028: How To Be Intentional About The Culture Of Your Clinic w/ Tim Holt
A city boy from Denver who found his calling dealing with livestock in Gunnison, CO, Dr. Tim Holt has been challenging the status quo in the veterinary world for years. Having never touched a horse or a cow until veterinary school in 1984, Dr. Holt spent the beginning of his career treating livestock while researching Pulmonary Hypertension in bulls and cattle. Since 2004 Dr. Holt has been working with large animal livestock at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital at CSU, and mentoring his students.
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Show Notes:
Dr. Holt believes in focusing on client relationships, helping students understand ranch work, and helping them navigate how exactly a veterinarian survives in this world. Dr. Holt encourages his mentees to find things that they are passionate about and enjoy doing while enjoying the people you work with, which he assures us is the key to a long and happy career. In addition to his career history, we discuss the new trend of specialization, acupuncture and chiropractic treatment for livestock, and Dr. Holt’s surprising collection of tattoos.
In this episode:
- Tim’s amazing recount of his memorable first day on the job
- Focusing on pain control during surgery
- How Tim changed the culture around veterinary care in his small town clinic
- The importance of financial responsibility and life-work balance
- Finding pleasure in learning
Quotes:
“To be honest I went through vet school knowing that I would be a small animal practitioner, but yet chase the bulls with pulmonary hypertension. That was my big goal.” (9:38)
“I went from a job that I truly, truly, loved to a new job I truly, truly, love. Because even though it’s not mixed animal and I miss the small animal practice, I now hang out with youth every day. And the vet students are a joy I am passionately thrilled for them and I can’t say enough about the excitement the vet students give to me.” (30:54)
“If you keep adding to your world and you keep looking to do new things and you keep adding to your education and you never stop, I don’t know how you get bored with that.” (44:12)
“If somebody came to me and said ‘should I be a veterinarian?’ I’m going ‘there is no better profession’” (56:49)
Links:
Veterinary Loan Repayment Program
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