't have
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: the ability on their own or the you know, the
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: the other clinicians in the practice don't have the time.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: And so I will go and scrub into surgery and
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: be there as you know, an extra set of hands,
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: some guidance, help walk them through, build their confidence in
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: in the or and so. And that has been really
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: wonderful for me, and I would love to do more
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: of that long term going forward in the future because
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: I can just see the confidence grow in these younger veterinarians,
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: Whereas you know, when when I first start working with them,
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: sometimes they're terrified of even making an incision and being
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: able to accomplish the tasks that they need to do
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: with you know, a simple spay or a mass removal
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: or things like that, especially when we think about some
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: of the veterinarians that went through VET school during COVID
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: that didn't get a lot of exposure to to to surgery.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: And so I do stay pretty active there. I also
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: do some industry work as a technical services veterinarian for
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: a startup company, so I stay active clinically, but I'm
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: not in the clinic every day because I have learned
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: that that is, you know, I need to have some
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: time outside of the of the R as well.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, I'm so glad that you shared some of
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: those details because I can only imagine how valuable having
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: what it sounds like is almost like a dedicated surgical
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: mentor for these early career veterinarians. And what a fantastic
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: way to live out the values and the aspects of
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: VetMed and leadership that are so important to you. Then
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: by actively practicing passing on those skills and being able
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: to foster that sense of confidence and competence into the
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: next generation, and then also being able to kind of
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: piece together the parts of your career that fill your
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: cup with a little bit of industry work, a little
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: bit of time in the R, but knowing that there
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: is a balance and knowing that right balance for you.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: So those are just some of the many things that
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: I loved hearing about you talk about kind of how
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: you're spending your time and how your time is divided currently,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: And it just makes me really happy to be able
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: to share a story of somebody that has diverse interests
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: that can come together in this kind of beautiful patchwork
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: way of feeling fulfilled on a daily basis, but every
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: day doesn't look the same.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, I mean I would go crazy if I
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: had to do the same thing every day, and so
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: this works. This works great for me, and my cup
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: is really really full. You know, when I spend time
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: with early career veterinarians and I can see that trajectory
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: of them just developing that confidence and getting to the
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: point where they say, you know what, I'm okay, I'll
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: give you a call if I need you, but I
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: think I can manage this by myself. And that's really
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: empowering to be able to give that skill to them
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: that they can then say, you know what, great, now
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: I've got it. I can go on my own and
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: I can build from there. And that just makes me feel,
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: you know, wonderful, amazing.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: So that makes me want to ask a related wrap
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: up question for us today. It sounds like professional development
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: had a significant impact on your career trajectory, and you
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: are kind of using professional development to impact the next
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: generation of early career veterinarians. What advice would you have
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: for those new grads zero to five years out after
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: graduation all the importance of professional development or taking advantage
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: of some of those opportunities.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think you know, in our early careers,
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: we often were very focused on building technical skills on
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: you know, learning all the medicine, and that's incredibly important.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: But what's also important is learning additional skills. So things
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: like emotional intelligence, self awareareness, social awareness, all those things
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: that I that I mentioned earlier, those are all things
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: that are that are highly important to your careers because
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: you know, we interact with other individuals every day, even
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: even though we may prefer to be interacting with animals,
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: we do interact with our clients, We interact with our
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: you know, our other veterinary colleagues, and all of that
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: is a community and we as part of that veterinary community,
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: should be trying to grow and become a better community
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: as a whole. And so professional development in terms of
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: both the softer skills, if you will, in terms of
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: you know, communication, leadership, all of those skills as well
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: as the technical skills are both important and so we
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: should be focused on growing all of those skills as
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: we grow in our career. The other thing is that
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: I don't think I realized, and I don't think many
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: graduating or early career vets realize how long your career
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: can actually be and that it doesn't have to follow
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: a single trajectory. You can take as many twists and
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: turns as you want. You can, you know, change your mind,
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: do something different, you can come back to something. There
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: are many different roads and options out there, and they're
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: all going to shape you. They're all going to be
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: part of your professional development. And what we should remember
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: that success doesn't only include what we accomplish technically or
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: what we accomplish in our you know, when we're wearing
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: our scientific hat, but it's also building a life that
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: is meaningful, both professionally and personally. That you can feel
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: that your cup is full and you're well balanced, and
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: that when you go to your daily work, whatever that is,
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: that you can give one hundred percent of yourself to that,
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: and you can feel like your teammates also give as much,
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: and then you can go home and feel like you
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: still have something to give at home and to your
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: family or in your personal life. And I think that's
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: oftentimes overlooked, especially when we are first starting out in
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: VetMed Wow.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: I think that is a great reminder for all of
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: us early career, mid career seasoned veterinarians that let's challenge
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: our listeners today to think about what our definitions of
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: success are and what informs those and how they are
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: shaped and make sure that that is the definition of
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: success that we want to be holding ourselves too, because
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: I think you've clearly given a lot of thought and
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: experience into what defines success for you, and I think
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: it's so important for us to each have our own
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: north stars in order to find that fulfillment that we
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: are all seeking. So doctor hughesby Chrissy, thank you so
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: so much for sharing your time. I'm an expertise with
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: us today on the podcast. I've loved getting to know
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: you a little bit better, learning more about your story
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: and sharing this exciting career path to our listeners.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much Annie for having me, and I
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: was happy to share a little bit more about myself
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: as well.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: Wonderful and thank you to each of you for joining
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: us on this episode of My Veterinary Life podcast. We
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: love sharing this journey with you, and remember we want
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: to hear from you, so please be sure to leave
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or whatever
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: platform you listen to, and you can also email me
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: at mvlpodcast at ABMA dot org.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: Take care and we'll see you next time.