Trust your training: an emergency medicine leader's advice for new veterinarians

In this episode of The Vet Blast Podcast, Anthony Coronado, DVM, vice president of emergency services at Thrive Pet Healthcare, joins host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, to talk through the fundamentals he leans on most in his career: trusting your training, treating documentation as a core part of the job, and building the emotional intelligence to handle difficult conversations with clients and colleagues alike.

Below is a partial transcript, edited lightly for clarity.

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: I know a lot of new graduates, especially in the ER, fumble with imposter syndrome. What advice would you give to a new veterinarian who feels overwhelmed or worries they're not ready for real-world medicine?

Anthony Coronado, DVM: That's normal and natural to feel, but understand it's not true. You just went through an intensive 4-year program, and if you're coming into the ER, ideally, you've also done some postgraduate training, like an internship or an ER academy. You know the medicine, and you certainly know more than the person in front of you with that pet. Where you struggle a bit coming out is how to access that information quickly. You've had a lot downloaded into you, and it takes time to learn how to pull it out fast. So, the other side of that is to say, ‘Mr Jones, I understand this is what's going on with Fluffy, and I'm not entirely sure right now what's going on, but the good news is I know how to figure it out, so let's work on this together.’ Trust your training. Stick to the basics — unlocking everything A, B, and C — because we were taught those things for a reason. Then, as you get past the basics, use your resources: the mentors you had in school, your classmates, the other doctors around you. Exploit your organization's mentorship resources. Thrive has a doctor mentorship program specifically for first-year veterinarians, and I know other organizations have similar programs. Don't be afraid to ask for help. The biggest mistake I see is people being afraid to admit when they don't know something, and that's what gets them into trouble.

Christman: What are some common mistakes you've seen new veterinarians make clinically, and how can they avoid them?

Coronado: I've made plenty of these mistakes myself. Trust your training, don't stray from the basics. We're taught a specific diagnostic workup in school, and it's pretty all-inclusive. A lot of people feel like that's ivory tower thinking and that clients can't afford it in the real world. But when you start cutting corners, you start missing things. The tendency is to jump to the latest and greatest diagnostic tests the companies promote and skip the basics. As I migrated from general practice into ER and then specialty, I started receiving referrals, essentially backdooring through the ER, and I'd see that if the referring doctor had just done the basics, that pet never would have needed to come to our door. They would have had the answer, and the animal would have been served sooner. The difference between a mediocre doctor and a good doctor is adherence to the basics. The difference between good and great is dotting every i, crossing every t, and not skipping steps. Don't get tunnel vision. We have a saying in medicine: when you hear hoofbeats, look for horses, not unicorns. Common things happen commonly, so don't try to fit a diagnosis to what you see; let what you see lead you to the diagnosis. That's the adage of “treat the pet, not the test.” If a test result doesn't match what you're seeing clinically, look at the clinical picture. Start with the basics and move forward.

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