An Uncommon Guide to Thriving as a New Veterinary Graduate

I vividly remember the new-veterinary-school-graduate feeling. Several parts relieved, excited, happy, knowledgeable, connected, accomplished, compensated, and proud, with equal parts anxious, stupid, tired, overwhelmed, miserable, lonely, and poor.

Only those who experience the plight of the newbie veterinarian can truly understand. Two things helped me thrive during this time: wise mentors and perspective.

For roughly the past decade, I’ve played a small role in training the next generation of veterinary student graduates as they enter the profession. Here are my top 5 tips to help new graduates thrive as they try to make the most out of a newborn career.

1. Be Resourceful

“The true definition of an honor student is just one who always knows where to go for the right answers.”—Anonymous

Our profession has a well-documented mental health crisis.¹ A foundation for professional happiness can arguably be rooted in one word: confidence. Whether or not you chose to pursue an internship, devoting the next 12 months to continuing education will serve you well both personally and professionally.

Veterinary school gave you a vast knowledge base, but everyone graduates with individual knowledge gaps and different abilities to apply that knowledge efficiently. Accelerate this learning by seeing every new case as an opportunity.

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Starting now, every case you see will be your first. When the buck officially starts and stops with you, things change. Ahead are your first vomiting, chocolate toxicity, diabetes, and vehicular trauma cases. 

Because nothing solidifies learning like practically applying knowledge in the moment, use this time to your advantage. Keep lists of cases and invest your first 12 months out of school committed to learning. Your first pancreatitis case? Great. During downtime, read a book chapter or journal article, or review your clinical rounds notes.

Here are some of my favorite point-of-care references for first-year-out-of-school (and beyond) reading: Silverstein’s Small Animal Critical Care Medicine, Kirk’s Current Veterinary Therapy, Clinician’s Brief, Veterinary Team Brief, JAVMA, and JVECCS.

2. Hone Your Systems

Surround yourself with systems that support a new practitioner. In a Google document, create an accessible template library of common discharge instructions, physical examination findings, or client communication language for easy cut and paste. Develop a bank of client handouts written in your own language, and make a plan for how you will communicate with your team and with clients. (See Communication Hacks to Fix Your Busy Trap.)

Finally, make a quick reference plan to stack the deck in your favor. Have your mobile device and computer ready for rapid access to helpful tools such as Plumb’s Veterinary Drugs, the ASPCA Animal Poison Control App, VetCalc+, the Target Manual app, and more.

I also recommend building your own reference library by digitizing all your school notes and saving frequently referenced documents (eg, conference proceedings, online articles) in a searchable digital space such as Google Drive. Find information on how to do this and more at vmdtechnology.com.

An investment in these systems will go a long way toward making you a more productive, efficient, and confident veterinarian.

3. Avoid the Busy Trap

Some veterinary environments unfortunately have a culture problem. Anecdotally, many veterinary practices preach a life-comes-last culture, where staying hours past your shift is not just the norm but is expected. It’s pervasive and dangerous and a culture that the new generation of veterinarians has the potential to change.

Ingrain this into your cerebral cortex: Burnout is not a problem that can be easily fixed once it sets in, but it can be consciously avoided if long-termism is practiced.

Teach yourself efficient communication habits, be diligent with your record-keeping, and leverage the systems mentioned above. If you do that, no apology will be needed about your ability to regularly leave the practice on time. 

Doing so will allow you to consistently engage in family, friends, and personal time, and will pay dividends in your mental health, which ultimately is good for you, your practice, and your patients.

4. Know the World is Your Oyster 

Have you seen the Your Life in Weeks calendar? It’s a brilliant depiction of a 90-year human life.² Various versions are available that map a typical American’s life, famous accomplishments, and more. 

Extending that methodology, I made a one-week calendar. (See Figure 1).

FIGURE 1

A Week of Your Life. Each row represents a day. Green blocks are the hours you would be asleep if you get the recommended 8 hours per night. Red blocks are the hours you spend at the practice if you work a 40-hour week. The blue blocks are the hours at your disposal. Calendar courtesy of Caleb Frankel, VMD

In the 70-plus waking hours you have outside veterinary medicine every week, what will you do?

The calendar helps me remember that pursuing healthy dietary, financial, social, and exercise habits is not impossible. Schedule time for hobbies and outside-of-veterinary-medicine passions. Pursue writing, sports, art, music, travel, practice ownership, or a business dream.

Thoughtful evaluation of your most precious resource (ie, time) is not something you’ll learn in your veterinary education, but practicing it now will set you up for life and help build a better you inside and outside the practice. 

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5. “We Are Smaller than We Can Readily Comprehend” 

Finally, perspective matters. You will face many professional days of emotional highs and lows. But I think resilience can be learned. Here’s the ultimate lesson in perspective from an unexpected source—the Hubble Space Telescope, and what has been called “the single most important image ever taken.”³

I implore you watch this video from TED-Ed to gain this potentially life-changing perspective. 

In summary, whatever your next crisis, there’s a good chance it will not be as big a deal as you think.

Hear from Peers

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