Opinion

It is important that you minimise the gaps between expectations and experience to boost customer satisfaction

What is seen, heard and felt are the most important factors driving clients’ opinions of a practice

The world of veterinary practice is in a state of flux. The delicate balance of providing veterinary care to animals 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is one of the factors that can, for all its diff…

"Folklore husbandry” is an emerging term describing the phenomenon of unevidenced, pseudoscientific, convenience-led habit and opinion handed down from one ill-informed animal keeper to the next. Kev…

There is a lot to be said for keeping things simple in a complex world. In our work as veterinary surgeons we are often bombarded by the need to make decisions, many of which will be based on incomple…

Christmas comes but once a year and when it does, it brings the Christmas rota. At the last RCVS survey, about 60 percent of practitioners said that they still do their own on call, and for those of y…

David Williams congratulates vet students coming to the end of the first term of their six-year course

It had to come to an end sometime, I guess. Janice and I had been together for years – she had accompanied me wherever I went. But eventually I’m afraid to say she ended up just getting on my nerves. …

Standards are useful things, but can also be difficult to live up to. A standard can mean that everything is the same, as in standardised. One of the most useful inventions in modern trade was the sta…

It’s October and that means the excitement of a new term and new students. I sit them down on their first day and tell them several things. Everyone will be telling them to aim for a first-class degre…

The readers of this magazine are mainly vets. But we are also a mixed group of, for example, employees of small companies, employees of large companies, business owners, farmers, UK and non-UK nationa…

Well, I guess you could call it a holiday of sorts. It was hot, for sure. But this resort, if you could give it that epithet, was not just thermally hot. The boots and overalls I took with me had to b…

Twenty years is a long time to be a vet. My cohort of graduates has just reached that anniversary. It is approaching half a lifetime for us. If you take the number of years it took you to learn to pot…

The term “exotic” can mean several things. Setting aside “unusual” or “strange”, exotic might be interpreted as something that isn’t where it should be. For most, if not all, exotic pets (ie pet wildl…

Writing this month’s column, I am not my usual upbeat veterinary self. A succession of client issues and generally being over-stretched at work has, for the first time I can remember, made me start to…

Last month we dealt with those annoying exams that spoil the start of summer for so many. But talking to undergraduates, there seems to be quite a variation between students. Many are stressed with th…

What is success? It’s an interesting question, isn’t it? Success can mean different things to different people. The dictionary definition says it’s the accomplishment of an aim or a purpose. But how m…

As vets, we are always trying to find the best treatments for our patients. This often leads to us trying something relatively new. When considering new treatments, we need to think about what evidenc…

Summertime, and the living is… well, pretty stressful if you’re a student and it is exam time! We’ve all been through them, haven’t we? GCSEs, A levels, innumerable tests at vet school. What are all t…

I am fortunate to be blessed with relatively few emotional ups and downs in life. I can identify with that sage of our times, Homer Simpson, when he was asked “Are you always this shallow or do you ha…