Profit vs purpose: how can we do both?

For many, pursuing the veterinary profession is less of an active choice and more of a “calling”, stemming from the childhood aspiration to help animals, and resulting in many years and thousands of pounds spent on being able to eventually do good.

But the transactional nature of the veterinary environment means that someone has to pay. And it is this dimension that often comes with a great deal of conflict, as the client doesn’t want, wasn’t expecting or isn’t able to pay the bill that appears before them.

In this situation, clients can behave badly or speak negatively of their vet; the dagger being when they call into question their motivations, or desire for profit or money above anything else. It happens to every vet at some point in their career.

When does it arise?

Like many professions, the pressure mounts as a vet rises through the ranks. Accordingly, the unease generated with such accusations as: “you care about profit more than my pet” often doesn’t come about until later in a vet’s career, when they can no longer outsource the responsibility and say things like: “I don’t set the prices”, having assumed more managerial positions.

Vets in the early stages of their careers are often shielded from the economic aspects of veterinary practice. The owner is likely to carry the burden and intervene when an irate client is distilling an issue down to money.

Three or four years later, however, when the young vet is taking those first steps up the ladder, they start flying solo for the first time and then have to carry the heavy weight of complaints on their shoulders alone.

Customer service skills?

When it comes to veterinary training, most of it is geared towards obtaining the clinical skills and knowledge that results in effective diagnosing and treating. The essential, but often overlooked, “soft skills” are more likely to be learned on the job.

The aptly named “crash course” of experience is often painful for all involved.

Alternatively, vets can learn through CPD and that’s what the BSAVA is assisting with – bringing those who’ve got experience to share their mistakes, their learning and best practice. It’s a much better, more accelerated and safer way to learn.

Sadly, the narrative around the conflict of making money isn’t brought to the forefront enough, and there will be those who’ll still hide in the clinical modules and maintain that “profit” is an uncomfortable topic of conversation.

In vet schools all around the country, this dimension is still in its infancy, only just beginning to seep into the syllabus. But it is essential that such a matter is addressed, as it has everything to do with career satisfaction, burnout, retention and, ultimately, patient care. Because if the clinician isn’t in a good frame of mind, their ability to perform is compromised. The two are completely intertwined.

Conflict

In the situation where a pet owner is frustrated with cost, conflict can overtly arise between the client and the practitioner in the practice, but it can also emerge internally within the veterinarian when their motives are being brought under scrutiny.

Vets are trained how to communicate in that moment of high intensity and emotion; to keep their voices measured and slow, to adopt a non-confrontational posture, to do everything in their power to prevent the situation from escalating. But too often, subsequent conflict surfaces within the individual when they return home after a challenging day and begin contemplating if the client was right and they do charge too much for their services. It is this self-doubt that can be the start of some dangerous psychological patterns.

While it is relatively easy to measure customer service after a transaction has occurred (for instance, by assessing whether the client walked away happy or checking to see whether that client returned for their next routine visit), it is far more difficult to evaluate the impact it has had on a vet’s psyche.

Has it kept them awake at night? Are they on that journey of self-doubt that can, too often, lead to burnout? Did they use substances to alleviate the pain of that conversation that evening? The internal trauma caused by these troubling conversations is a far greater concern than is often realised.

Strategies

Part of the issue is that owners don’t understand how much health care costs. Pet insurance puts owners a step removed.

If clients were better informed about the true cost of the tools and products required to diagnose and treat pets, before the time the veterinarian is even brought on to the page, perhaps the final bill would come as less of a shock.

But more importantly, it’s about how we help that veterinarian. Of course, business owners can sit down and show more junior members of the team how much it costs to run a practice or carry out a procedure, but at the end of the day, they have to accept the bit on top: the profit.

For Ernie, coping mechanisms centre around the existence of a supportive network. Managers need to step up and be leaders, recognising that their staff may be troubled by these conflicts and experiencing uncertainty about the true value of their chosen profession. They need to converse with their young associates and explain how they have overcome these emotions in the past, helping them find a way to be resolute in knowing that the “purpose” is sound, true, right and just.

Not everyone is going to value you the way you value yourself, and that is okay as long as you believe that what you are doing as a veterinarian is important, meaningful and appreciated. In periods of struggle, a sounding board and good people can help guide you through.

Also on the self-reflection journey, opportunities exist to engage in therapy to learn more about positive psychology and means of fortifying your reserves to increase your resilience. At the end of the day, we have to be able to deal with the blows life throws at us, and find ways to process these experiences in a way that is healthy and positive, not destructive.

Balancing profit and purpose

Finding a balance is a very personal thing. Some individuals are only comfortable when earning a little more than minimum wage, whereas others would be very happy if they became billionaires.

One must be careful not to judge others based on their decisions and belief system. But no matter where you sit on that spectrum, you have to become comfortable with it. That’s the important distinction – it’s not the amount of money that matters, it’s your level of comfort with making a living by charging others. And that’s the reason why your “purpose” is the guiding north star. As long as you are doing something that you feel is meaningful, just and right, then you will be comfortable charging something for it.

But what if you are not the one setting the price? A distinct difference exists between being the one to set the price and having control over what you charge client, and working for someone else who makes these decisions.

When you have control over how much you charge and establish a client base that appears to find value and meaning in your work, a level of status quo has somewhat been reached, accepting that occasional unpleasant encounters will occur. On the other hand, if you work for a corporate entity, you don’t have that freedom and can often deflect the responsibility, banking on the relief valve that is your organisation.

Meaningful metrics

In accepting both profit and purpose are necessary for sustained and meaningful success, ensuring the alignment is right at the medical end of the ledger becomes a key determining factor for measuring both dimensions.

If a veterinary clinic is bringing in most of its money through diagnostics and treatments, clear evidence of veterinary work is present and likely a level of acceptance in charging for those activities. If the profit, however, is deriving from product sales, it can be a signal that something is amiss.