A year in to the acupuncture journey, and we’re FINALLY getting ready to open it up to clients of the hospital. This past year at work has been one with lots of transitions, relief vets, new doctors and new techs on staff. There’s a lot of adjusting and integrating different ideas about veterinary medicine and practice taking place. We’re now getting to the point where schedules are set, and everyone is getting comfortable, which means we can add acupuncture.
I’m nervous because, as with anything, it’s a skill. New skills need to be used to feel good with them. Not that I haven’t used it at all, but it’s one thing to treat family and staff pets. These are people and animals that know me a bit better than most clients do. They have plenty of trust in me, and I know they’ll bear with me as I look things up and double check myself. Some clients respect that; others can’t believe you weren’t born just feeling confident in all aspects of your job.
On the other hand, I’m also excited because it’s been a year in the making now. I finished my course 6 months ago. I want to get out there, treat more animals, get better and more self-assured with the practice. I’m looking forward to sharing more of what I’ve learned with both the staff and the clients. I hope that people are interested in it and schedule appointments, but I really have no idea what to expect.
I also hope that by offering something different, it helps fill my appointment book some because I have to be honest: we have been SO slow lately. I don’t know if it’s people focusing their money elsewhere with the holidays or because they feel strapped by inflation or because clients have been leaving our hospital for whatever reason. I know there has been a lot of frustration for some of our clients with all of the changes in the past year, and I would like to see things settle out and get back to the flow we’re used to seeing historically. Some others I know have also seen a drop in appointments recently, while other clinics remain incredibly busy. I don’t want to be at the point where we’re unable to accommodate appointment requests or where we’re stressing ourselves trying to squeeze extra patients in, but I would like it to be steady.
Today, my practice manager moved one appointment from my afternoon and closed it off after I declined just staying home because I knew I had clients to call back with lab results today. That left two appointments on my morning schedule. The first canceled because they couldn’t find their cat to bring him in. That left one appointment at 11am. I did have plenty of time to make those phone calls, and I had an extra hour plus to work on some acupuncture documents to send over to my practice manager. I’m still putting together a presentation for the staff, since we’ve been a strictly conventional medicine hospital, not many people know much or anything about Chinese medicine. Then, I need to work on some more in depth information for the techs that will be assisting me in these appointments and getting supplies ordered for hospital use.
I’ll be starting an advanced acupuncture course on January 1st that satisfies the last of my requirements for certification. Originally, I had hoped to find someone to shadow and to have that certification done by now, but life didn’t work out that way. One step at a time, I guess. At least I have the ball rolling on both that last step to certification and scheduling acupuncture appointments.
“I will prepare and someday my chance will come.” ~ Abraham Lincoln
