13 Jan 2023
Clinicians and consultants have shared their ideas on how to improve time management in the veterinary sector and avoid a “tipping point” in 2023.
Allister Webb
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From left: St. Anna Advies advisor Tessa Plagis, Vet Dynamics coach Rebecca Robinson, and Vet Dynamics director Alan Robinson.
A senior clinician has called for the veterinary sector to embrace time management techniques that she says can boost both practice teams’ morale and performance.
The plea from Rebecca Robinson coincides with warnings that change is essential to the development of sustainable future business models amid the professions’ well-documented workforce challenges.
Industry advisors and clinicians are due to share their ideas on the issue over a series of sessions at the BSAVA Congress in March.
But ahead of those events in Manchester, Miss Robinson – a coach with Vet Dynamics – said long-term goals, investing in teams and drafting case notes at the time consultations take place are among the key actions needed to make significant progress.
She said: “I used to have hundreds of to-do lists, which I never got to the bottom of.
“I’d carry over items from one list to the next. Other than helping me prioritise, it was a waste of time and didn’t get me closer to achieving my long-term goals.”
“When we’re all managing our time effectively, I have a happier, more productive team, in every sense of the word.
“There’s less sick leave, more willingness to take on tasks that move the practice forwards and more resilience for when it doesn’t go to plan.”
In its own Workforce Action Plan, published in the autumn, the RCVS urged the sector to find ways of addressing the problem, conceding the number of professionals leaving was “unsustainably high”.
That message has also been echoed by Tessa Plagis, an advisor for St. Anna Advies, which provides communication training to the veterinary and farming industries, and who is due to speak alongside Miss Robinson at the BSAVA Congress. She believes learning to say no is a key aspect of effective time management, adding: “We are at a tipping point and can’t keep doing what we’ve always done.
“If we want sustainable veterinary businesses going forward, we need to change the structure of how we work. Many veterinary professionals struggle to give boundaries. We are people pleasers and tend to say ‘yes’, even if that means compromising other important aspects of lives, such as family.
“This is set against a background of too few vets, which means that there’s nobody to help us out when there’s too much to do.”
Meanwhile, Vet Dynamics director Alan Robinson said measures including system development, simplifying tasks and even reducing the number of active clients per vet to between 500 and 700 can all make a difference.
He said: “Like most professionals, veterinary professionals are brilliant at doing their job, but not so good at running businesses.
“Generally, they aren’t trained for managerial roles, and are battling with friction-full systems, huge demand and a shortage of staff.
“There’s a lot of work happening in the realm of mental health at the moment. But we’re treating stress as an individual problem, not an organisational or system one.”
Early bird tickets for the congress remain available online until 26 January.
