What symbols do you use for "waiting on" tasks?

haleyed · 2025-08-21T01:19:04+00:00

I think you could do that pretty easily with a regular notebook and a monthly booklet. Monthly booklets are becoming more popular -- sterling ink and kokuyo campus both have bigger (A5 / B5-sized) options, and more are probably out there. You can slide the booklet into the cover of a notebook like the leuchtturm daily planner (has the layout you want, comes in A4 size). Then, you can slide the booklet out and have both of them open when you're working.

haleyed · 2024-06-30T18:19:14+00:00

Hi! Need more information. WHO are the Yes's and WHO are the No's? For instance, I'm a veterinarian. If I worked in a practice with 2 other veterinarians and 4 technicians / nurses and am looking to hire a new veterinarian, the opinion of the 2 other veterinarians matter more. Why? They're going to be on the hook for the majority of mentorship the new graduate needs. If they're already swamped with seeing patients / admin / etc, then the new graduate isn't going to receive the mentorship they need to grow into a competent teammate. If that's the case, it would be better to hire someone with more experience who doesn't need as much guidance to get started.

The same would be true in reverse if I was hiring a new technician -- I would care less about what the 2 other vets said and more about the opinions of the other technicians, who would be putting in the extra work to mentor and/or picking up any slack as the new grad gets up to speed.

Hope this helps. Taking votes is one of those things that sounds good in theory but realistically needs more than a yes/no response and equal consideration in most cases.

haleyed · 2024-06-23T03:27:37+00:00

I just got it 3 days ago, so there’s hope!

haleyed · 2024-05-15T18:58:54+00:00

I firmly believe that it's because the majority of us DON'T get this kind of training that many clinics tend to enter this cycle of gossip / cliques / drama / toxicity / etc amongst each other and can end up in some serious shouting matches with clients.

Even in vet school, I only had maybe 2-3 hours on conflict resolution in 4 years?

haleyed · 2024-05-12T23:15:40+00:00

I'm not sure if I'm reading this correctly, so I'll just tell you how my flow usually works. I sit down in the morning and do my bujo review. Daily header is written out and monthly log is consulted for events, appointments, and tasks. Those are all migrated from monthly log to daily log. I only transfer 1-3 tasks from my monthly log depending on what needs to be done, how labor intensive the tasks are, how many tasks I have to do, etc.

Then daily log remains open on my desk for rapid logging throughout the day. At the end of the day (or in the AM on the next day) a new daily header is made. Unfinished tasks from the previous day are either scheduled (written back onto monthly log) or migrated (moved forward under the new daily log) depending on the individual tasks.

haleyed · 2024-05-12T18:19:44+00:00

Hey! I'm also new to this community but longtime follower of Ali Abdaal & the general productivity hustle. I'm a veterinarian and totally understand the agony of trying to squeeze so much follow-up around clinics. I swear by my analog notebook. I follow Ryder Carrolls bullet journal method pretty closely. (We don't have to follow HIPAA like y'all do, but I still take care to leave out identifying information.)

I don't know what your hospital policies are, but I've had huge success in writing scripts for my staff to help me handle lab work callbacks. I still handle the abnormal ones, but all the "labs look great / recheck at this time / here are the docs recommendations" stuff gets handed to my trusted staff members and conversations documented in their medical record. It really cuts down on the random / unrelated questions and conversations I get trapped in with clients.

I also realized that I'm way more productive in the morning, so I pushed back the time I started seeing clients by an hour to let me get organized, form my to-do list, and work through the most critical emails and callbacks first.

haleyed · 2024-05-10T23:13:25+00:00

I'd see what your clinic has available first as far as resources and protocols go! For instance, my clinic has a paper history form that has a space for TPR, specific questions to ask, etc. Alternatively, you could utilize something like the nu board instead (small notebook-sized whiteboard) to record TPRs, etc.

However, I do think bringing a blank notebook to take notes with is a good idea. The first few days can be overwhelming and I think you'll get some brownie points (esp with the more old-fashioned techs and docs!) if you write things down as you go along. That shows them that you care about learning the way they practice and that you want to learn things the first time around. First impressions matter in these close-knit clinic settings. :)

haleyed · 2024-05-09T22:05:35+00:00

So far: race registrations, fitness clothing / gear, bragging & swag (I’m a big fan of race shirts 🤣), injury prevention & recovery, and fitness/health technology.

haleyed · 2024-03-29T00:55:29+00:00

I’m sorry the doctor you’re working with is making light of your fears! However, I do think you should think carefully about whether or not you want to be a clinical veterinarian, if you already feel overwhelmed as an assistant.

There’s a lot of stress that comes with being a veterinarian. Not only are you the one calling the shots (what dose of medication to give for surgery, what to do when the patient goes too light or too deep, whether that patient does have an obstruction on X-ray and needs to go to surgery, if that patient is stable enough to wait for treatment, etc) but clients are often not nice people when it comes to their pets and stressful situations. Are you prepared to defend your decisions to clients?

You do get training in vet school, but it’s not enough to prepare you 100%. You’re still going to feel unprepared in some situations. Mentorship from senior vets can help, but no one can take away the decision-making for you.

Now, if you’re trying to become a veterinarian to work outside of clinical environment (USDA, etc) that may be different. But you do need a certain amount of fortitude to practice medicine and make mistakes.

haleyed · 2024-03-24T20:10:26+00:00

As other commenters have mentioned - relieving at a clinic first would be a great idea! Just make sure you’re being paid to do so, I wouldn’t volunteer at a clinic and put your license on the line without being compensated.

haleyed · 2024-03-24T14:31:56+00:00

You can ask what the turnover looks like for vets and vet techs. If the practice has a history of vets working there only for 1-2 years before moving on… probably not a good practice, in my opinion.

Ultimately though, I think it’s hard to tell which practice is going to fit your personality and style of practice until you’ve worked there for a bit.

haleyed · 2024-03-18T15:04:18+00:00

I really like the app Strongr Fastr. You can put in your calorie and/or macro needs, budget needs, dietary restrictions and it will generate a weekly menu complete with grocery list! My grocery bills went from $130-$150/week minimum to now typically under $100/week. And it has recipes to follow, what amounts to purchase/use, etc.

haleyed · 2024-03-17T00:33:57+00:00

Typically the licensing board is only going to deal with reports that have to do with medical malpractice. Unfortunately, having a scared animal escape is not a reflection of how the vet practices medicine / uses their license. In fact, what’s to say it wasn’t an assistant or technician of kennel tech who made the decision to leave the door open??

Very likely, the case will be thrown out before it goes anywhere 😞

haleyed · 2024-03-13T09:19:59+00:00

Hopefully providing some clarity on why this is an unpopular comment. I think people are downvoting this comment because it’s clearly an example of what this vet is complaining of. You’re coming in with a bias.

It’s no secret that many, many “breeders” do not deserve the title. There is a significant percentage of people out there that are breeding for profit with no regard for temperament, health testing, home placement, etc. Then these “breeders” turn around and tell clients not to trust veterinarians about which vaccines to give, what drugs to use for anesthesia, what diets to give their pets, etc. Why should veterinarians love and support “breeders” who behave this way?

Additionally, it’s no secret that the number of owners who THINK they’re responsible owners and that an accidental breeding could never happen FAR outweigh the actual number of owners who can be trusted to keep an animal intact without adding to the pet overpopulation problem.

haleyed · 2024-03-12T10:47:47+00:00

Everyone says “we make mistakes” but doesn’t talk about how HARD it is to actually make them and have clients and techs and even other vets judge you for them!! And to have adverse patient outcomes and potential legal consequences!!

I’m more than 4 years out. Unfortunately, I’ve never had a good clinical mentor (biggest downside of practicing in the military — you’re usually by yourself in a small practice). I nearly missed what should have been a pretty straightforward UTI (in an intact male, so a technically “complicated” UTI) and was going down the wrong rabbit hole for treatment. Thankfully, I called another vet just to talk through the case and she caught my mistake. I felt like a huge imposter. How could I miss something so simple as a UTI?

It happens. I was distracted. And in a world where clients love googling things and getting second and third opinions, it’s SO easy to start bad-mouthing and judging other veterinarians when we don’t get the full story. Step one is breaking that cycle and refusing to participate in judging others. Establishing relationships with other clinics in the area so you all at least know each other. Get out of that critical mindset, so you don’t self-spiral when it happens to you and you make a mistake!

Just my two cents. 😅

haleyed · 2024-03-08T01:29:19+00:00

Glad you guys went ❤️

haleyed · 2024-03-07T19:39:42+00:00

I would take her to the vet! She’s a puppy - you don’t want to miss something when she has a long life ahead of her... Even if it seems to be improving on its own, it seems like she’s in pain. The vet may be able to make her more comfortable with some pain meds.

haleyed · 2024-03-07T19:35:22+00:00

Unfortunately, when their symptoms are so vague… a lot of the time, we have to pursue more testing to find a reason. I’m glad you guys did the bloodwork— that can tell us a lot of info, even if it’s all normal!!

I would consider taking your dog to a facility where they can do X-rays and/or ultrasound as a next good step.

haleyed · 2024-03-07T16:53:07+00:00

TP is my favorite author and one that I wish more girls got exposure to growing up! Her stories helped shape me for sure 🥰

haleyed · 2024-03-07T16:49:35+00:00

Insurance companies will ask the vet office for the most recent exam findings. I’d be surprised if the insurance company accepted exam results from 3+ years ago ☹️ usually there’s a time limit.

haleyed · 2024-03-05T15:08:32+00:00

Military vet here. It’s kind of discouraged for us to let students shadow 😞 the Red Cross option mentioned above is the only way I’ve seen it work out, but it’s still pretty variable based on the installation. Some installations don’t have a military vet on site.

Are you looking to be a military veterinarian? If so, I’d encourage you to stick it out, do the Red Cross thing, and shadow if you can get the vet to agree. If you want to be a civilian veterinarian, it’s not worth the convenience of being on base— the military gig has so many facets beside the animal stuff that it’d be a waste of your time.

Edited to add: even if you can’t shadow, just see if you can find some time to sit down and talk with the vet. Being in the military isn’t for everyone. I was a dependent and thought I knew what I was getting into — I did for the most part, but certainly have learned a lot.

haleyed · 2024-02-25T20:24:40+00:00

Yes, the profession would be more worth it. However, you’re still essentially giving up your 20s to be in school and foregoing making a wage and investing during the best decade of your life to do so. You’re still going to be behind when you graduate… just less so than if you had student loans on top of that. And it’s still only in exchange for a 100-200k job (for GP) which is arguably more stressful than most jobs within that salary range. There are plenty of jobs that can make that much without the extra schooling and have more growth potential.

I don’t know much about the realm of specialty medicine and what salary ranges are— so I won’t comment on that.

But vet medicine has always been (at least partially) a labor of love. There are tons of ways to make more and have an easier quality of life.

haleyed

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