Comments on: The Slow Death of the On-Call Small Animal General Practioner

By: Valerie

Valerie — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:56:43 +0000

I’m very relieved to see I’m not the only one who resents on-call so much. When I’m on call I always have the option of calling our tech to assist me, but some of these animals need close minding after the procedure/tests are done. If I don’t go home and get some rest, I’m scrambling to focus and do no harm the next day. If I do go home and get some rest, I feel I’m providing a half-#$$ed service and that eats away at me. Taking the animal home wouldn’t change that (I’m only 5 minutes’ walk from work) – I’m still working if it needs attention. On-call is one of the reasons I’m leaving my present job.

The cat-exclusive clinic where I start in June has sky-high standards, a much smaller client base, with two emergency hospitals in the vicinity. The veterinarian welcomes after-hours calls from long-established clients with seriously or interestingly ill cats, and returns these calls till 10 pm. This I do not mind at all, and would be happy to provide this service. I’s very different from being officially on duty, awakened at night and scrambling to understand what’s going on with an animal I’ve never seen before. On the other hand, this veterinarian (my prospective boss) has chewed out one of the said emergency clinics for providing sub-standard care to one of her patients who was seen there on emergency at night. So an animal is not necessarily worse off in our weary hands than it would be in a 24-hour facility; but we’re the ones who are worse off

By: Dr. K

Dr. K — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:32:53 +0000

Tammy: I admit that on-call is a necessary evil in rural America. But, there was an emergency clinic even where I grew up in the mountains of Pennsylvania. They are popping up everywhere. And my husband is IT. He does software design, primarily. There was a job he had a few years ago that required him to be availalbe 24/7 if the website or server went down. Yuck.

VetlovingPetsHB: “some clients find it endearing but I myself want BOTH my vets AND my MD’s WELL rested so they can clearly diagnose and perform surgery as needed”
Preach it, sister. I wake up on the cranky side, especially at 2am. After a 10-hour workday, I need decompression and brain dump. Call me in the middle of night, I can tell you I’m not crisp.

By: VetLovingPetsHB

VetLovingPetsHB — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:38:04 +0000

I did emergency ONLY as a relief doc during my internship on that rare day off to supplement my measly salary as an intern so I could pay the rent and on those forced overnight shifts (but then again we got to go HOME during the day to sleep/recharge). Some vets still do it in very rural areas and some clients find it endearing but I myself want BOTH my vets AND my MD’s WELL rested so they can clearly diagnose and perform surgery as needed. I also want them happy and fulfilled in their careers AND their personal lives so they don’t burn out and quit to go do something else. A 10 hour day is ENOUGH and then our brain starts to make little mistakes–why put an animal at risk? And as you mentioned, then a tech HAS to be on call and then if its TRULY an emergency it will be turfed to ER for overnight care and monitoring with docs/techs that work the nights shift and are refreshed.

By: Tammy

Tammy — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:48:08 +0000

I can’t imagine having “on-call” be a part of my job (admittedly, web design doesn’t have many emergencies!)

We live in a small town on the Oregon coast. There is only one vet office in our town, and we actually drive to another town for our vet care. I know that our vet offers on-call service, which they share with another vet office in the town. I appreciate that they have the service – but I would definitely hesitate to call, unless it was a dire emergency! The closest 24-hour emergency clinic is more than two hours away though, so on-call is pretty needed in an area like ours!