Our very own Robyn Lowe hosts this week’s podcast in which we discuss the work done by the Vet Project, with Helen Allwood and Daniel Keating-Roberts. Both with a personal understanding of neurodiversity, they discuss how they decided to set up the Vet Project, to help with the challenges of life in veterinary practice. They give advice and insight into how to improve the workplace for neurodivergent individuals.We touch on how, due to the nature of neurodiversity, every individual and their needs are different and as a result placing someone into a category based on diagnosis and assuming what they will need can be really unhelpful. It is important that individuals feel able to self-advocate for their needs, and for leadership to educate themselves and make themselves aware of the lived experience of neurodiversity, and to be led by the individual.We talk about how to ask for reasonable adjustments at work, highlighting that you do not need a formal diagnosis to ask for this support. Along with this is the need to reduce the stigma around neurodiversity, increasing our understanding and awareness.We explain the double empathy mismatch, where due to differences in communication styles neurotypical and neurodivergent individuals may not recognise the others empathy, but that does not mean that empathy is not there.This is not an issue unique to the veterinary profession and is on a societal level. But there are a high proportion of veterinary professionals who are neurodivergent and it is so important for us all to understand what this means as it can be a wonderfully enriching thing. Variety is the spice of life!For. more information check out Vetlife's excellent resource:https://www.vetlife.org.uk/sdm_downloads/neurodiversity-awareness-resource-booklet/And the RCVS's recent reasonable adjustment's campaign:https://www.rcvs.org.uk/lifelong-learning/leadership-diversity-and-inclusion/reasonable-adjustments-campaign/?&&type=rfst&set=true#cookie-widget
--------
32:25
Debunking the Myths and Misconceptions of Pet Nutrition
It’s a full house for this fascinating topic, bringing you international passionate perspectives from Cat Henstridge (Cat the Vet), Hillary Pearce and Cecilia Villaverde in conversation with our very own Robyn Lowe. Cat is a first opinion vet, with particular interest innutrition and nutrition education in UK vet schools. Hillary graduated in the USA. She has worked for Hill’s pet nutrition for over 10 years. Cecilia is a board certified veterinary nutrionist who graduated from Spain and completed her residency in the USA and Europe.We discuss how intertwined and fundamental nutrition training is to all our veterinary learning for health and disease, and that vet schools in the UK are reflecting this with both designated nutrition lectures and nutrition training included in individual disease learning. The take home- we know more than we think! But why are vets getting such bad press around their abilities to provide nutritional advice to clients? The term pet nutritionist is not protected and doesn’t require an individual to have particular qualifications in order for them to call themselves this. How can we communicate this disconnect to our clients, and help them with what to look for and who to trust? Do we need to do more as a profession to clarify our position on this? We discuss the misconceptions of pet food companies affiliated with the veterinary profession are producing biased studies in favour of their products. A collaboration does not mean an inevitable bias. Feed companies with a designated team of veterinary experts working to improve pet nutrition in an evidenced-based manner is a positive thing. Perhaps we should be questioning why other companies are not following suit? How many of us put too much sway on the ingredients list fora pet food? We talk about the legal requirements for this, and marketing tools used to make certain foods more appealing to owners. In summary, we cram a lot in. This is not one to miss!
--------
46:14
Why Should We Futureproof Our Finances, And How Do We Do It?
Veterinary voices’ very own Robyn Lowe chats to Matt Dobbs, director of VetYou and Paul Horwood, Vetlife trustee, about the benefits of futureproofing our finances, and crucially how to do it! Join us for some useful tips to make sure you are in control ofyour personal finances.We discuss the financial literacy of the profession and how it is in decline and as a result individuals are not making active decisions about their finances at the beginning of their career, when it is going to make the biggest difference to them inthe event of not being able to work and when they want to stop working such as at retirement!The 3 key areas that we focus on in this podcast are protecting your health (e.g. health insurance), your current income (e.g. role and job specific income protection) and planning for the future (e.g. pensions, life insurance and tax-free ISAs). Theearlier you setup each of these areas the better value for money or higher returns you are likely to get.When it comes to finances, knowledge is power, so consider looking into this to better understand it and/ or consult an independent financial advisor.For a useful, free resource to get started please see The MoneySavingExpert website:https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/Another free financial resource that can also help you chose your independent financial advisor is the Citizens Advice Money Helper:https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/financial-advice/getting-financial-advice/If you are in financial difficulty, Vetlife have a financial support team who can help vets and vet nurses, look at their website for more details:https://www.vetlife.org.uk/vetlife-services-financial-support/
--------
31:44
Drinking in the Veterinary Profession: What’s the Story So Far?
Tune in to hear Danny Chambers in conversation with Olivia Cormier, an equine vet who after completing a MSc in psychology has diversified into mental health research. We discuss what we know so far about drinking in the veterinary profession, how drinking to excess is often normalised and drinking to cope encouraged: having negative implications on our mental health. We also discuss some of the barriers to help-seeking faced by those in veterinary practice who wish to reduce their alcohol consumption.
When was the last time you had an open conversation with your colleagues about concerns over drinking consumption and motives? Is it a taboo topic? A recent study published in the Veterinary Record by Olivia and Jennifer Seddon, a senior psychology lecturer at Oxford Brookes University demonstrated the significant effects alcohol can have on mental health, highlighting the importance of better understanding this subject. Barriers to help-seeking were reported to be stigma towards the self and fear of career implications. How can we support professional individuals to get the support they need?
Following funding from the RCVS MMI impact grant a second study to better understand mental health, alcohol behaviours and barriers to help seeking in veterinary professions (including veterinary nurses, veterinarians and veterinary receptionists) is underway! By better understanding these factors we can start intervention development to enable help-seeking and reduce the stigma around problems with drinking within the veterinary community.
If you feel you have been affected by this podcast, or that you are experiencing problems with your alcohol consumption then please contact Vetlife Helpline,
available 24/7 on 0303 040 2551/ www.vetlife.org.uk
To view the recent study on Alcohol-related Stigma in the UK Veterinary Profession, follow this link:
https://bvajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/vetr.4532
To learn more about the MMI impact grant, follow-on study please see the following link (recruitment for participation is due to start in April 2025):
https://www.brookes.ac.uk/about-brookes/news/news-from-2025/01/oxford-brookes-research-team-awarded-grant-to-stud
--------
28:20
Creature Comforts
From leadership, to communication to breaking down the concept of ‘gold standard’ and moving towards contextualized care aka ‘vetting’- join us for an insightful conversation that flows through a versatile journey of learning and experiences over years of vetting.
In this podcast we are joined by Vet Voices On Air’s Ami Sawran, as we talk to Simon and Sam. Simon Hayes, is a veterinary surgeon with 23 years experience in the industry and co-founding the startup Creature Comforts a company that wants to see "healthier pets and happier vets". Sam Joseph is the co-founder of StreetVet and also Clinical Director & Veterinary Surgeon of Creature Comforts' Notting Hill clinic.
During the episode the two talk about all aspects of career, leadership, happiness and team dynamics. They feel that leadership is someone you want to follow and be part of, sometimes that means leading with vulnerability and talking about your pressures too.
Over the years of vetting, they have found that lack of foundations being laid without preparing teams for the current changeable veterinary landscape, meaning old habits and cultures makes it hard to change. They feel that this results in lots of firefighting going on with people trying to dig themselves out of a negative work situation - is starting your own practice the answer? To create your own culture? It's hard when you don't feel like you have control of your own destiny, and sometimes it's easier to start fresh and help build something up as sometimes it's hard to change culture and dynamics in established practices.
They feel that communication is the foundation of this, not only being vulnerable as a leader but also how we talk and interact with our clients. They think If we paid as much attention to how you run a consultant but as we do clinical CPD, then a lot of issues would fall away as your confidence grows in communication and interpersonal skills. Artificial Intelligence is going to help their practices to see what communication works, and what doesn't, and how we can be more empathetic in our interactions which will help the customer and professional interactions, by analysing language.
Furthermore, they ask, is 'gold standard' a source of stress?
Should we use contextualised care to ‘reset’ how we manage care? Gold standard could cause friction between client and professional - when someone wants to aim to hold standard but barriers prevent it. So, guided and balanced decision making, and ensure the best outcome for the patient. Pragmatism should be considered a useful tool, and treating the pet in the context of what is best for the pet and the client.
Simon says: What is contextualised care? It's basically vetting. We as a profession understand there are levels of care that can be offered, and that is the right care for that owner and that patient at that time.
Listen here for a journey through time, and vetting.
UK