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| Leaving practice: its a bit trickier than simply closing the door and running off to the beach! |
Practice ownership, I am told, is something like
marriage. It’s an immersive, 24-7, all-encompassing, stressful, wonderful, and
full on ride. But what happens if you want to leave the profession? It’s not a
casual relationship you can just walk out on. You can’t just resign and
disappear into the sunset. There are employees, clients, financial loose ends,
factors like succession planning and then there’s the question of what you do
with yourself afterwards.
So I was fascinated to hear about a course designed for thoseconsidering leaving the profession. We know that being a veterinarian or nurse
is a hard thing to let go of (see our interview with Sarah Page-Jones here).
We asked one of the speakers, Dr Vera Pickering, a bit about why it can be
tricky to leave practice.
What
are the challenges of leaving veterinary practice?
If you’ve been working full time for many years, being a
vet is a big part of who you are – self-worth, identity, efficient time
organisation. You have
to reinvent some of yourself and still feel you are worthwhile and can achieve.
What sort of things do veterinarians need to
consider when leaving the profession?
- Need to keep busy physically as well as intellectually.
- Keep in touch with veterinary relationships built up over time.
- How to build new interests and relationships.
What do vets do after veterinary practice?
Some stay in the vet arena -
working part time, mentoring individuals and businesses. Some develop other
business interests. Others develop other friendships, skills,volunteering
and sporting interests, e.g sailing, petanque, golf, hiking,
fishing, working in refuges, helping the aged etc.
[Ed. I had to look up petanque].
Remembering that many have families
with parents/children/grandchildren which take up a lot of time.
Travelling is a big one on most lists, as a full-on work life often
limits this.
It is distressing to suddenly feel
that you are doing/achieving nothing in a day after having a full work life (applies
to any full time fulfilling work), so there is a big adjustment to be made
in having to think about what you are going to do, rather than have the
work come to you. Easy for one to think of all the things one wants to do, but
not actually do them.
Which is why planning helps. Thank you Vera for
this food for thought. If you’re interested in learning more, check out VetPrac's course here. And just in case you're wondering no, we're not thinking of leaving veterinary practice, but its nice to see that those who are have some access to helpful resources, as selling any kind of business and changing your work life can be pretty stressful.
