5 Ways to Help Your Veterinary Staff Grow Their Skill Set

Patient well-being and practice success are intricately tied to a veterinary team’s expertise, confidence, and job satisfaction. As your business grows and evolves, it’s important to invest in your team’s development to maintain high standards of care and a positive, productive, and progressive workplace. 

Here are five ways to foster skill growth, elevate your practice, and help your team find joy in their work.

1. Start a veterinary mentorship program

Mentorship is the mother of all learning opportunities. Pairing new hires and early career employees with seasoned professionals for personalized skill development provides benefits to everyone involved.

Structured in-house veterinary mentorship programs are ideal for novice team members and new graduates. However, informal, short-term, peer-based, or skill-specific mentorships can also build your team’s confidence and competence with little effort. Examples of low-effort mentorship include:

• Pairing new hires with upper-level staff for regular check-ins
• Providing surgical or clinical mentorships to increase specific proficiencies (e.g., anesthesia, client communication and education)
• Coaching a struggling team member on a specific skill (e.g., intubation, catheter placement, ultrasound)

Remember, teaching is an act of generosity. Ensure your mentors are fairly compensated for their time and effort.

2. Host team training events

Gather the team for an all-staff training event. These single-topic sessions provide in-depth learning and promote team unity and collaboration. Identify potential topic areas by considering your team’s current skill set or recent cases where better training would have been a benefit. Training event topic ideas include:

• Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) certification
• Client communication skills (e.g., conflict resolution, handling a difficult client)
• Triage
• Digital dental X-rays
• Bandaging and splints
• Low-stress restraint and handling  
• Skills lab (e.g., intubation, venipuncture, IV catheter placement, cystocentesis)

3. Nurture individual interests with continuing education opportunities

Encourage veterinary team members to pursue their special interests and passions by funding continuing education (CE) or employee training courses. Invite each team member to submit a proposal explaining their chosen CE or training program, how they expect to benefit, and how their new skills could be applied in practice. If other staff members could benefit from the topic or skill, ask the participants to share their major takeaways at a future staff meeting. 

4. Encourage veterinary team-driven initiatives and projects

Team-driven initiatives and projects support greater learning and foster a sense of ownership of their work and the veterinary practice itself. When team members approach you with a promising suggestion or idea, ask how you can make it happen. Facilitate any requirements (e.g., specific equipment, supervision, training) and allow your staff to take point. With your trust and support, your staff will take positive action and, because they are invested, they will learn more.

Examples of veterinary team-driven initiatives include:

• Incorporating laser therapy or another therapeutic modality in your practice
• Providing technician appointments
• Adopting a low-stress approach to patient care or handling
• Reorganizing certain hospital areas
• Managing social media accounts
• Filming how-to videos for clients on common pet owner care tasks (e.g., nail trims, ear cleaning)
• Building a client education resource library 
• Creating care packages for euthanasia appointments
• Writing templates for common client communications (e.g., post-operative instructions, negative test results)
• Creating new standard operating procedures (SOPs)

5. Optimize practice management with cloud-based vet software

Upgrading your diagnostic equipment and practice management software can expand your team’s technological skill set and create new opportunities for better care. Shepherd Veterinary Software uses an intuitive design and powerful automations to streamline tasks that bog down traditional veterinary workflows. By optimizing practice management with cloud-based software, you’ll have more time for hands-on and in-person learning with your staff.

Investing in your team pays off for everyone

Upskilling initiatives foster staff development and practice growth by increasing your veterinary team’s job satisfaction and retention. Dedicating time, effort, and resources toward mentorship and continuing education can help your employees feel more competent, confident, and valued. Plus, you will see greater staff loyalty and personal investment in the practice’s success. As the team incorporates their new skills, clients and patients will benefit from higher-level care, enhancing your brand and your bottom line.

There’s already so much to learn in veterinary medicine, so your software shouldn’t add to the burden. Raise your team’s skill set by providing veterinary practice management software that gives them the tools and time they need to succeed in their work. Contact the Shepherd Veterinary Software team today to schedule your free demo!