Thanks for this article, Eric. I recently retired from small animal practice but spent most of my career with imposter syndrome, especially with regards to surgery. Never mind I never had an actual disaster, but I never felt hugely confident. I’m so glad you found your niche. I adore clinical pathology, especially cytology, thanks to great CE from Kate Baker, and so much wish I had known these careers were options back in the late 80s when I started out. Still, small animal medicine was my thing for so long, and it was weird hanging up my stethoscope. I wish you all the best...looks like you are where you need to be!
DW, I appreciate you sharing your vulnerability; imposter syndrome is something most of us feel, but very few talk about! We all need to support each other as vets because it is difficult out there (and getting harder). Kate is one of my good friends and her new site VetHive (full disclosure: I'm a consultant there) is specifically built around the idea of a healthy, nurturing environment for learning and getting help from specialists without judgment. I hope you continue to stay engaged with the field even in retirement. Thanks for reading!
Eric, thanks for sharing this! Candid conversations like these are exactly what we need. In the world of high-performing professionals, it can be difficult to accept one's weaknesses and challenges. Thanks for showing that there is nothing wrong in embracing them and continually adapting.
Thank you Bikul, I'm glad you enjoyed! I wholeheartedly agree. I've shared this post with several professional DVM networks and a number of people reached out to tell me it resonated with them. Many are at career junctions and pivoting away from ER or general practice to exciting new fields like relief or home euthanasia practice, non-clinical roles in industry, pharma, or government, start-up entrepreneurship and more, yet so many confess to feeling like a "failure" because they're not living up to the idea of James Herriot. Back in vet school I was told "there's no one right way to be a vet," and more people need to hear that message. Another thing that is needed to address the mental health crisis in both human and veterinary medicine is normalizing the fact that we all are fallible humans who make mistakes.
Thanks for this article, Eric. I recently retired from small animal practice but spent most of my career with imposter syndrome, especially with regards to surgery. Never mind I never had an actual disaster, but I never felt hugely confident. I’m so glad you found your niche. I adore clinical pathology, especially cytology, thanks to great CE from Kate Baker, and so much wish I had known these careers were options back in the late 80s when I started out. Still, small animal medicine was my thing for so long, and it was weird hanging up my stethoscope. I wish you all the best...looks like you are where you need to be!
DW, I appreciate you sharing your vulnerability; imposter syndrome is something most of us feel, but very few talk about! We all need to support each other as vets because it is difficult out there (and getting harder). Kate is one of my good friends and her new site VetHive (full disclosure: I'm a consultant there) is specifically built around the idea of a healthy, nurturing environment for learning and getting help from specialists without judgment. I hope you continue to stay engaged with the field even in retirement. Thanks for reading!
Great articles Eric!
Thanks, Katherine! Glad you enjoyed reading :)
Eric, thanks for sharing this! Candid conversations like these are exactly what we need. In the world of high-performing professionals, it can be difficult to accept one's weaknesses and challenges. Thanks for showing that there is nothing wrong in embracing them and continually adapting.
Thank you Bikul, I'm glad you enjoyed! I wholeheartedly agree. I've shared this post with several professional DVM networks and a number of people reached out to tell me it resonated with them. Many are at career junctions and pivoting away from ER or general practice to exciting new fields like relief or home euthanasia practice, non-clinical roles in industry, pharma, or government, start-up entrepreneurship and more, yet so many confess to feeling like a "failure" because they're not living up to the idea of James Herriot. Back in vet school I was told "there's no one right way to be a vet," and more people need to hear that message. Another thing that is needed to address the mental health crisis in both human and veterinary medicine is normalizing the fact that we all are fallible humans who make mistakes.