Class of 2015... How ya doing?

Veterinary Science Graduate Certificate from UofI
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Why yes, cousin of office manager who normally babysits but has been on reception duty for the past week, please let the lady whose dog ingested ibuprofen continue to sit on hold while you neglect to tell anyone what she has called about it that she is waiting and you are instead restraining a dog for an exam. We have no idea how long the client was sitting on hold...

I haven't said anything to anyone yet about it. She was thrown in. Not her fault she doesn't know what is going on 90% of the time. I think I'm going to make her a list of things that a Dr needs to know about ASAP so this doesn't happen again...

For the record, the dog may have had exposure to just under 50 mg/kg, a few hours prior to presentation. No clinical signs at exam. Renal panel wnl. So it ended up not being as bad as it could have been, thank goodness!
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scb44f said:
Why yes, cousin of office manager who normally babysits but has been on reception duty for the past week, please let the lady whose dog ingested ibuprofen continue to sit on hold while you neglect to tell anyone what she has called about it that she is waiting and you are instead restraining a dog for an exam. We have no idea how long the client was sitting on hold...

I haven't said anything to anyone yet about it. She was thrown in. Not her fault she doesn't know what is going on 90% of the time. I think I'm going to make her a list of things that a Dr needs to know about ASAP so this doesn't happen again...

For the record, the dog may have had exposure to just under 50 mg/kg, a few hours prior to presentation. No clinical signs at exam. Renal panel wnl. So it ended up not being as bad as it could have been, thank goodness!
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Just remember to follow up on the values...my dog got a massive meloxicam overdose a few months ago and his renal values didn't elevate until like 48h post-ingestion (even with IV fluids going at a good clip.) You probably know that, but it was something the other docs at my clinic didn't and I'm so glad I rechecked!
 
that redhead said:
Just remember to follow up on the values...my dog got a massive meloxicam overdose a few months ago and his renal values didn't elevate until like 48h post-ingestion (even with IV fluids going at a good clip.) You probably know that, but it was something the other docs at my clinic didn't and I'm so glad I rechecked!
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Thanks for the reminder. An associate of mine ended up seeing the dog and talking to the owner and since I'm only part time, I had no follow-up with the case.
 
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That moment when you manage to hit the fragile thread-like vein on the ancient Yorkie euthanasia and you know you've used up all your vein mojo for the week.
 
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Definitely around as well if you need another brain to bounce ideas with.
 
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Sharing here, cause it's not really a rant or rave, just something that happened.

Tuesday morning one of my CSR's flags me down to talk to me about a case that's coming in later that morning after my surgeries are done. It's an 11 and 1/2 year old Duck Toller that suddenly started showing severe aggression. Killed the owner's new kitten, then turned on the owner. This dog has never been anything but a delight. Used to do agility, super sweet, no issues. The woman brings him in, the dog is medically fine except for maybe some mild arthritis, he's wagging his tail, taking treats, just totally normal. Owner is distraught. We have a talk and I tell her that I'm worried there's something seriously wrong medically for him to have that big a personality change seemingly instantly. She takes him home for the day, lets the neighbourhood say goodbye to him, and we euthanize him that evening for safety reasons as the owners have kids and young nieces/nephews and another kitten.

I was a mess. I generally don't cry at euthanasias, but this one got me. My gut was saying there was a brain tumor or something unfixable going on, but the dog just looked so damn good and normal in the room. The next day is my day off. My other CSR sends me a message over Facebook; the owner called back saying that she was talking to the dog's breeder and the dog's dam was also euthanized at 11 years old for severe personality changes, including seizure and aggression, and had 3 brain tumours at necropsy. It's weird, but it's reassuring that my gut was probably right.
 
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You already know this, but you did the right thing. * hugs *
 
Hi 2015ers! Question for you guys since most of you are established in private practice GP careers: What is about the average amount of paid time off for vacation a GP vet will get per year?
 
allygator13 said:
Hi 2015ers! Question for you guys since most of you are established in private practice GP careers: What is about the average amount of paid time off for vacation a GP vet will get per year?
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I'm not a '15er but I think starting out for the first few years it's pretty normal to have 10-15. I'm a new grad and at my first job I have 15 days of PTO plus 6 paid holidays and after 5 years I'll have 21 days PTO.
 
I think I get 9 days paid vacation, and a week for CE. I can't remember. I could look it up, but don't feel like it. I also get paid on ProSal... so vacation could turn that negative if I am not pulling in production. I have to re-read it all.
 
I'm an ER doc and paid by the shift, so technically I get zip as well. Buuut, our hospital has a pretty generous "discretionary fund" which can be either used for CE expenses or paid out as salary, so I can occasionally finagle a week off and pay myself out of my discretionary monies. Of course, getting approval from the scheduling doc is a whole 'nother story.
 
Not GP but...
As an intern I had 5 days vacation, 3 sick days, and 5 days to use for a conference or interviews. And they were actually great about letting us use them all.
As a resident I get 15 days leave per year, be it for illness, vacation, jury duty, etc. We are only allowed to take off when we're off clinics, a schedule we make >6 months in advance barring an emergency.

My best friend does rural mixed and gets two weeks. Which was unfortunate this year when they went on a 7-day carribean cruise the week before hurricane Harvey hit Galveston and they were trapped on the cruise ship for a total of 13 days...so now she's out of PTO for this year.


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2016er but... I have ten vacation, seven sick/personal, then three specifically slotted for CE. With that said, my bosses are not actually great at recording these things and as long as I'm not constantly jetting off I'm pretty sure I could easily take more without note, ha.
 
pooter said:
I'm an ER doc and paid by the shift, so technically I get zip as well. Buuut, our hospital has a pretty generous "discretionary fund" which can be either used for CE expenses or paid out as salary, so I can occasionally finagle a week off and pay myself out of my discretionary monies. Of course, getting approval from the scheduling doc is a whole 'nother story.
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Are you paid production or just truly "per shift"?

Our problem is that if we are full-time status (like I am) we are required to work 36hrs/week to maintain full-time benefits. Yeah, 36hrs/week isn't much (most of us work about 40-60hrs/wk), but my gripe is that if I take two weeks off ...

... then in theory I have to make up those hours for benefits somewhere. So there's no true "vacation" because I have to make up the hours.

For me, it's not about the money so much as it is that hrs/wk for benefits requirement. I feel like at the least we deserve some sort of "unpaid vacation, but you continue to accrue hours for benefits" type of deal so that we don't feel pressured to make up the hours (which effectively means no vacation, it just means working twice as hard one month to make up for the vacation you took last month).

Interesting mechanism your hospital has. Our CE budget is pretty much only for CE, although our medical director is pretty liberal in her interpretation of CE.

I wonder how many people would go to VECCS every year if we could get our CE budget paid out as salary instead. I mean, there is a LOT of free CE in the area to go to, instead.... :)
 
LetItSnow said:
I wonder how many people would go to VECCS every year if we could get our CE budget paid out as salary instead. I mean, there is a LOT of free CE in the area to go to, instead.... :)
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This is how my job works. Anything from my CE budget that I don't use gets paid back to me at the end of the year. Taxed, obviously. It's in my contract but I didn't *actually* notice it until I got a decent little cheque when my first year was up, ha.

Nothing about this conversation makes me want to give up my nice salaried job for the stresses of pro-sal.
 
Trilt said:
This is how my job works. Anything from my CE budget that I don't use gets paid back to me at the end of the year. Taxed, obviously. It's in my contract but I didn't *actually* notice it until I got a decent little cheque when my first year was up, ha.

Nothing about this conversation makes me want to give up my nice salaried job for the stresses of pro-sal.
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Well, considering my production pay boosts my income by about 50%, I'll take it! They are talking about implementing a 'credit for benefits' type of unpaid vacation.

I'd be happy with that. Seems reasonably fair - I can still make plenty of money based on production. but I can take time off without stressing over 'making up' the hours.
 
LetItSnow said:
Well, considering my production pay boosts my income by about 50%, I'll take it! They are talking about implementing a 'credit for benefits' type of unpaid vacation.

I'd be happy with that. Seems reasonably fair - I can still make plenty of money based on production. but I can take time off without stressing over 'making up' the hours.
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I get it - and that does seem like it would help - just personally have a problem with payment set-ups that basically punish people for taking reasonable amounts of time off. I'm squicky on production pay in general tbh, always have been and was happy when my favourite clinic while interviewing just paid flat salary.

Wasn't just referring to you with that, sorry if it seemed that way.
 
I have no idea what I get. I probably have done 12 or so days off. I think I've called in sick once... mostly because I've only been sick once (or I think my husband was sick and I was up all night with him). I don't know about CE either but I'm going to WVC and doing a dental wetlab this March.

For the vacation, we mostly try and keep it even between the two of us, seems like.

A contract exists but we never signed it. I think it was very necessary for the previous vet, but not as much for me. I don't make enough for commissions so I just get my salary and work when I'm supposed to.
 
Trilt said:
Nothing about this conversation makes me want to give up my nice salaried job for the stresses of pro-sal.
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I dunno, I'm pretty happy with the way we do pro-sal at my current job. Reasonably higher base salary, with end of year bonus based on production. So my income is stable through the year despite days off, but at least when I'm run off my feet with appointments at least I'm building towards my bonus next year. I was on straight salary at my last practice and maybe it was just because my boss was an ungrateful dingus, it never seemed fair to be crazy busy and the only one getting any benefit from it was her. To each their own, though.
 
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LetItSnow said:
Are you paid production or just truly "per shift"?
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Just per shift. Or hourly, really, since if we keep track of all the extra hours we put in at the end of a shift, we can get paid extra for those. The closest we get to production is getting paid a call-in fee if we come in on our days off to do a surgery. I don't mind it, although it would be nice to get a little extra for those long Saturday nights when I don't get a chance to pee.

That benefits situation at your place sounds highly annoying. Hope they revamp it.
 
Trilt said:
I get it - and that does seem like it would help - just personally have a problem with payment set-ups that basically punish people for taking reasonable amounts of time off. I'm squicky on production pay in general tbh, always have been and was happy when my favourite clinic while interviewing just paid flat salary.

Wasn't just referring to you with that, sorry if it seemed that way.
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Oh, I didn't take it that way at all. If you're happy with your pay structure - that's all that matters. I just like production because I feel like it rewards me for being efficient, yanno?

And I very much agree - however pay is set up, it shouldn't punish people for trying to maintain a reasonable quality of life.
 
I was on salary previously. I didn't like how it didn't matter how long I was there after hours or how much work I did, I was always paid the same. Salary just didn't balance out because they'd want to only pay me a half day if I left early but didn't want to pay extra if I was there 3 hours beyond close.

I haven't yet seen how this pro-sal will work out but will get back to this thread to say if I like it better or not.
 
allygator13 said:
Hi 2015ers! Question for you guys since most of you are established in private practice GP careers: What is about the average amount of paid time off for vacation a GP vet will get per year?
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I started with 13 PTO days but also got New Years, Memorial Day, 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas off. I'm switching jobs shortly and will get 10 vacation days my first year there.
 
Trilt said:
Nothing about this conversation makes me want to give up my nice salaried job for the stresses of pro-sal.
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Just my $0.02 on pro-sal - it has worked out tremendously in my favor thus far at my current place. I get my bonuses by the quarter which is nice. It rewards me for taking the 6:55pm emergency diarrhea or the dental/seventy-five lump removals/xray/ear clean cases. I DO consider my vacation days carefully - I try to not be away for long stretches during the first quarter because Jan-March is always the slowest without fail but taking time off has never resulted in me not making production.

That being said, my new place will start on pro-sal and move to production ONLY. Which is kind of terrifying but seems to be working quite nicely for the docs there, pay-wise. However, their production distribution is different/more complex than where I am now where basically everything but groomers and boarders go under me - then again, I'm also doing literally everything with one assistant helping. At my new place, their techs do a heck of a lot more. We'll see how it goes.
 
that redhead said:
I started with 13 PTO days but also got New Years, Memorial Day, 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas off. I'm switching jobs shortly and will get 10 vacation days my first year there.
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Ha. That's an interesting side note. In addition to no paid time off, all of our doctors are required to work a certain number of holidays a year (regular pay).


that redhead said:
That being said, my new place will start on pro-sal and move to production ONLY. Which is kind of terrifying but seems to be working quite nicely for the docs there, pay-wise. However, their production distribution is different/more complex than where I am now where basically everything but groomers and boarders go under me - then again, I'm also doing literally everything with one assistant helping. At my new place, their techs do a heck of a lot more. We'll see how it goes.
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I can see production only being nerve-wracking, but if I look back at my paychecks ... the last time I didn't make production (I am paid the higher of my base hourly salary or 25% of production on a monthly basis) was almost 2 years ago when I was at one of our less busy outstate hospitals. Working in the metro area I've never come even close to not making production. I bet you'll be fine. :)
 
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80 hours vacation, 24 hours sick leave, 40 hours for CE + a budget for CE. I work 8 hour shifts so it works out to be 10 days/3 days/5 days, all paid time off. We are a 24/7 hospital, and never close. We are required to work 2 holiday shifts/year, but we get a comp day for every holiday we work (and get increased % production for those days).

I'm pro-sal and work for corporate medicine. My first year out I worked for a private practice and was paid salary only. So far, pro-sal has been pretty awesome. Like THR stated, I am compensated for staying late and busting my ass, and therefore, are okay with these aspects of the job if they occur. Doing these things on salary only last year made me feel really bitter. I make an extra 25-50% per month on top of base pay. However, I am going on vacation next week, and I will likely only break even or have negative accrual this month since I will be gone for a week. It doesn't take away from my base pay (guaranteed salary), but I might be faced with a negative production at the end of the month.
 
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LetItSnow said:
I can see production only being nerve-wracking, but if I look back at my paychecks ... the last time I didn't make production (I am paid the higher of my base hourly salary or 25% of production on a monthly basis) was almost 2 years ago when I was at one of our less busy outstate hospitals. Working in the metro area I've never come even close to not making production. I bet you'll be fine. :)
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I've only missed production once, and only then by a whisker, during a ridiculously slow first quarter where no one was seeing anything. All of my other quarters I've exceeded my number by a big margin. I think the hardest part will be re-establishing a client base but I have one year on pro-sal to get that going so hopefully you're right :)
 
DVMDream said:
I was on salary previously. I didn't like how it didn't matter how long I was there after hours or how much work I did, I was always paid the same. Salary just didn't balance out because they'd want to only pay me a half day if I left early but didn't want to pay extra if I was there 3 hours beyond close.
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What she said.
 
DVMDream said:
I was on salary previously. I didn't like how it didn't matter how long I was there after hours or how much work I did, I was always paid the same. Salary just didn't balance out because they'd want to only pay me a half day if I left early but didn't want to pay extra if I was there 3 hours beyond close.
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I hate salary on the days that I work late.
But I love it on the days when I sleep in because there's nothing scheduled or go home at 2pm when my last appointment is done. In the spring I work way too many hours of overtime, but there are also weeks in the winter where I work <20 hours and get paid the same. It generally balances out...if anything I spend more hours on the couch "on call" than I do physically working overtime. Pros/cons of mixed animal medicine.
 
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Part timer here. 5 days vacation every 6 mos but since the other doctors and myself don't all ask for the same days off, we have just rearranged the schedule so far to accommodate what we all need without taking time off. I get paid salary but they looked at my production over the last 6 mos to determine my raise when I signed another contract.

Anyway, I was feeling nostalgic. Went looking for the (****ty) blog I kept during vet school. It's been replaced. The link was NewtoMizzou.tumblr.com so I get why Mizzou would want it but still pretty annoying for all that to be erased. Oh well. Guess it's better to move on and not dwell on the past, huh?

In other news, I got yelled at for sending a nonclient to the ER when I was already seeing an add on that made the clinic stay open after hours (no after hours ER duty at the clinic I work for). Then, I okayed an add on hot spot for a nonclient on Saturday and she of course brought an extra dog with her (who my boss graciously saw even though he only stopped by to meet his son and then promptly leave again). Finally, we had a ribbon cutting for our new building two days ago. I approved a bunch of sick animals to be seen since the time for the ribbon cutting was blocked off but said "sick animals", and I get chewed out for scheduling anything there.

Needless to say, I have my frustrations. But the techs I work with are amazing and that makes my day to day go well for the most part.
 
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Oh! And I am taking 2 of my rams to Mizzou to get vasectomies next week. Should be fun. My husband and I could do it but with who we are selling one of the rams to (and his semi douchebaggery) we opted to have a third party do the procedure instead. So it'll be fun to watch
 
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120 days until phase 1 boards. 266 textbook pages down, 448 to go. Plus some journal articles. And that’s all just for the first pass through the material. Yay? I mean, at least I’ve made some progress...


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JaynaAli said:
120 days until phase 1 boards. 266 textbook pages down, 448 to go. Plus some journal articles. And that’s all just for the first pass through the material. Yay? I mean, at least I’ve made some progress...


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
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I have boards in March and I definitely have not started studying :|, so you're way ahead of the game!
 
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I cannot for the life of me remember... What specialties are you guys going for?
 
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