• DVM360_Conference_Charlotte,NC_banner
  • ACVCACVC
  • DVM 360
  • Fetch DVM 360Fetch DVM 360
DVM 360
dvm360 | Veterinary News, Veterinarian Insights, Medicine, Pet Care
dvm360 | Veterinary News, Veterinarian Insights, Medicine, Pet Care
By Role
AssociatesOwnersPractice ManagerStudentsTechnicians
Subscriptions
dvm360 Newsletterdvm360 Magazine
News
All News
Association
Breaking News
Education
Equine
FDA
Law & Ethics
Market Trends
Medical
Politics
Products
Recalls
Regulatory
Media
dvm360 LIVE!™
Expert Interviews
The Vet Blast Podcast
Medical World News
Pet Connections
The Dilemma Live
Vet Perspectives™
Weekly Newscast
dvm360 Insights™
Publications
All Publications
dvm360
Firstline
Supplements
Vetted
Clinical
All Clinical
Anesthesia
Animal Welfare
Behavior
Cardiology
CBD in Pets
Dentistry
Dermatology
Diabetes
Emergency & Critical Care
Endocrinology
Equine Medicine
Exotic Animal Medicine
Feline Medicine
Gastroenterology
Imaging
Infectious Diseases
Integrative Medicine
Nutrition
Oncology
Ophthalmology
Orthopedics
Pain Management
Parasitology
Surgery
Toxicology
Urology & Nephrology
Virtual Care
Business
All Business
Business & Personal Finance
Hospital Design
Personnel Management
Practice Finances
Practice Operations
Wellbeing & Lifestyle
Continuing Education
Conferences
Conference Listing
Conference Proceedings
Upcoming dvm360 Conferences
Resources
CBD in Pets
CE Requirements by State
Contests
Partners
Spotlight Series
Team Meeting in a Box
Toolkit
Top Recommended Veterinary Products
Vet to Vet
Veterinary Heroes
  • Contact Us
  • Fetch DVM360 Conference
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy
  • Do Not Sell My Information
  • About Us

© 2023 MJH Life Sciences and dvm360 | Veterinary News, Veterinarian Insights, Medicine, Pet Care. All rights reserved.

Advertisement
By Role
  • Associates
  • Owners
  • Practice Manager
  • Students
  • Technicians
Subscriptions
  • dvm360 Newsletter
  • dvm360 Magazine
  • Contact Us
  • Fetch DVM360 Conference
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy
  • Do Not Sell My Information
  • About Us
  • MJHLS Brand Logo

© 2023 MJH Life Sciences™ and dvm360 | Veterinary News, Veterinarian Insights, Medicine, Pet Care. All rights reserved.

Hand off tasks with confidence, trust staff abilities, experts say

February 1, 2004
Jennifer Fiala

Social skills, management abilities help ease way; lean on experienced technicians for support; abandon do-it-yourself attitudes in the workplace

Social skills, management abilities help ease way; lean on experiencedtechnicians for support; abandon do-it-yourself attitudes in the workplace

Montclair, N.J. -As a new graduate, Dr. Nancy Katz remembers feelingunsure of herself with clients. New to the team and her surroundings, sheoften questioned her own judgment and expertise.

Self-doubt made it tough to delegate duties, she says, especially becauseas a student, she became accustomed to relying on herself. Nowadays, Katz,a New Jersey practice owner, recognizes the impact her good social skillsplayed in learning to manage and interact with people, which not only makesit easier to hand off tasks, but to ask for suggestions and expertise.

Her advice: Have confidence not only in yourself but the experiencedtechnicians who can ease the transition from student to practitioner.

"You have to realize you can't do everything yourself, even if youwant to," she says. "If you're at a baseline veterinary ability,you'll be fine to delegate tasks, but social skills matter, too."

Play on the team

Reluctance to delegate tasks while lacking confidence not only plaguesnew graduates but also long-time veterinarians, says Joe McManus, TuftsUniversity College of Veterinary Medicine's associate dean for administrationand finance. When joining a new hospital, he says, think of it as a team.Trust co-workers and colleagues, he says. Have confidence in their abilitiesto do necessary tasks.

"How early you realize this makes a big difference on how successfulyou'll be," McManus says. "Understand and respect the skills ofother team members, even if they don't have a DVM degree. That's the firststep toward learning how not to do everything yourself."

Additional tips

Advertisement

  • Recognize the financial strings attached to delegating.

It's cost-effective to delegate duties and essential to running a financially successful practice, McManus says.

"You should only be doing what a veterinary degree requires you to do," he says. "The technician can be out there earning the practice revenue, too."

  • Use your time in school wisely.

"Learn from faculty behaviors and external rotations and pattern your behavior after veterinarians you see delegating well," McManus says. "This will teach you more than any book and save you lots of agony."

  • Organization is paramount.

McManus advises organizing your time and work ethic to effectively delegate to others.

"In order to be economically successful, the veterinarian needs to be well organized and multitask between cases in an efficient way," he says.

  • Provide appropriate recognition.

"Thank your co-workers for the things they do for you," he says. "The recognition brings both psychic and financial benefits, which is especially true for technicians who aren't always paid well."

 

  • Ask practice owners to devise delegation boundaries.

"The orientation of new graduates should explicitly include a discussion of these boundaries," McManus says. "It's their job to educate the new practitioner of the skill level ability in the hospital.

"In an ideal world, a lot of this orientation stuff gets originated by the owner, but I tell my students they need to ask for what they need. They need to know who the experienced technicians are and likely their skills will be better than the veterinarian just coming out of veterinary school. That's part of team communication, and it fosters veterinarian growth."


Advertisement

Latest News

Learning more about AmeriVet

Announcing our 2023 Fetch and Directions in Veterinary Medicine continuing education schedule: Biggest event lineup to date

Dogs and staff at Seattle dog resort safely escape fire

Pet safety for this Super Bowl Sunday

View More Latest News
Advertisement