Class of 2015... How ya doing?

[that redhead]

I might PM you with a question. Glad you’re doing well

Any time!

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[twelvetigers]

Hi

I kill things for a living and I like it

I do it really nicely tho

Never in a million years could have seen myself landing here, but it's been good.

Well. The money hasn't been good. But the rest has.

 

[JaynaAli]

I’m pretty happy too. Been with my diagnostic lab over a year and a half now and really enjoy my job. I got a significant raise in 2021 and now it pays more than I ever expected this soon in my career. I don’t love where I live right now but things are falling into place for me to swap over to a virtual workload in the next few months which will mean I can move back home with my family and work from home. I’m going to go home at Easter and look at real estate near my family with a bit of land so I can get some livestock. It is daunting but super exciting at the same time. Oh and I’m getting another puppy in April.

 

[scb44f]

How's everyone doing these days??

I left my industry job. I didn't end up getting the other position, and although I could've stayed forever for the job itself, I just couldn't make the schedule work for my family any longer. I was working every Sunday, and my husband is also a vet and works half of Saturdays. We also both had on call requirements and it was hard to juggle that with a 2 year old.

So now I'm working for a corporate group as a relief vet specifically for their clinics in one metro area. It's great, but I'm actually about to change jobs AGAIN, and will be a strategic medical director (the equivalent of a district medical director in other corporate hierarchies). Sadly, this means I will be leaving clinical medicine, which I absolutely love, but similar to JaynaAli, this will give me a raise I never thought possible and may actually be able to PAY BACK my and my husband's student loans!

 

[that redhead]

I am still in love with my job. Like it’s silly how happy I am; the first thing I always tell people who ask is how glad I am I put myself out there and took the leap. There are things I miss about GP work - more variety in both practice and species - but I know I’m in this weird little niche of lab animal and the rest of the field would let me get back to breadth of practice and species if I wanted to make it happen. And it’s crazy for me to think that I can pursue board certification, and be what I had always wanted to be…OK, I’ll stop now And yeah, it pays well and I paid of my giant loans, woohoo!

On the home front, I find motherhood to be exceedingly challenging. My husband is a solid partner but it’s still the hardest freaking job ever. My dog is a saint. The end

 

[JaynaAli]

Since it’s been 6 months I’ll update again…I’m still happy. I still haven’t been changed to a virtual workload yet but I keep getting told it’s imminent. I didn’t find a house in the country, but I did buy a house in a small town about 40 minutes from my family and an hour from my best friend. We’re (aka mostly my parents, though I did hire a contractor for a couple projects) making some upgrades to the house while I’m still not allowed to leave my current metro area a couple states away. It’s frustrating that it’s taking so long but I’m still hopeful I’ll be able to move in the next month or two. Once I get moved I’ll probably pay off my student loans. It’ll mean dipping into savings but I’d like to just be rid of them. I’m hanging on to the money for now in case of emergencies since it’s zero interest zero payments currently.

I did get the new puppy. He’s 7 month old next week and he’s amazing. He’s everything I wanted and more. I’m gonna start showing him in conformation events once we figure out the living situation and can make plans. I wanted to enter him in one in mid October but I don’t think we’ll be able to if I haven’t moved yet. But soon. We may dabble in barn hunt and scentwork too. Murphy is doing pretty well too.

 

[LetItSnow]

How's everyone doing these days??

Drowning. I'm still ER. We're still getting crushed. All 9 of the ERs in the Twin Cities still close almost every night. Last night - for the umpteenth time - I was the only facility still trying to take things in around 9-10pm or thereabouts, and I don't think any of the other facilities even opened again until this morning.

Don't even want to talk about how bad it is. My gut sense is that the caseload is starting to drop a tiny bit over the last year or so, but our efficiency/capacity has dropped with it (as we've hemorrhaged staff), so we're still getting crushed. I'm starting to run into more internal limitations (like having 1 ICU tech and 20+ hospitalized cases) more often than before where it was more like "Ok, there are 15 cases currently here and another 10 on the way ..... we gotta shut down the flow at SOME point." I've had a few nights where I've been bored and we're still partly closed simply because I can't hospitalize anything else. I've started 'hospitalizing' things on the ER treatment floor and having my ER techs care for it overnight because the ICU tech or techs simply can't accommodate any more cases, and then shifting them into ICU as capacity opens up.

It feels a bit like I imagine a human hospital putting patients in the hallway until a room is available.

On the upside, the money is amazing.

I see myself moving to another (ER) practice early-ish next year, but can't say much about it yet. Sucks, because I really do love the level of medicine we are set up to provide. And our new facility is pretty darn sweet. But the new gig should offer significant upsides - full staffing, an amazing schedule that gives me flexibility to travel far more often, a boss that I absolutely love (my former boss).... we'll see.

I may just toss it all in, buy a boat, and live on the boat. @Lupin21?

 

[DVMDream]

Drowning. I'm still ER. We're still getting crushed. All 9 of the ERs in the Twin Cities still close almost every night. Last night - for the umpteenth time - I was the only facility still trying to take things in around 9-10pm or thereabouts, and I don't think any of the other facilities even opened again until this morning.

Don't even want to talk about how bad it is. My gut sense is that the caseload is starting to drop a tiny bit over the last year or so, but our efficiency/capacity has dropped with it (as we've hemorrhaged staff), so we're still getting crushed. I'm starting to run into more internal limitations (like having 1 ICU tech and 20+ hospitalized cases) more often than before where it was more like "Ok, there are 15 cases currently here and another 10 on the way ..... we gotta shut down the flow at SOME point." I've had a few nights where I've been bored and we're still partly closed simply because I can't hospitalize anything else. I've started 'hospitalizing' things on the ER treatment floor and having my ER techs care for it overnight because the ICU tech or techs simply can't accommodate any more cases, and then shifting them into ICU as capacity opens up.

It feels a bit like I imagine a human hospital putting patients in the hallway until a room is available.

On the upside, the money is amazing.

I see myself moving to another (ER) practice early-ish next year, but can't say much about it yet. Sucks, because I really do love the level of medicine we are set up to provide. And our new facility is pretty darn sweet. But the new gig should offer significant upsides - full staffing, an amazing schedule that gives me flexibility to travel far more often, a boss that I absolutely love (my former boss).... we'll see.

I may just toss it all in, buy a boat, and live on the boat.

 

[that redhead]

@LetItSnow I can’t imagine working ER right now. I’m glad I’m out of the SA GP world anyway but especially now. Huge kudos to you for making it work.

Are you confident the new place will stay fully staffed? Do you feel like the medicine will be at least comparable to what you have now? That was a huge driving factor in me leaving my first job.

 

[scb44f]

@that redhead motherhood is the hardest thing I've ever done. I'm not sure how our marriage is surviving the brutality of job changes the NICU stay, Covid, and everything else that's popped up since we found out I was pregnant. But it sure took its toll.

@LetItSnow I have no words. It sounds insane and I don't know how you do it.

 

[LetItSnow]

@LetItSnow I can’t imagine working ER right now. I’m glad I’m out of the SA GP world anyway but especially now. Huge kudos to you for making it work.

Are you confident the new place will stay fully staffed? Do you feel like the medicine will be at least comparable to what you have now? That was a huge driving factor in me leaving my first job.

Not at all confident it will. But OTOH - so what? "Maybe staying staffed" is still better than "almost completely without staff". And the schedule is a major enticement since it would allow me to travel more. And ... she was my boss for 5 years and she's fantastic.

I dunno. Not sure where things will go. At the moment .... the 'give a crap' meter is bouncing off of 0.

 

[DVMDream]

Not at all confident it will. But OTOH - so what? "Maybe staying staffed" is still better than "almost completely without staff". And the schedule is a major enticement since it would allow me to travel more. And ... she was my boss for 5 years and she's fantastic.

I dunno. Not sure where things will go. At the moment .... the 'give a crap' meter is bouncing off of 0.

It is fairly awful right now. At this point, I'd kill for a position that allows me more time off. Screw the rest of it. No where is staffed decently and the doors revolve like they're wd-40'd every 5 minutes, so even if you have a month or so of decent staffing, it seems unlikely to stay that way. So that's where I'd prioritize which place will allow me the most time away from the hell circus that is vet med right now.

 

[LetItSnow]

It is fairly awful right now. At this point, I'd kill for a position that allows me more time off. Screw the rest of it. No where is staffed decently and the doors revolve like they're wd-40'd every 5 minutes, so even if you have a month or so of decent staffing, it seems unlikely to stay that way. So that's where I'd prioritize which place will allow me the most time away from the hell circus that is vet med right now.

Indeed. And the schedule they are proposing is every Wed overnight with every other Fri-Sat-Sun overnight, counting as full time. So, every other Thu-Wed morn off. Not shabby. There's also a proposal on the table from a colleague of mine where both she and I go there, and she takes that overnight schedule I just described and I take the days on that schedule instead. She and I practice similarly and communicate with owners similarly, so we like it when we're alternating on weekends .... makes case management so much easier.

Either way, it's an amazing schedule from my perspective. A little light on hours which translates into less income, but it's trivial to pick up extra shifts just about anywhere as needed to supplement income.

 

[Trilt]

Indeed. And the schedule they are proposing is every Wed overnight with every other Fri-Sat-Sun overnight, counting as full time. So, every other Thu-Wed morn off. Not shabby. There's also a proposal on the table from a colleague of mine where both she and I go there, and she takes that overnight schedule I just described and I take the days on that schedule instead. She and I practice similarly and communicate with owners similarly, so we like it when we're alternating on weekends .... makes case management so much easier.

Either way, it's an amazing schedule from my perspective. A little light on hours which translates into less income, but it's trivial to pick up extra shifts just about anywhere as needed to supplement income.

I work swing Fri-Sun, overnight Mon and every other wednesday for full time and really love the schedule. I still work occasionally at my GP and some easy spay/neuter shifts in between, but routinely have 5-7 days off in a row.

I was explaining my schedule to a couple non-medical acquaintances (business, tech) this weekend and got very perplexed stares, though...

 

[that redhead]

Not at all confident it will. But OTOH - so what? "Maybe staying staffed" is still better than "almost completely without staff". And the schedule is a major enticement since it would allow me to travel more. And ... she was my boss for 5 years and she's fantastic.

I dunno. Not sure where things will go. At the moment .... the 'give a crap' meter is bouncing off of 0.

Reasonable approach for sure. A good boss is worth a lot!

And agreed with DVMD that time off/scheduling is more important than most other things. I’m working 7-3:30 M-F but with plenty of vacation and unlimited sick time (a huge perk with these dang kids getting daycare bugs every other week!) I’m still doing a weekend a month at my GP job but it feels loads different because I’m not there regularly. Although my boss did text me and try to entice me back full time but I’m at the point where I don’t care how much you want to pay me. Ain’t doing it!

@scb44f For real, what a trip. Having twins legit feels impossible some days. I’m glad we never had to do NICU but it definitely takes its toll and while in many ways we’re stronger, it’s also not the same. I’m not the same, frankly. I’m sure things will get better in some ways but harder in others. It’s all a balancing act, right?

 

[LetItSnow]

Reasonable approach for sure. A good boss is worth a lot!

And agreed with DVMD that time off/scheduling is more important than most other things. I’m working 7-3:30 M-F but with plenty of vacation and unlimited sick time (a huge perk with these dang kids getting daycare bugs every other week!) I’m still doing a weekend a month at my GP job but it feels loads different because I’m not there regularly. Although my boss did text me and try to entice me back full time but I’m at the point where I don’t care how much you want to pay me. Ain’t doing it!

@scb44f For real, what a trip. Having twins legit feels impossible some days. I’m glad we never had to do NICU but it definitely takes its toll and while in many ways we’re stronger, it’s also not the same. I’m not the same, frankly. I’m sure things will get better in some ways but harder in others. It’s all a balancing act, right?

No doubt. I was just chatting with the criticalist taking over from me today. We were talking salaries and hours and stuff and both of us were 50000% in agreement that I'd gladly take a moderate pay cut for a less stressful situation.

One of the appealing things about my ex-boss's schedule proposal is that it's only 10 days every month, instead of the more typical 12-13 days/month. That gives me a ton of time to either spend with my, uh, SO, or spend with kids, or pick up extra shifts <wherever> for money. Esp since she's offering normal benefits (plus ownership). It's tempting.

OTOH, my feeling is I can write my own schedule depending on where I want to be. Pondering a variety of options. Not sure! But work has moved beyond "overloaded" and "understaffed" and right into **** show territory. It's interesting being part of a train wreck!

 

[that redhead]

Today I repaired an inguinal hernia that had a uterus in it. There are tough days but man is it cool to be a vet.