VetsOne Dr Mia Small Animal Veterinarian Part 2 of 2 - ep. 1010

Julie South [00:00:04]: Welcome to Veterinary Voices: Employer brand conversations that help veterinary clinics hire great people. I'm Julie South and this is episode 1010, the second part in our conversation with Dr Mia from VetsOne in Hastings in New Zealand's Hawke's Bay. Veterinary Voices is brought to you by VetClinicJobs.

Build your employer brand. Do your own recruitment. Better.

In the previous episode you heard about Dr Mia's journey to veterinary medicine as a mature student, her transition from mixed to small animal practice, and how VetsOne supported her development of a complementary herbal medicine side hustle. You also heard why she left, what drew her back, and why she describes coming to work as coming to friends.

In this episode we're diving deeper, this time into the practical day-to-day realities of working at VetsOne. Dr Mia will walk you through her after-hours arrangements with the Hawke's Bay after-hours clinic, the team huddles that happen twice daily, what changed when they moved from the old building where you could yell down the hallway to the new multi-storey clinic, and how the Lincoln Institute training transformed team communication and conflict resolution.

You'll also hear Dr Mia's perspective on what makes their nursing team exceptional, the difference between hard days and truly bad days, and what sort of person would thrive in this environment.

If you're a small animal veterinarian considering your next move and wondering what genuine team support looks like in veterinary practice, this conversation will show you.

Let's join the chat.

Julie South [00:02:10]: What sort of person do you think would fit in really?

Dr Mia [00:02:10]: Someone that's down to earth. What does that mean? I was going to say—I know that's such a cliché saying. It's somebody that just wants to fit into a big family and have a good time and get to know other people. They do not have to be extroverted or outgoing to do that.

They're going to come to a team where people are just going to want to get to know them, as long as they want to be part of a team and have a good time at work. And that doesn't mean they have to be—like I said, they don't have to be the centre of attention at the party, but just somebody that wants to feel like they belong somewhere.

Julie South [00:02:42]: What's your favourite piece of kit?

Dr Mia [00:02:46]: Oh gosh. The nurses. Can I say nurses? I couldn't do my job. I could not do my job. Well, I used to joke and say that my favourite veterinary tool was a nurse because I can't do my job without them. We have amazing nurses and we are a team. Definitely a nurse.

Julie South [00:03:03]: What does amazing nurses mean?

Dr Mia [00:03:05]: Just that they are part of your team. You're a team together. You work it out together. We each have things that the other one doesn't do. There's certain things that only I can do as a vet because literally the law dictates that. But some of our nurses are just—like every team member, they all have their areas of interest and expertise and things that they're passionate about.

And you just work together, communicate and work it out and make a plan. You have a shared interest in the outcome for the animal. And you learn—I learnt as a new graduate, I learnt so much from the mature—when I say mature, I mean experienced nurses in the role. Some nurses have been there for nearly 20 years and they've seen a lot and they really supported me as a new graduate.

Julie South [00:03:49]: What does a good day versus a not-so-good day look like for you?

Dr Mia [00:03:53]: I'll start with the not-good day. And it's normally tricky interactions with clients. There's always outcomes with animals that you do your best and it's not what you want. That's always hard.

But probably the hardest thing is if you've had an interaction with a client that is emotionally draining. And that is not to reflect on this practice—that's our industry. That's a rough day when you're trying to make a client happy and that's not happening.

And the flip side—I said to Amanda the other day, I said every day, even a bad day, it's a good day coming here because you come to friends. In our industry, rather than good and bad days, I'd say we have hard days and days that aren't as taxing. And most of the time, those hard days, it's still not bad coming here because I come to friends.

Julie South [00:04:40]: Talking about things that are taxing, it's an industry challenge, shall I say—after hours. How does after hours work? Being on call? You may get called out at 2 o'clock in the morning on a freezing cold winter's night. What's that roster like?

Dr Mia [00:05:03]: Well, up until early this year, we had a roster. And from February this year, we belong to the Hawke's Bay after-hours clinic. So all the small animal clinics feed into the Hastings-located Hawke's Bay after-hours clinic. So the latest my job goes to now is 6 o'clock, and that's once a week.

Julie South [00:05:25]: Does that mean that you can finish at 6, you don't have to take notes home and work around them?

Dr Mia [00:05:31]: 100%. Yeah, I finish at 6 one day a week and the other days I finish at 5 or 5:30. Sometimes there are notes, but not often. I can normally get it done within work time. Or I'm a bit nerdy and I'd prefer to come in half an hour earlier and tidy it up the next day. But that's just me. Someone else might want to stay later.

Julie South [00:05:48]: What about weekends?

Dr Mia [00:05:49]: So our weekend roster changes a little bit, just depending on staffing availability. But I think the worst that I do is about one in four. And we work from—we come into the clinic about 8:30, but we open to the public from 9 and we close at 1, Saturday and Sunday.

Julie South [00:06:07]: Do you have huddles, team huddles?

Dr Mia [00:06:09]: Yeah, we do rounds. We do rounds twice a day. So we start rounds at about 20 past 8, 8:30 and we just have 10 minutes. And that includes the support staff. So customer care staff—admin, reception, however you want to call it—nurses and vets. And we all come together and sort of lay out what we've got happening for the day.

And then we do it again at quarter to 3—where is everyone up to? And I think it's a really nice way, because we are a relatively large building, to check in with where everybody is at. Sometimes the reception staff might have had a really busy day. Someone's sick and everyone's tired and you have no idea. And the vets are asking them to ring someone or do this and do that, and they're just overloaded.

So it's a nice way of checking in and saying, "Actually we are tapped," and the nurses are saying, "Oh, well, I can do that for you or I can come out and help," or if someone hasn't had lunch, we'll make it work. And that goes for every group.

Julie South [00:07:01]: Jason was saying that in the old clinic you used to be able to put your head out the door and yell down the hallway, but that can't happen anymore. And lots more systems and procedures have been initiated. How's that been on your side of that?

Dr Mia [00:07:22]: Well, because I started in the old building and moved here, I got to see both worlds. And when we first moved in here, it was challenging because we had to learn how to find each other. It was a source of frustration.

But I think a few years down the track now, that's much better. And you kind of know how to work it. I don't run around the building quite so much looking for people. The nurses are very good at carrying their phones. And I hope that our vets are a little bit kinder to the support staff when they are stuck at a desk out the front and they intercom upstairs asking to find somebody—you're a bit more helpful.

Julie South [00:07:55]: Mia, you're a vet that could have a choice of clinics pretty much to work at. Why VetsOne?

Dr Mia [00:08:06]: Yeah, you're right. The industry at the moment is in my favour as an employee. Well, I came back here and the reason I came back and the reason I stay is 100% the people here. I couldn't speak any higher of the three directors. They've got the most beautiful hearts. They're the kindest, most selfless people.

And the people I work with every day—I would get upset if I think about leaving the people that I work with. So it's 100% the people. And it's a feeling of being completely accepted for yourself and being safe here, which I know might sound a strange thing to say. But if you can come to work and you feel obviously physically safe—which is a big deal in our job as well—but emotionally safe and supported in a workplace, then it's a pretty tricky place to want to leave when you feel happy here. You come to friends.

Julie South [00:09:02]: When you're accepted as a witch.

Dr Mia [00:09:04]: As a witch and a weirdo. Yeah. And they make jokes about it. I've worked—I've done a lot of different jobs, I've worked for a lot of different people, and not all of them you would trust in the same way that I trust all the staff here, in particular my bosses. They're incredibly good people through and through, and their focus is people and having a good business.

Julie South [00:09:29]: Mia, how has VetsOne supported you as the veterinary professional that you are today?

Dr Mia [00:09:42]: They've supported me from multiple angles, really. They've supported me as a person. So there's a deep care about your wellbeing and happiness as a person. But professionally they've really supported what I was passionate in. So they were fine with me having my own interests and passions. And I said, "This is what I want to do." They ask, "How could we support you in that?" In your review process, there's always—and not just a review process, in meetings and how we introduce protocols—there is always a space for your voice to be heard.

I mean, the boss makes the final decision, but they definitely give you a platform to have a voice and that is respected. Everyone is allowed to have an opinion and be respected. It's a safe place to offer that. And I think those combination of factors can only result in growth for a person when given those opportunities.

Julie South [00:10:36]: I'm going to ask a question that I've asked before. What sort of person do you think would fit best and what sort of person do you think would complement the diverse team that you've got already?

Dr Mia [00:10:53]: I think somebody that really wants to be part of a team, that wants to join something that does feel like a family. That doesn't mean that you have to see us outside of work, but someone that wants to integrate and bring their own flavour along.

Julie South [00:11:06]: Are you part of the Lincoln Institute programme?

Dr Mia [00:11:09]: Yes.

Julie South [00:11:10]: Can we talk about that, please? What's that been? When that was first introduced, the directors said, "Right, hey, we're doing this." What did you think? And now that you've progressed through and you have the 20/20 vision of hindsight, what's that been like?

Dr Mia [00:11:29]: When it initially came along, I was like, "Oh, my gosh, I've got so much to do. When am I going to do this?" And then in typical VetsOne style, they're like, "If you're not getting space, please tell your team leader, we will create space. This is important."

In hindsight, looking back, I can't really speak highly enough of people that at this point in their careers are still driving personal reflection and growth. So this was not a top-down directive that you as the team have to go and do all this learning and grow. This was, "Everyone's on the same level. We want to be the best team we can be. Let's embrace this and we'll give you the space to do it. We'll all do it together."

Everyone's opinions when you come together are valid. Did you like it? What did you get from it? Did it land for you? Did it not land for you? And the growth that's come out of that—personally, I thought I was pretty good at people. I thought I was pretty good at a lot of the stuff. I've done sales training, I've done personality things. I'm a bit of a nerd and like reading about this myself. But I've got a lot out of it because this is a tricky business.

It is not an easy profession in terms of—it's not just animal medicine. It is dealing with people and it's dealing with clients that are both internal and external. It's dealing with personalities under stress. And it has been huge learning. Very, very beneficial from a veterinary professional's point of view.

Julie South [00:12:52]: Retrospectively looking back with hindsight, what do you think has changed from before Lincoln to where the team is now, as a team, as a clinic?

Dr Mia [00:13:08]: I think it's probably given greater understanding of understanding people. Like I said, I thought I was pretty good at people, but it's given me so much more. And I think as a team, you have a hard day and a lot of any minor internal conflict comes from not understanding other people or people having two different points of view of the same situation. That has changed. I think we can understand more, we can communicate better.

Even little things like, "Do you have the space? I've had this really hard thing, I need to vent. Do you have the capacity for me to tell you that right now?" And someone can say, "No, I really don't." And someone else is like, "I've got you." It's understanding how people work, which is 50% of what we do, if not more.

Julie South [00:13:59]: It's interesting that you say that, because with every four-legged animal that walks through the door is a two-legged heartbeat—

Dr Mia [00:14:06]: At least one, sometimes more—

Julie South [00:14:11]: —attached to that, that you need to be able to communicate with as well as your colleagues.

Dr Mia [00:14:16]: Yes, yes, yes. Correct. Absolutely. Yeah. You spend a lot of time in veterinary school learning about animals and they do their absolute best to integrate the people part, but you truly get immersed in that in the workplace and that's a big learning curve.

I was lucky that I had had other workplace experiences to grow in that. So I have a lot of—sympathy, not empathy—sympathy for new graduate vets that were also younger when they started, that come out of the workplace and they've got to learn their craft and they've got to learn people at the same time.

So as somebody that is—I can't believe I'm saying this—slightly more senior in the team now, age-wise, that's a real big passion for me, to want to support the newer graduates in dealing with that. And for all the reception staff or anybody, that's something that I really enjoy doing here and that's something that I've grown from the Lincoln training as well, and how to do that. It takes away a lot of the stress if you've got those skills.

Julie South [00:15:14]: Mia, just to clarify, you've talked about coming back. What caused you to leave in the first place?

Dr Mia [00:15:23]: So I'd worked here for about three and a half years from a new graduate position. And like I said, I was feeling a little bit burnt out and something that dropping my hours hadn't fixed. And I just needed a little bit of a break and space from a practice that I was actually quite emotionally attached to and involved in.

But my position being a veterinarian meant that you only have so much impact, particularly as a new graduate veterinarian. And I think it was important for me to step away and try a different practice, just to move through from just going to work, learning how to do that. And I dropped my hours quite significantly and went and did that, and I just needed to recover a little bit.

And like I said, it's an industry thing, it's a personality thing, it's not a practice thing. I think you could achieve that physical state, emotional state anywhere in this industry.

And then after 18 months, I just really felt like where I was wasn't suiting me. And I actually had stayed in touch with all my friends here and would come back and annoy them quite regularly at lunchtimes or just pop in for a chat. I was that person because I liked it.

And I actually sat down with Jason one day and I came into his office and I said, "I'm actually looking for a job. I don't have any expectations, but are you looking for anybody and would that work?" And he smiled at me and said, "I can't speak for the other directors, but I think we could probably work something out." I said, "Yay, thank you."

And then they went away and obviously talked about that and came back and he said, "How many hours do you want? What are you looking for?" And so I said I'd really like to stick with the three days because of what I want to do. And that was the other thing—when I came back, I gave them complete transparency of what I was hoping to achieve, how I was going to do that, and to the best of my knowledge, what it looked like, so that there were no surprises for them. And they were just like, "Brilliant. Yep, that's fine. We support that. Keep the lines of communication about your business open."

Julie South [00:17:17]: And no PowerPoints required?

Dr Mia [00:17:17]: No PowerPoints required. Although I did write them a proposal just so they had something in writing. I think I sort of thrust it at them rather than it being required. I was like, "Look, look, I've done my due diligence here. Here it is."

Julie South [00:17:37]: Thank you. You've just heard Dr Mia describe the practical realities of working at VetsOne. From the after-hours arrangements to the twice-daily team huddles. From the impact of Lincoln Institute training to why she considers nurses her essential tool.

So far in this VetsOne Employer of Choice series, you've heard from Dr Jason Clark about collaborative protocol development and the cyclone response. From operations manager Amanda about 34 years of evolution and generosity of thought. And now from Dr Mia about what it means to feel emotionally and psychologically safe, professionally supported and genuinely accepted for who you are at work.

Three very different perspectives, but one consistent message. VetsOne has built something very special. A place where diverse interests are celebrated, where team members become your biggest advocates, where protocols are developed collaboratively and where people choose to return even after they leave.

A quick note about what you're hearing in this series. This depth of employer brand storytelling—multiple team members, genuine stories, cultural specifics beyond job requirements—this is what makes recruitment actually work.

When clinics struggle to get suitable applicants despite advertising for months, it's because they're posting job adverts without showing who they really are. Veterinary professionals can't choose you if they can't see whether they'd actually fit.

VetsOne isn't just posting a job ad hoping the right person sees it. They're showing veterinary professionals what working there genuinely looks like through real voices sharing real stories. That's employer brand marketing in action. And it's why they attract people who actually want to be there—people who, as you're hearing, are genuinely proud to work at VetsOne.

If you're responsible for the recruitment at your clinic and you're listening and thinking, "We have stories like this, but don't know how to capture or share them," then please email me directly at julie@vetclinicjobs.com. I'd be happy to talk about how we help clinics build this kind of authentic and genuine employer brand through our REAL+STORY programme.

If you're a small animal veterinarian and believe that you have the leadership potential or experience already, and you're thinking about making your next career move, you owe it to yourself to consider VetsOne. For the position details, including the salary range, the leadership development support that you'll get, and the team structure for the small animal veterinarian role, head on over to vetclinicjobs.com/vetsone. The information is there.

Until next time, this is Julie South signing off and inviting you to go out there and be your most fantabulous self by considering what it would mean to work somewhere that doesn't just tolerate your authentic self, but actively celebrates it. Because the difference between fitting in and truly belonging might just be the difference between a job and a forever home.

Referenced URLs:

• https://vetclinicjobs.com/vetsone
• https://veterinaryvoices.com
• mailto:tania@vetclinicjobs.com
• mailto:lizzie@vetclinicjobs.com
• mailto:julie@vetclinicjobs.com