retired

RE: retired

Anthony Todd — Wed, 30 Jan 2019 12:07:15 GMT

Very well put but add the VMD, even after it's spun out of the EU.

Should mention the supine acceptance of every new regulation added in the last 10 years by every official body.

RE: retired

Niall Taylor — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 15:05:07 GMT

[quote user="Julian Earl"]It seems pertinent for me to chip in...[/quote]

Brilliant post, Julian.

[quote user="Julian Earl"]I cannot be alone: I loved the clinical work but hated the hassles of running a business. Do many others agree with that sentiment? ?[/quote]

I would never say I hated the business side of things, I have met and worked with some fantastic people over the years and having a part to play as business owner in that is something I wouldn't change for all the tea in China. But it has its massively stressful side, in a way that anyone who hasn't done it can't understand, and I will be glad to be going part-time and just doing consults at weekends.

I do feel there are problems with the profession it's difficult to quantify exactly. A massive amount of navel gazing and beating ourselves up about almost every aspect of business, employment, legal, pseudo-legal, ethical and so forth while very little time seems to be spent focusing on the job, looking after animals and clients. The demise of things like 'vocation' and the rise of things like 'work-life balance' has got a lot to answer for but the situation has been made much worse by our governing body. The RCVS seems to be intent on micro-managing the profession while at the same time never coming up with straight answers to real problems and simultaneously putting the wind up practitioners and then criticising the profession with things like 'mind-matters', telling us we should be so much better. It never seems to be considered that a lot of the stress in the profession might be as a result of the erosion of veterinary practice as the easy earners are cherry picked by some, and marketed at uncompetitively low prices while the hard but essential stuff, particularly out of hours provision, is left to a few who are then slammed by RCVS when they are unable or unwilling to pick up unscheduled OOH work from other practices who haven't made proper provision themselves (and asking owners to drive 40 minutes to a busy central provider, covering several practices at once and which they have never been to before with a sick or injured animal is not making proper provision IMHO).

Veterinary public health and disease control has been a joke since it went private. Having to do hours of dedicated CPD and pass an exam in order to fill out a simple pet passport or export certificate is insulting nonsense, as are the degrading hoops that have to be jumped through and the unrealistic deadlines which have to be hit for the privilege of continuing to do TB testing and the derisory sums paid to practices for doing so.

Nursing training, something I have cared deeply about in the past, is broken. I know of many excellent student nurses here and in other practices who have excellent practical abilities, leadership skills and great empathy but who have been unable to pass exams which focus on non-real-world nonsense. One of our nurses reports in her latest exam one of the questions was "Which mammal has 'Dumbo' ears?" And "Elephant" was not one of the choices! Nursing colleges seem to spend more time on the minutiae of health and safety and diversity training than on animal studies, and that's when they actually have any proper staff to do the teaching in the first place. Each separate college has to visit their practices to carry out the same inspection as all the other colleges rather than relying on one inspection by say, the lead practice or even the practis standards scheme. They ask questions about things which, if we didn't have in place, we wouldn't be able to run a business legally - health and safety, ionising radiation etc - and AGAIN ask the students stupid questions - "What are the locations of your fire extinguishers" for one.

Hmm, this post turned out a wee bit longer than I intended, sorry. But I hope you get my drift

Niall

RE: retired

Julie Innes — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 12:51:38 GMT

[quote user="Gillian Mostyn"]

[quote user="Julian Earl"]I cannot be alone: I loved the clinical work but hated the hassles of running a business. Do many others agree with that sentiment? ?[/quote]

Yes, yes, and thrice, yes!

[/quote]

Gillian, I posted before I saw your response! Great minds...

RE: retired

Julie Innes — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 12:50:50 GMT

[quote user="Julian Earl"]I cannot be alone: I loved the clinical work but hated the hassles of running a business. Do many others agree with that sentiment? ?[/quote]

yes yes yes!

RE: retired

Tim Browning — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 09:23:45 GMT

I am about to retire fully now in a couple of months. There is this feeling of not then being a proper vet and becoming somewhat meaningless.

I had never really thought I had been defined by my profession and perhaps thought that there should be more to life than dealing with pathological processes and always had reservations about the morality of the veterinary relationship to animals and nature itself. I never really got that ego kick about being a 'good vet' and the praise of clients, it was my job and often felt it was a Sisyphean task.

However.. If it wasn't difficult there would be no satisfaction in doing it. I remember doing a year out doing an Head office job project for a year and couldn't slow down to the sitting around writing stuff and having meetings and found it rather dull compared to the drama and personal relationships of practice. So there is now a feeling of trepidation; although I will have time to do all those things... Will I really write that book though?

What is great is not having to keep up with CPD and can ignore reading about every new product and procedure. I hadn't realised I had such an underlying anxiety about the RCVS, I had never taken out VDS cover, but now I am stepping down it does seems a weight off my shoulders.

I think my social media usage will increase not decrease, I have just got into Twitter, God help me.

RE: retired

Gillian Mostyn — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 07:18:36 GMT

[quote user="Julian Earl"]I cannot be alone: I loved the clinical work but hated the hassles of running a business. Do many others agree with that sentiment? ?[/quote]

Yes, yes, and thrice, yes!

RE: retired

Julian Earl — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 21:04:12 GMT

Thank you very much Niall, your positive comments are hugely appreciated. Although I'm not working, I still like to think that I am a vet in some respects! Life certainly has been challenging as I have battled to adapt to having my world turned upside down by my crash and head-butting the kerb!. Therefore, very many deep thanks. Best wishes to you and Colette in return.

RE: retired

Niall Connell — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 18:33:42 GMT

[quote user="Julian Earl"]

[/quote] Hi Julian, total respect to you. You’ve done incredibly well, worked really hard and achieved so much after your accident. Even though you’re on the non-practising register, you will always be a proper vet!

RE: retired

Julian Earl — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 14:18:59 GMT

It seems pertinent for me to chip in to say that I retired last February and have stayed on here, as a moderator no less! in order to try and keep my brain ticking over. I had real difficulty adapting to not being a proper vet any more after my accident but could only kid myself for so long. I bit the bullet in February 2018 and left the Practising Register. The reaction from ex-clients has been mixed. Very soon after I abandoned my practice one lady told me that I'd stopped work too soon! I asked her, "You do remember that I fractured my skull, nearly died and could not stand up unaided don't you?" One spends years trying to dvelop a good reputation and I could have destroyed whatever reputation I had by working when not up to the job. I don't know if she has accepted this yet, a further five years since I got rid of the place. But by heck, it was one of the best decisions I've made, removing the burden from my shoulders.

I cannot be alone: I loved the clinical work but hated the hassles of running a business. Do many others agree with that sentiment? ?

The other side was my best dairy client to whom I said that I did not like not being a proper vet any more, getting my hands dirty. So was going to retire. Simon relied, "You'll always be a proper vet to me Julian." That made me feel better. But I still don't like driving around for any reason late at night. I have to remind myself that I am not on the way to a calving or something major. Luckily I don't jump when the phone rings at awkward hours anymore. So maybe I am getting used to not being on call after all! It has only taken six and a half years to break the habit!

RE: retired

Anthony Dennison — Sat, 26 Jan 2019 10:52:15 GMT

[quote user="bob lehner"]

Quite agree - one of the most liberating things I find about getting old is that I don't really care what anyone thinks about me - or feel that I have to try and impress anyone - or toe the line and do what is 'expected'.

Sod 'em all, I say....

[/quote]

I'm only 31 and this is my mindset now...

RE: retired

Robin Grimmer — Sat, 26 Jan 2019 06:59:34 GMT

Lots of things I want to do other than cycling. Running too! Get back into the music and learn some more languages.

Trust Mr T to turn even this thread into a Dinovet v modvet!

RE: retired

Anthony Todd — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 22:53:50 GMT

[quote user="bob lehner"]Quite agree - one of the most liberating things I find about getting old is that I don't really care what anyone thinks about me - or feel that I have to try and impress anyone - or toe the line and do what is 'expected'.[/quote]

For sure, but I'll bet you think/hope/expect/believe that vets will think you talk sense, even if they think whatever of you??

RE: retired

bob lehner — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 19:22:15 GMT

[quote user="Anthony Todd"][Er, unless Bob, who I respect, was just winding me up??][/quote]

Of course!

[quote user="Clare Tapsfield-Wright"]one of the most liberating things about not working in practice is that you can say what the hell you like. [/quote]

Sod 'em all, I say....

RE: retired

Clare Tapsfield-Wright — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 18:20:51 GMT

Enjoy your retirement but I hope you’ll chip in every now and again, one of the most liberating things about not working in practice is that you can say what the hell you like.

RE: retired

Anthony Todd — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 17:57:44 GMT

[quote user="bob lehner"]Please...No....Nothing could be Grimmer than Todd[/quote]

Well I hope someone else, sometime soon, challenges some modern dogma which always involves the new and the extra, and belittles the ancient but successful, cheaper, quicker and simpler.

Dinovets used to do all these, and in far greater numbers than modvets could ever cope with, and there is no evidence to show that dinovets' results were worser.

Yet all you pinnacles of veterinary excellence swallow the ridiculous use-by regs. without a murmur, and with absolutely no evidence that the regulation is necessary, but just because it exists, and steered by the blinking EU!!!

PS Just bury your heads and skip my posts, or tell Arlo to block me [again].

[Er, unless Bob, who I respect, was just winding me up??]

RE: retired

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 17:32:31 GMT

[quote user="Niall Taylor"] No idea what I'm going to do otherwise. [/quote]

Cripes, I've got a million things I can't wait to get started on (and not one of them is cycling) when I retire, but I'm not retiring any time soon!

Unless the accountant advises me it's the best way to avoid Making Tax Digital.

RE: retired

Arlo Guthrie — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 17:03:14 GMT

Congratulations Robin, and more than anything else, thank you for all your contributions over so many years. I will miss you, and I am sure I'm not the only one (although I hope you'll still drop in from time to time).

Enjoy the zimmer frame

RE: retired

Niall Taylor — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 16:54:00 GMT

[quote user="bob lehner"]Nothing could be Grimmer than Todd...[/quote]

I see what you did there, v. good!

Congrats on your retirement, shame you're stepping back from vetsurgeon.org though.

Just another couple of months or so for me although I will be continuing part-time for a while and I will continue to pester vetsurgeon.org with my feeble humour and various obsessions! No idea what I'm going to do otherwise. Have you got any plans, other than cycling?

Niall

RE: retired

bob lehner — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 14:39:12 GMT

[quote user="David Mills"]

You can become the forum's new Anthony Todd.

[/quote]

Please...No....Nothing could be Grimmer than Todd...

RE: retired

David Mills — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 14:27:36 GMT

You can become the forum's new Anthony Todd.

RE: retired

Julie Innes — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 14:27:24 GMT

Enjoy your retirement! Wish it was me!

RE: retired

Kate Richardson — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 13:40:20 GMT

Congratulations! Enjoy!!

RE: retired

Niall Connell — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 13:23:48 GMT

Best wishes for a healthy, enjoyable and happy retirement, Robin. I had to retire because of health reasons and it turned out to lead to all sorts of wondrous events which I didn’t expect. Glad to hear you will keep in touch, at least for cycling