Living and Working at Energy Vets Taranaki with Mixed Animal Veterinarian - Dr Jade Stolte - ep.1026

DR JADE STOLTE - RECENT GRADUATE MIXED ANIMAL VETERINARIAN - ENERGY VETS, TARANAKI, NZ

Julie South [00:00:05]: Welcome to Veterinary Voices, culture storytelling conversations that help veterinary clinics hire great people. I'm Julie South, and this is episode 1026.

We're continuing our real story series with Energy Vets in Taranaki, New Zealand.

Veterinary Voices is brought to you by VetClinicJobs, helping vet clinics tell their culture stories, not just post job ads.

In our last episode, you heard from Greg Hall, managing director at Energy Vets. He talked about leadership, community, and the long view.

Energy Vets is currently looking for an experienced small animal veterinarian. So someone ready to step up, not just clinically, but as a mentor within the team.

In this episode, you'll hear from Jade.

Julie South [00:01:02]: Jade's a recent graduate mixed animal vet who's been working at Energy Vets for just over two years.

If you're an experienced vet listening to this, there are a few specific things to look out for or to listen out for, because they'll tell you far more than a job ad ever could.

For example, listen to how Jade describes day-to-day support, how after hours is handled, how questions are welcomed, and then what actually happens, really happens, to help a new grad grow confidence without burning out or wanting to leave the profession.

This is Jade's experience in her own words. Let's get into it.

Jade [00:01:52]: I'm Jade. I've been working at Energy Vets for two years, just entering my third year out as a vet. So I'm a new or recent grad.

Grew up in New Plymouth, and yeah, have been working here since I graduated.

Julie South [00:02:04]: And you graduated... Massey was your university of choice?

Jade [00:02:08]: Yes, yep.

Julie South [00:02:08]: Why did you come back?

Jade [00:02:10]: Came back. Well, one, to be back around family, but another reason also just because Taranaki is a really nice area for someone like me who's quite outdoorsy and really enjoys a bit of hiking. Also having the beach on your front doorstep as well.

But also, to be fair, we did our full final year of vet as placement, so we got to see placement all across New Zealand. And so I came to Energy Vets for a couple weeks, and that was a bit of a draw card because the team was really, really supportive.

And so the kind of work that they offered as well was quite an attraction.

Julie South [00:02:42]: When you say supportive, what does that mean? Because I ask that because there's two different facets to it. One is you're a new grad, so obviously you don't want to be thrown in the deep end. And then there is supportive on like a global level.

Jade [00:03:00]: Yeah, yeah. So from a new grad perspective, they were quite supportive in that they were all very approachable people.

So if I have a case to ask questions about, you feel quite... quite that they're quite approachable to go talk to, and you're more than happy to go talk to them about it. You're not scared to ask questions and things like that.

They do, if you need help going out on cases, quite often, especially on the farm side of things, they do try make room to send someone with you so you're not alone in that way.

But also in small animal as well, they do have a few people that will sit down with you and have a chat or actually do surgeries with you if you need it.

Jade [00:03:43]: But also, I think they're quite good at recognising when you can do things by yourself and you just need a couple hints and send you on your way and things like that.

But yeah, I think the big one was that they seem really, really approachable, easy to talk to if you've got issues or questions, and really supportive.

I think if something did go wrong, they would have your back as well.

Julie South [00:04:01]: When you were at the other placements, albeit it's just a short period of blinks in time over a 12-month period, what did you especially notice about working at Energy Vets compared to the other clinics that you were at?

Jade [00:04:18]: Probably they've got quite a bit of a team sort of feel about them, a bit of a community feel. Like everyone... I think we're all colleagues but also friends as well, which sort of shone through as a student as well.

And I've sort of found it working here too. Like some of my colleagues are now my best friends as well, which is, I think, not very common to come across as well.

But yeah, and they, because they had a couple new grads when I came through as a student too, so I could see it in practise that they were going and asking questions. They had other vets coming out with them when they needed it. They were also getting training in areas that they needed when they asked for it.

And I've again found that myself, that it is... what I've seen is what has happened.

Julie South [00:05:01]: And you're a mixed vet. What sort of caseloads are you getting?

Jade [00:05:07]: So it's sort of quite... obviously being a dairy vet is variable throughout the year, so we do have times when we're very, very busy. So you're quite flat tack, especially during spring and things like that.

In small animal, again, I think it varies week by week as to what we're getting. I do know we can be sometimes on the quieter side for a small animal clinic sometimes. Yeah. And then you get random days where you're absolutely flat tack, which happens in any vet clinic, I've no doubt.

The one thing that I have noticed at Energy Vets, what makes it on those busier days a lot more bearable, is that we do get sort of half-hour consults, which isn't too common across a lot of clinics. They usually get 15 minutes.

So I think it means that you can put your whole effort into that consult and do the best job that you can and get all the diagnostics done in that time and give the best service that you can.

And also try get your notes written so that you're not staying too long after five if you've had a really busy day and things like that as well.

Jade [00:05:59]: Yeah, large animal can be quite, like I was saying, quite busy. But sort of this time of year again, we're finding the mornings are quite busy and then your afternoon, you've got time to go do more CPD and stuff.

Julie South [00:06:17]: You just mentioned, like at the beginning of that, that just dairy vets. Sorry, just dairy. Does that mean that you don't do any sheep and beef or lifestyle?

Jade [00:06:27]: No, so we do still see sheep and beef. There's definitely not quite as much of it in our area, but it's still a relatively decent portion of our large animal clients.

And then lifestyle as well. I think I do more lifestyle blocks than I expected coming into the job. So that's quite surprising. But there is a lot of lifestyle blocks. And it's quite enjoyable, quite an easy wee break in the day.

Julie South [00:06:51]: Are you saying easy as in the owners are very malleable?

Jade [00:06:55]: I think they're just, the owners are usually very, very friendly and usually just want a bit more of an education chat as well, rather than it just being you're running in and doing a job and running back off again.

It's probably more of an. I don't know, I suppose in a way it's a bit more of like your small animal stuff where you chat to them, get to know them, get to know their animals, know their animals by name and things.

And they're usually quite sweet, but yeah, it's usually just a bit more of a relaxed kind of thing. So you just turn up, no one's under pressure, no one's frantic because it's a lifestyle block and you're not having to worry about time and things like that.

Julie South [00:07:28]: And you do equine as well, don't you?

Jade [00:07:30]: Yep. Mm.

Julie South [00:07:30]: Is there much of that?

Jade [00:07:33]: Yeah, so equine. Again, this is one that surprised me. I think, like a lot of vets, you go through and you want to do equine. And then I came out and it's probably what I was doing the least of, but which I was a bit gutted about, but it is something you can grow on.

So if that's something you're really interested in, as I've discovered over the past two years, you can grow your clientele in equine.

And so probably now I'm out two years, I'm sort of seeing probably on average a couple equine cases a week, which is actually quite, quite nice. Whereas my first year out, probably only seeing one a week, if that.

But yeah, they're sort of around. There's not a huge amount of them, but it's quite, quite a diverse range as well. So yeah, so we have the racing horses, but we also have like performance horses and all your general pleasure horses as well.

So you get a wee taste of all of them, which is quite cool.

Julie South [00:08:24]: You've just mentioned pleasure horses. I'm going to ask you what they are because there will be people, non-horsey people, listening.

Jade [00:08:30]: So you've got your race horses, you've got your ones that are usually like doing A&P shows and show jumping and eventing and things like that, which I'd probably say are probably your more performance horses.

And then you've got those horses that just have owners and they've got them in a paddock and they enjoy riding them on a weekend, basically. Yeah, they just get ridden for fun.

Julie South [00:08:49]: What about deer?

Jade [00:08:51]: Yeah, so we do deer as well. I think we were doing this. We did have a few more deer cases when I first started. They're sort of starting to drop off a bit. I'm not sure why, but yeah, so again, you've got wee mixture of all the species there.

Julie South [00:09:07]: What's an average day for you?

Jade [00:09:10]: Oh, geez, I mean, that's pretty varied. Like, if I'm doing a day of both small animal and large animal, generally I'll go out. Because obviously on the large animal side of things, a lot of people's carvings are done in the morning. So between like 8 and 10 ish is usually your best time to hit them.

So you generally go out on farm early in the morning, do all your carvings and whatever else people might be wanting and then, you know, get back for like lunchtime and then whatever you might have for smallies in the afternoon.

It's sort of. You probably get a couple consults or I've also found I've had a few days recently where I just have got a full afternoon of surgery.

So just desexing animals is quite. Quite relaxing afternoons.

Julie South [00:09:51]: How big is your team? Vets and nurses.

Jade [00:09:55]: So smallies we've got about, I think five. Four or five smallies vets and then we've got four large animal vets as well.

Nurses we've got, we've got quite a few. I don't even know the exact number, but I think they're pushing about 10 or 12 nurses, which is really good for the size of the clinic. And that does mean they don't get overworked.

And we've also got a few admin staff as well which means our admin stuff doesn't get overworked because there's usually like three or four admin staff running around as well.

Yeah, so you've got multiple people supporting you which is really awesome because that does mean at the end of the day you don't have to worry about running through and getting all your charges done because they can do that for you and just sign off on them and things like that.

So it's good.

Julie South [00:10:38]: So there's two Energy Vets clinics, Waitara and Inglewood. Is there a difference between working in one versus the other?

Jade [00:10:47]: Oh yeah, so they, each clinic does sort of have their own vibe. Waitara's a lot, a lot busier because it's a bigger town and we've got a few more clients there as well.

Inglewood. Inglewood's just a little bit smaller so there's just not quite as many clients. You generally probably get like one or two consults versus sort of the average of like three to four consults in an afternoon, if that makes sense.

Yeah, it's just a quieter, a little bit quieter town. But both of them are lovely to work out of and also have their benefits. So yeah, you know, Inglewood's great if you. They're. They've got some really good kit there as well. So if you're like doing some more in depth work, things like that.

But also, they both have good kit actually, to be fair. So yeah, but Waitara's a bit busier but you've got a lot more people there to help as well. So it is a. They even out in that way.

Julie South [00:11:37]: What sort of after hours are you expected to be doing?

Jade [00:11:40]: So on the large animal side of things, so I only do large. I don't do the smallie side of things. I can't speak to that, unfortunately. But on large we've got. We work on a roster. We've got about six people that go on a roster and you'll. It's about once a fortnight that you'll have a weekday week and then that. Because the roster sort of rotates through and your weekday week is you are on call Thursday to Monday.

Jade [00:12:03]: So you'll basically work for five days straight. But then your weekend off, you get the Friday off and then the Monday off as well. So you get that four day weekend, which is kind of nice. Yeah. So yeah, you get. You get a fair bit of downtime on a. Your time off as well.

Julie South [00:12:11]: You have mentioned a bit of. Another random question. You have mentioned the word supportive a few times. Can you think of an example please where either you yourself have experienced that or you have witnessed support?

Jade [00:12:11]: I think probably one that jumps to mind for me is for my first couple of bitch spays as a new grad vet, had some not very good experiences.

And so I've sort of had a few sit-down chats with both Greg and a couple of the other vets as well.

And I now have a couple of them, a lot of them actually, coming and just checking, how did that one go?

I have one vet that has been doing a few with me. Started with just doing half and then getting me to do the other half, and now just will either just be in the room or just be nearby just to be there as a bit of emotional support, I suppose, because it is quite nerve-wracking.

But I think the support just also comes in people just, even reception just checking and going, oh, hey, how did that one go? Or just letting me know, hey, I've booked you in a bitch spay for next week, just so you know in advance and things like that.

Like people, a lot of everyone does sort of care about what's happening with everyone. And they do sort of back you with things and realise when you're struggling with a few things and need a little bit of extra help.

So I think that one springs to mind for me quite a bit.

Julie South [00:13:13]: Being Taranaki born and bred, Energy Vets you knew of presumably before you went to Massey. Has anything been a surprise for you as a working vet in that clinic now that you're actually in it that you didn't know about beforehand?

Jade [00:13:32]: I think this might sound a bit soppy, but I think how much or how many close friends I've made. Because I feel like usually you think, you know, go to work, they're your colleagues, that's it.

But I think probably majority of the people that I hang out with outside of work are the people from work. So very, very tight little group, which is, I think, really awesome. And I haven't really seen that so much in other clinics, which is really cool.

And I think that comes back to again, probably feeling a bit more supportive because they're all your friends and they really, really care about how you're doing and how your day-to-day is going. Or even like, how did your after hours go?

And yeah, it's a really awesome little community that we've got.

Julie South [00:14:14]: And talking of after hours, it's the bane of every vet and nurse's life, more so in regional and provincial New Zealand than cities. How have you found the after hours? Because the roster from the outside sounds pretty good.

And also, as a new grad, did you feel, and I know you've used this word before, supported... did you feel like you were ready to do after hours when it was your turn?

Jade [00:14:45]: I only do the large animal after hours, so I don't do any small animal after hours. So it's, yeah, all the farm and the equine side of things.

I don't think you'd ever feel ready to do after hours. Probably it's always that little bit of daunting. You don't know what's coming for you.

Jade [00:15:00]: But now that I've been through, I think, yeah, I probably was ready.

The other thing was, before I started, we had a date that I was going to start doing it, and our manager at the time did double-check before we started doing it. Hey, are you happy to start? We can delay it by a month or two. We'll just check in at that point if you're not ready.

So they did double-check that I was happy to start when I did start, which I really appreciated.

And the other thing was that we always on farm have two vets on each night or each weekend. So you'll have a first and a second on call.

So the first takes the majority of the calls, and then the second jumps in when you're at sort of Awakino or something and something comes out at Urenui, so miles away from each other. Or if there's several things piling up, second will jump in and take a call.

As a new grad vet, having the second on meant you always generally had someone to help you if you needed. So that was really good, even just to ring about a case. Like, there's someone there.

Jade [00:15:42]: And I've already mentioned that we have a WhatsApp group. So again, if you had a question and your second on call was busy, you just fire it away on the WhatsApp group, and generally someone will reply within sort of 10 to 15 minutes.

Like, I haven't really had any occasions where no one's replied, which has been, yeah, awesome. So you have multiple minds helping you at the same time.

Jade [00:16:20]: And I've even had an occasion on my first spring where I've fired something through on that chat, and my second on call was busy at another calving, and I was having a few problems, and someone that wasn't even on call rang me and came out and helped.

They were like, cool, I'm around the corner, I'll come help you.

So it's sort of, yeah, people going out of their way to make sure that you feel happy in what you're doing and feel supported and things like that. So I think that was really, really cool.

Julie South [00:16:48]: Thinking back over the last two years, what would be your most satisfying or memorable or interesting case that you've handled?

Jade [00:17:00]: Oh, I think maybe it's because it was my very first sick cow by myself, but that probably sticks in my head quite a bit because it ended up being an intussusception.

So that was quite, quite crazy as your first sick cow case to turn into a full gut surgery and things like that.

And again, called the clinic, someone came out to help me for the surgery. So you weren't by yourself at all.

Yeah, really, really awesome experience.

And again, that farm, really, really lovely person. Really happy that I called for help. And to this day still talks about that day and like raves about how I handled it, which is quite reassuring as a new grad vet. You know, knowing that the farmer was happy with the outcome, even though in the end she ended up being put down because it was something we couldn't fix.

But still, she, yeah, remembers that quite fondly. And yeah, really good learning experience too.

Julie South [00:17:56]: What sort of person do you think would fit in best?

Jade [00:18:00]: I think we've got quite a wide variety of people that work here. I think so long as you're happy to be a team player and look out for other people and, you know, happy to sort of have people probably been a bit... no, some might come across a bit nosy, but they should just care about you.

But yeah, a team player, I think, fits in. And that's probably the only thing that really, really matters.

Julie South [00:18:23]: What does a team player mean to you?

Jade [00:18:25]: I suppose if someone's getting absolutely swamped, just keeping an eye on another person and looking out and being like, hey, I could take that call for them.

Or even if they've... even if it's just some lab samples that need to be sent away, just thinking on your feet and just doing that for someone if they're really busy.

Or just again, little things like checking in, like, hey, I've seen you've been really busy or you've had a really hard case. How did that go? Is there anything I can help you with? Or just small things like that, or even just having a bit of a chat in the office and things. Little things like that as well.

Julie South [00:19:01]: That was Jade, mixed animal veterinarian at Energy Vets in New Zealand's Taranaki.

If you're an experienced small animal vet listening to this and thinking, I could see myself in that mentoring role, what you've just heard isn't a promise. It's a real lived experience of how Energy Vets supports its early career vets day to day.

And if you're an experienced small animal vet thinking about your next step, Energy Vets is currently looking for someone ready to step up, not just clinically, but as a mentor within the team.

You can find out more about the job at vetclinicjobs.com/energyvets. I'll put links in the show notes for you.

One of the things that Jade kept coming back to in our chat was what support actually looks like in real life. Not just as a concept, but in the moments that matter.

From having someone nearby during tricky surgeries like that bitch spay that she talked about, to checking in after a hard case, to knowing there's always someone at the other end of the phone or a message.

Julie South [00:20:12]: That's the kind of support that helps new grads find their feet, keep enjoying the job, and want to stay in the profession long term.

If you're responsible for recruitment at your clinic and listening to this thinking, hey Julie, we've got stories like this, we just don't know how to capture or share them, then please email me direct. julie@vetclinicjobs.com. Because I'd love to help you get the word out.

This is Julie South signing off and inviting you to go out there and be your most fantabulous self.

Because when vets can hear what working somewhere is really like before they ever see a job ad, they know whether they'll be working with their kind of people in their kind of clinic.

And when that happens, you're not recruiting anymore. You're welcoming people who have already decided that they belong.