By Carol Hurst, LVT, CVPM, CVJ
With New York State being the first to ban declawing, the subject of controversial procedures among the practice team is a relevant one.
One of the most important conversations that we can have with our practice team is about our stance as hospital leadership on the difficult scenarios that pop up from time to time. These situations (hopefully) shouldn’t be occurring on a routine basis but when they do, if we aren’t providing the moral clarity that aligns with our practice values, it can be a great source of stress. Sometimes, even when that clarity is provided, it is a source of stress.
What controversial conversations are we referring to?
Here are a few examples, each clinic may be unique given the individual clinic’s values.
- Declaw Surgery
- Ear Cropping Surgery
- Tail Docking Procedure
- Euthanasia of Healthy Pets
Our job can be hard even on the best of days. Therefore, as practice leadership, we must get out ahead of these discussions.
Why is this important?
Your team are talking about these controversial situations whether or not we provide our own thoughts and guidance. Values conflicts are one area that can create feelings of stress, disenchantment and dissatisfaction among our support staff. This isn’t to say that prevention of every conflict is logical. However, knowing your practice leadership has put a thoughtful approach into their stance and communicates that stance will go a long way.
Likewise, this is one reason why having a strong level of trust between your support team and your leadership team is vital. If one of your team is distressed about a decision that was made with a pet, they should have the confidence to (ideally go to the doctor themselves) talk to someone in the spirit of curiosity.
How do you have these conversations?
Certainly if you have a situation that happens in your practice, it can be used as a catalyst for the discussion around a controversial topic. However, waiting for one of these situations to happen that are often emotionally charged before having these discussions isn’t preferable. Being proactive is ideal here.
Let your authenticity shine. Ideally, this discussion comes from the Practice Owner but it can function coming from a Practice Manager or Hospital Administrator. Here is an example:
“Hey Team! Thank you so much for taking some time out of your busy day for this meeting. One of the topics that I wanted us to talk about is one is that has been weighing on my mind lately. Periodically, your leadership team will talk about some of the potentially difficult scenarios that we encounter. We talk about what policy would align most with our values. I want to make sure that we are communicating our thoughts to you about this.
You may have heard that New York State has been the first state to ban the declawing procedure. As you know, we do between 5-7 declaws a year. My thought has always been that I would rather declaw a pet than have a family give that pet up for adoption. I know that this hasn’t been a decision that many of you have agreed with. Due to our recent adoption of the Fear Free Movement and Dr. X’s hard work with updating our doctor team, I want to update our declaw procedure policy.
As a practice, I would like us to not perform declaw procedures at all. Dr. X is working with your CSR Lead to come up with a script to tell clients and she is working with your Lead Tech to update our consultation appointments to teach these clients in a more pro-active manner about what other options exist.
What questions or thoughts do y’all have about this before we move forward?”
Important components
These conversations may take many different forms. Maybe you are updating your policies, or you are just putting pen to paper on a policy that has been in place. Perhaps you read an article that brought the controversial subject into the forefront of your mind. 😊 Any opportunity can be taken to start the discussion.
We advocate heavily for transparency and authenticity with your practice team. The more you can get their input on how the practice is run, the more buy-in and satisfaction you’ll gain among your team. This may or may not be applicable in these types of discussions. At the very least, expressing empathy to any known opinions of your team and invite discussion (both public and private) about what the proposed updated policy will look like before actual implementation can help to balance this out.
Finally, whenever you confront a person’s values, there are bound to be conflicts. This is where you hope your hiring efforts ensure that the people on your team share your values. Employing empathy and articulating the why behind whatever decision was made can go a long way. Even if the ultimate result is agreeing to disagree.