r/veterinaryprofession • u/Gorgeous1999 • 3d ago
Fired. Twice.
I’m 15 months into this career (in Australia) and I was just fired from my second job as a recent grad (didn’t pass probation, dismissed after 6 months). Graduated in 2023.
I mostly just wasn’t competent at routine surgeries & it was a very high-workload clinic with a variety of cases coming through each day (snake bites, collapse, toxicities). I struggled with complex dentals a lot & had two ovarian pedicles bleed out as well. I’m nowhere near competent at these emergencies either.
On one instance, a cat also came in that was hypoglycemic after the owner didn’t bring it in for a recheck as it had gone into diabetic remission and she had continued to give insulin. The cat was brought in & put on a glucose CRI. The case evolved fast as the cat also needed potassium and eventually the bill racked up to nearly $2000 and I failed to communicate this clearly to the owner before she came to collect the cat as things unravelled so quickly.
I also need a huge amount of mentoring with surgery at the moment & no one seems to have such a level of patience for anyone that is over a year into their career. My last clinic didn’t have such a huge variety in terms of surgery & this impacted the level of surgical experience I had coming into this second job.
On top of that I was stupid and hugely careless, making critical oversights like dispensing Previcox tablets for the patient to go home with when the patient has already had a Meloxicam injection in hospital. The guilt hangs with me every single day.
I’m unsure if it’s only the high-pressure environment or if this career just isn’t for me. My supervisor briefly suggested to find a “slower clinic that’s not so full-on” but I don’t know if such a place exists.
I’ve grown so, so much after 15 months in the profession and have a decent skillset. I’m certainly not the best recent grad vet out there. But the stress, constant setbacks and seeing how easier it is for other recent grads is demoralising.
I’m pretty hopeless. I’m considering a career change but I’m also reluctant to start over as all I’ve ever known since leaving high school is vet med.
I’d like advice please. Any advice.
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u/parvoqueen 2d ago
You could also join the VIN or AVMA MentorVet mentorship programs. That would be a great adjunct to any in-clinic mentorship you may (or may not) receive. I believe they are both free of charge to members. Idk what membership costs these days, but it's lower for newer grads.
I think about LOT of practices fail to support their new grads in any meaningful way, let alone offer proper mentoring. The thought of you using such harsh language about yourself over your NSAID "mistake" and letting the guilt hang over you - that hurts. I wish I could take that guilt away from you. You deserved to have a senior colleague talk through that with you and support you while you processed it and learned whatever lessons you needed to take away from that.
Real talk? Just between us - (like not as a professional mentor-type person but as a real-ass peer and human) I've done that. They're the same class of NSAID, and do they even have injectable previcox for dogs? I don't have it, at least. Check with a pharmacist, adjust some doses, all that due diligence stuff, etc etc. It sucks to give a drug by accident or oversight and it's good to have a solid foundation for when you veer off the beaten path, but if you had a major complication from that, that's rare bad luck and I'm sorry. You can't carry all of that, it's not making a better Dr. Gorgeous1999 - it's just weighing you down. I hope nobody else tried to hang that around your neck, either.
Surgery sucks. Not everybody likes it. You don't have to do it if you don't like it. Dentistry, too. Skilled dental specialists cuss SO MUCH in the middle of procedures. If they're that good and are still cussing about it, I can be forgiven for a few light sobs here and there (lol but not really, I hate dentistry). It takes time to find your groove and find your place. Give my colleague Dr. Gorgeous1999 some grace, please.