Strategies to Mitigate the Veterinary Shortage: A People-First Approach with Dr Stuart Burrough of Vet Marlborough

Have you ever wondered what it'd be like to work for a clinic that places a strong emphasis on paying its staff well enough to remove money as a motivator? Can you imagine being part of a clinic that truly values personal and professional growth? How about being on a team where part-timers are valued and respected as members of the team? Well, stay tuned because you'll hear that and more in this, the final episode in the three-part series with Dr Stuart Burrow of VetMulbra. You're listening to Paws, claws and Wet Noses, the vet podcast celebrating all creatures, great and small, and the fantabulous professionals who look after them all. Paws, claws, wet Noses is powered by Vet Staff, new Zealand's only specialist recruitment agency dedicated to helping veterinary professionals find jobs that they're excited about going to on Monday mornings, vetstaffconz. Welcome to episode 137. I am your show host, julie South. Today we had the final episode with Dr Stuart Burrow, companion animal veterinarian and owner of VetMulbra, where we talk about the veterinary shortage and the strategies VetMulbra have implemented to help mitigate those shortages. In the last two episodes, dr Stuart has shared a different guiding principle that ensures VetMulbra is a great place to work and demonstrates that clinic as a people first employer. Today he shares another of his guiding principles this one of paying people well enough so that money is taken off the table as a motivator. He also shares the mindset shifts he thinks are necessary and needed in veterinary business today for people to thrive, so they can bring their best selves to work. We answer the question what difference does training people really make, and is it a cost or an investment? As I always recommend you do with series, start at the beginning, the first episode, to give you context and especially to hear, in this case, dr Stuart's other two guiding principles. You're looking for episodes 135 and 136. Both of those will give you the background for today's show and a much better insight into the life at VetMulbra, which is located in Blenheim at the top of the South Island, new Zealand. If you're a small animal veterinarian and you're looking for a change of pace, a change of scene, then especially listen to all three episodes with a view as to what it might be like for you to be working on Dr Burrow's team. The Vet staff team is privileged to be working with Dr Burrow and Catherine at VetMulbra to find them their next small animal veterinarian To thrive in this clinic. You'll be a veterinarian who's into providing best practice standards of care, being part of a team where everyone's supported to bring their best selves to work each day, someone who wants to grow personally and professionally and who believes in utilising the professional skills of vet nurses in every way possible. If that sounds like you and you'd like to know more, then please get in touch with either Isabel or myself at vetstaffconz to have a preliminary confidential chat. As a quick recap for the last two episodes in the first episode, dr Burrow has talked about his passion for innovation and medical advancements, and in the second episode, the steps he put into place to ensure all vet marboreal nurses are utilised to their fullest potential. And today's conversation picks up where I ask him about the skills he discovered he needed but wasn't taught while studying at Massey for his veterinary degree. As a manager and a leader of a team, you've obviously learnt a lot of skills people skills that weren't taught to you at Massey. What has been the most interesting You can take that how you want the most interesting people lesson skill that you have now that you may not have had then.

Yeah, i think probably understanding about different personality types and there's so many sort of different classification systems, whether you use Myers-Briggs or the colors or the animals models or whatever, i think initially, when you have a relatively small team, you tend to recruit people that are like you and you know where it's. It's natural that we are attracted to people that are like ourselves and that you know works. To agree, it makes it relatively easy because you all get along, because you all think the same. But as you grow you tend to develop greater diversity of your people and that can have its challenges, but the positive side is that it is. It brings in greater diversity of thought and people that have different ideas to your own and look at things in a different way, and that can be very refreshing. It can be challenging, but come in with that is the need to develop an understanding that not everybody is like you and different personality types have their strengths and weaknesses and there are different ways to communicate with them to get the best from them. So I think that's been one of the most valuable things that we've looked at is understanding those personality types, both in terms of how you manage your staff, but it's also understanding how you communicate with your clients as well. You know the people that want all the technical information from others that just you know. Tell me what's bottom line and get on with that sort of thing. So, yeah, i think that's been a valuable part of understanding people and how they tick and why they are different from you talking about different people.

We're in the throws, the middle. Hopefully we're coming through the end of it, but I don't know about a global veterinary shortage.

That's for sure, yes, do you have any, why?

okay, i'm going to throw. Why do you? how do you think we've got to this position? and then how do you think we can get out of it?

yes, well, if I had those answers, i think a lot of people are searching, but there's been a lot of factors involved. But essentially too many people have been leaving the profession for and we haven't been training enough people to fill those roles. And I was refreshing to hear that Massey have had approval to significantly increase their, their intake and training. But it's one thing to attract and train people into the profession, but we actually need to do a much better job of retaining them, and there's been, there are, too many young people that that leave the profession prematurely and I think there's been a number of reasons for that, and I mean that I guess that as a profession we've, we've been relatively poorly paid. Part of that is that we undervalue ourselves. And then we practices, you know, compete with one another on price and that's, you know, it's a race to the bottom. So that hasn't helped, along with, you know, the long hours that are expected and sometimes, you know, for employment conditions and poor employers that don't value and look after their stuff or and don't, you know, to have good induction programs and support and training for new graduates and so on. And then there are the changes in client expectations of as people's pets have become regarded more as family members and the babies and child substitutes that people, while it's had its benefits that they'll, you know, spend anything on them to treat them. Sometimes their expectations as in terms of what is possible or what's best for the pet, is unrealistic. So then the vets are put in that horrible position of, you know, wanting to do what's best for the animal and the client wants them to do this and prepared to throw anything at it after hours. It always been a problem for the profession. It's stressful. People are on there on their own and it doesn't feel with family life and the worry about will. Will I be able to deal with this emergency? I mean it's been alleviated in the larger centers with specialized after hours clinics, but in a place the size of Blenheim it's it's not feasible or economic to have a dedicated after hours center. I mean we have discussed with the veterinary council you know the opportunities and and they consider that the likes of an hour and a half drive over to Nelson would is not unrealistic when you look at what's happening in the medical field. But for us at the moment to expect a client to drive over the Fonga Mahill on a frosty windows night to Nelson would seen untenable. But I mean we have addressed that with running a shed after hours service with another mixed practice. So it's an able dust to have shared rosters, but with both a large animal roster and a companion animal roster separately, because it's very stressful for the best of that working in an area and an emergency that they're not used to practicing in regularly. And we have introduced an after hours triage service so that our after hours calls are actually answered by trained vet nurses working out of the Auckland after hours centre and they triage the calls and and deal with those initially and just pass on the genuine emergencies to our Uncle Vets. So so that's been a big help. I'm pleased also getting back to the training side of it where until recently Massey has selected just based on academic performance and and that has been simple because it can't easily be challenged There's a you know, there's a mark above that you get in and below it you don't. But that doesn't always select the people that are most suited to career as a veterinarian and the demands of it and the personality characteristics and resilience and so on. That's necessary to cope with all those things that are thrown at you in the day-to-day life of the vet. So I am pleased to see that there is a move towards interview and selecting people that are hopefully going to be more suitable to to that career. So I think that's an important step to recognise that you need more than just academic ability to be a good vet and cope with the pressures that do come with the career.

One thing I would like to see is there are I? this is life. According to Julie, there are. Right now. The majority of veterinarians in New Zealand are female and because women have babies, it means that there will be a point in their professional life, if they want to be a mum, where they need to step back, be a mum. And most of them struggle to get back into veterinary life because clinics see them more as a liability than as an asset, because they're only part-time or they can only work school hours. I think that if a clinic was able to take on more of those part-time vet parents, it would relieve. You know, they just want to come back and have adult conversations, maybe just one or two days a week, and it would work for them. And if you've got I know it's simple but not easy if you have five, five vet part-time vet parents working in a clinic, that's like another one person or two people and it will help relieve the the shortage, the pressure in clinic and it will allow those highly skilled professionals to stay and work and contribute meaningfully, the way they've been trained.

And in fact, that is exactly who the majority of our team are now, and they are often the vets that had had started working with us and have had maternity leave and come back, or people that have moved into the area. But recently it was only myself, as the director, mark, who's a shareholder, and our new graduate were the only vets that were working full-time and it was. It took quite a, i guess, a shift in mindset, and initially with managing the continuity of work and handover of cases and so on. But that's about systems and communication and and that can be developed and and yes, that's sort of been a move that we have made because we've recognised that that's the best way that we can attract and retain talent. It's a matter of having to be more flexible around working hours. So, while most of our team do work full days when they work, some do work flexibly and do work flex for hours to fit around stalling and so on, or, but other times we'll work and even in clinic, when their partner's at home, and so on. But I think you just have to be creative and flexible and, yeah, the the positives of bringing those people back into the workforce and as part of the team are immense and and, as I said, you can overcome the logistics and communication patient continuity without too much trouble.

It's good to hear Let's wind back to 1997 and you were thinking about opening your own clinic. What would you say? what would Dr Stuart today say to that man, knowing what you know now?

Yes, I mean at that time. Well, it was really. It was going to be the merging of two practices and that sort of fell over at the 11th hour and so then three of the four of us sort of resurrected that bit further down the track and planning and building a 400 square meter purpose built clinic was actually a major undertaking at that stage. There weren't many purpose built vet clinics around. It was sort of mostly a converted house on a street corner or whatever. So we actually had quite a lot of you know, vets would travel from various parts of the country to come and have a look through the clinic. So it was a big, bold step. But I think, if you've got the conviction and you believe, you know we saw the value of having a complimentary skills and a larger practice and being able to be open seven days and all of those things, having, you know, dedicated equipment and providing those more specialized services. So it's having the confidence in backing yourself. It is a big commitment financially initially to do that. And I guess one of my regrets was that we did lose some good staff because we probably couldn't afford to pay them well enough because cash flow was pretty tight in those early days. But I think one of the important things, and something that I have always done, is investing in expertise and in the way of either coaching or mentoring or specialist services, so bringing in people. We have an independent board member on our management board who's really sort of our financial advisor. You know we've mentioned investing in leadership. We've invested a lot in people to come in and train, but I think you know business advisors because you don't know all of that stuff And there's a lot more in the way of resources, of people that are out there to help with training and coaching. Now That's, i think, a really important investment to help you develop and move forward and not get bogged down in your own little world and not looking out at the opportunities. You know I'm still mentioned that after 40 years I'm still loving being a vet. You know. I think that the culture that we've developed around valuing our staff and wanting to reward them appropriately you know expecting high standards in our clinical care and in our professional standards is something that's really paid off, that we do value employing very good people, and an important principle of I've learned is not to be afraid of employing people with a better than yourself, and in fact, that's the way that you can move ahead. You know, while I've always operated on my own pets and wanted to treat them myself, we've got a fantastic team, and it is because of that. Following that principle of always trying to employ the best people and otherwise train them to be the best people, and being surrounded by those people makes for a much stronger team.

Somebody said to me once years ago we were talking about training your team and they said to me but what if I train them? What if I spend money and I train them and they leave? Or what if you don't and they stay?

Yeah, no, exactly. And I had a conversation with another practice owner recently who was asking us about the Lincoln program, the lead to succeed that we were doing, which you know it's not cheap, it's a three year program and there's a lot involved in it and he was struggling. He was keen, but his business partner, you know, saw the dollars and said, oh, but we can't afford to spend that. And I just said to him look, you can't afford not to spend that money for the value and the benefit that you will bring back to your practice. You know it's an investment, it's not a cost And that's how I've always seen training and development. It's an investment in the future And sure, people may move on. But if you, if you don't train them, then you know, as you say, they may stay or you're just not going to get the value. And even if you do spend money on training them and they do move on, you've had value from them in the time And I think they will value and appreciate that And the same token that we employ people that have. Other people have invested in training. But for the organization and moving forward people need a career path, they need and want to invest in their future and their training and development, and I see that as an important responsibility of being an employer.

We are working with quite a few mostly vets at the moment, who none of them are in your part of the world, unfortunately who are looking to move on because they don't believe that their employer wants to invest in them. They've reached, they've got to the end of their road now and they need more training. They want more training. They're ready to give it a go, but every time they ask they get a big fat. No Yeah so there and unfortunately it means that those clinics are going to lose amazing people for a sake of a few thousand bucks.

Yeah, well, it's not just the money value either. I mean, I think, if people are, my belief is that you pay people well enough that money is taken off the table as a motivator, and then it's all those intrinsic motivators and things like investing in people having a career path, having some autonomy. Those are the things that are important. Yeah it's sad that employers may not necessarily see that, and if somebody reaches a plateau and they don't see that they're developing or learning more, then, yeah, it's a common reason for them to want to move on. What do you think?

Is this the type of clinic you'd like to be on? If so, please get in touch with either Isabel or me. Julie at vetstaffconz. I'll put the contact our contact information in the show notes page where you're listening to this episode. So scroll down on whichever app you're at and it should be there Now. Changing the subject, i announced last week that I'm excited I am to let you know that Paws Claws, wet Noses is rebranding to the Vet Staff podcast. Why the change? This is because the Vet Staff podcast will better reflect our dedication to supporting exceptional vet clinic employers, like Vet Marlborough, whom you heard from today with their recruitment marketing. Our mission is to help great employers shine online, to strengthen their recruitment and employer brand marketing strategies so that they can be found by veterinary professionals with matching values who are looking to make their next career move. If you're one of our loyal Paws Claws, wet Noses podcast followers, thank you. I promise the transition is absolutely seamless, and that's because the RSS podcast feed remains a key part of our career. This podcast feed remains the same, so new episodes will just continue to appear in your podcast feed like they do right now. You don't need to do anything at all except keep an eye out for the updated branding. The Vet Staff podcast is dedicated to the vet clinics that prioritize their people and the professionals who aspire to work for them. The other announcement that I made last week, and am thrilled to do so again this week, is to introduce our exciting new leadership and personal development program designed exclusively for nurses, for vet nurses, and it starts off with the head vet nurses. It's about developing nurses as the leaders that they already are and your head nurses and the potential leaders you already have on your team. We'll be covering mindset, attitude, conflict resolution, empowerment, personal responsibility and a whole bunch more. Tanya from Vet Staff has already been working one on one in clinic with nurses. This is one of the things that we offer all our vets and nurses when they find their next job with Vet Staff and the feedback that we've received, that we've got, that we've been having receiving, has been amazing. She's been showing nurses who how to reframe negative situations into positive ones, how to break negative bad habits and create new positive and empowering ones, and how to handle conflict in a way that doesn't get your heart rate going off the scale or you breaking out into a cold sweat. Leading the program is Tanya Bruce. Back in the day, she worked as a head ortho vet nurse in a small animal clinic. She re-qualified to become a life coach and is now on the Vet Staff's team working alongside clinics, helping them develop their employer brand so they can shine online. I'll be working alongside Tanya so you'll benefit from my experience as well, which is a life and business coach and the employer brand marketer. Both of us are ready to guide your nursing team so your clinic can start shining online as a clinic. That's a great place to work. To find out more, you can get hold of me at julietvetsstaffconz. And then, finally, have you checked out the Revive Your Drive 2 Minute videos designed to help you and your team zhuzh up your mental health? There's a whole stack of video shorts just two minutes. They're Revive Your Drive videos. They are bite-sized tips on managing conflict in the workplace, prioritising workloads and how to achieve work-life balance or work-life blend, and a whole bunch more. You can find them at vetclinicjobscom. Forward slash resources. And remember also, if you'd like your clinic to shine online because you're a good employer, like Dr Stuart Burrow has talked about with VetMulbra, then please get in touch with me. I know I've given you a lot of information today. You can find all the links and email addresses I've mentioned in the episode notes wherever you're listening to this podcast. Thank you for listening right to the end. I really do appreciate that you've spent the last 30 minutes or so of your life with me. Thank you. I love it when I hear from listeners, so please feel that you can email me anytime with feedback and or critique. This is Julie South signing off and inviting you to go out there and be the most fantabulous version of you you can be. Kia kaha kakete anu. God bless Paws, claws and Wet Noses is sponsored by Vet Staff. If you've never heard of Vet Staff, it's New Zealand's only full service recruitment agency, 100% dedicated to the veterinary sector. Vet Staff has been around since 2015 and works nationwide, from Katrianga to the Bluff and everywhere in between. As well as helping Kiwis, vet Staff also helps overseas qualified veterinarians find work in Aotearoa, new Zealand. Vetstaffconz.