The Practice Manager’s Journal

After 31 years in veterinary medicine, I have learned that the work happening behind the examination-room door matters just as much as the medicine practiced inside it.

A veterinary practice depends on people, policies, communication, financial stewardship, regulatory compliance, and systems that hold together when the day refuses to follow the schedule. Practice management is where all of those responsibilities meet. Some days, they collide.

I began my career working directly with animals and clients. Over the years, my responsibilities expanded into business operations, nonprofit leadership, staff development, compliance, client communication, and practice management. Each role taught me something different about what helps veterinary professionals succeed and what quietly wears them down.

I created The Practice Manager’s Journal to document those lessons, but this journal is not only about sharing what I know. It is also a place for me to reflect honestly on my work, examine my decisions, challenge my assumptions, and continue growing as a manager and as a person.

After three decades in veterinary medicine, I have experience, but experience does not make anyone infallible. Good leadership requires the humility to recognize what worked, what did not, and what should be handled differently next time. Writing gives me a way to slow down, consider those lessons, and turn daily experience into something more useful than another exhausting week.

This will not be a collection of polished management slogans or recycled corporate advice. Veterinary medicine has enough inspirational posters. I want this journal to address the work as it actually exists: complicated, demanding, deeply human, and worth improving.

Topics will include leadership, workplace culture, employee support, client boundaries, technology, financial management, regulatory preparation, continuing education, and the daily operational decisions that shape patient care. I will also write about professional development, including my Fear Free training and the responsibility to reduce fear, anxiety, and stress for patients and the people caring for them.

Good management should not merely keep the schedule moving. It should protect patients, establish reasonable expectations for clients, support employees, and provide the structure veterinary teams need to do good work without sacrificing themselves in the process.

I do not claim to have every answer. Experience has mostly taught me to be suspicious of anyone who does. What I can offer is an honest account of what I have learned, what I am still examining, where I have fallen short, and what I believe our profession can do better.

Patient, client, employee, and practice confidentiality will always be protected. The views expressed here are my own, and nothing published in this journal should be interpreted as veterinary, legal, or financial advice.

Thank you for reading. Let’s see where this leads.