Nicol is a graduate of Glasgow University Veterinary School in Scotland. He initially set out with plans to become a surgeon, but almost immediately was drawn into general practice by the interaction with pet owners and the problem-solving opportunities that cropped up each day. Initially, this meant finding and fixing animal problems, but quickly it became clear that there were plenty of problems with how practices worked as well.

Driven to fix these problems, Nicol was a constant thorn in his bosss side and eventually, after years of nagging, was given the opportunity to mentor his first junior vets. After his initial attempts fell someway short of expectations, he realised that raw enthusiasm alone was not going to be enough. So he began a journey to educate himself on how to be a better leader and coach.

Fast-forward more than a decade and Nicol has undertaken a huge amount of business training and research, building a reputation as a successful business leader within the veterinary industry. He has managed large teams of vets in corporate practices in Britain and has more recently owned, managed and successfully sold his smaller veterinary hospitals in Australia too.

Prior to relocating back to the UK, Nicol sat on the board of Love That Pet Group Australia as Chief Veterinary Officer, where his principal responsibilities were creating and maintaining the standard of clinical care and the building and development of the clinical teams.

Nicol has authored four books, published hundreds of articles in Europe, North America and Australia, and produced a best-selling online training course for vets, nurses and managers.

It is his personal mission to help pets and their people live happy, healthy lives by exploring the daily challenges we face, creating solutions and helping others to grow.

 Let your technicians assist with notes in the exam room

. They're up to the task-and they like it.

What else is keeping veterinarian's up at night

educator Dave Nicol, BVMS, Cert. Mgmt MRCVS, answers colleagues' questions on the business of veterinary medicine. In this episode Dr. Bill in Oklahoma writes with this scenario: “I can't do anything in my free time, because I spend a lot of time doing paperwork.”

	Dave couldn't agree more that this is a problem: “Vets doing heaps of unpaid overtime is like a serious disease in our industry.” And he has advice, but it's going to be on you to allocate time more wisely. You'll need to be smarter about scheduling and more realistic about how much you can actually get done.

	Want more from Dr. Nicol? Go to the full video to hear about 

faking it until you make it and the peril of being paid on production

	Would you like to get Dr. Dave's take on your veterinary business question? Reach him through all the likely channels: Use the hashtag #VetsAskDrDave on Twitter (

Expert Interviews

Owners

Those reports aren't going to complete themselves. Ehh, just stay a few extra hours.

Vets Ask Dr. Dave: Help! I'm being buried by paperwork!

Latest News