Silvia is passionate about helping veterinary professionals find their work-happy. She helps veterinary teams implement flexible working practices that suit the individuals as well as the business. She also works as an equine vet and animal health business consultant. Her qualifications are from the Royal Veterinary College, Liverpool University and Cornell University, and include BSc in Veterinary Science, MSc in Wild Animal Biology, BSc in Veterinary Medicine, and a postgraduate certificate in Veterinary Business Management. Silvia has consulted in areas of pharmaceutical compounding, veterinary diagnostics, digital technology, pet insurance, and veterinary EdTech. She volunteers as a member of the Greener Veterinary Practice working group for VetSustain and as a SPVS board member.
Silvia tells Veterinary Woman about how SPVS supports the whole team to thrive in practice, and gives her tips for making the most of SPVS Congress 2023…
Silvia, you head up the SPVS ‘Thriving In Practice’ Group – please could you tell us more about this?
I am very excited to be heading the SPVS ‘Thriving In Practice’ initiative. The aim is to produce holistic support to veterinary practices to ensure that they are sustainable, profitable, happy, and productive places to work. It is a resource that provides tangible tools on the non-clinical facets of how vets work. They support the BVA’s Good Workplace Guide. The 4 core elements are: leadership skills, management, team dynamics and self-development. While the initiative often needs to come from the leader, all of these elements intertwine to create a good workplace culture. A great leader will help shape the culture and motivate others to play their part to create happy teams and a productive practice. I am passionate about helping to improve vets’ and vet nurses’ lives in clinical practice and help create happy and productive teams. I am sure this hub of resources will be invaluable for our members to help inform how best to deliver on exactly this.
How have you used SPVS resources in your own practice or when working with practices?
My observation is that great leaders I have worked with embrace the non-clinical area as a major focus. They see that if they can develop the whole team around them and learn how to be better leaders and managers then the whole practice benefits. I have previously directed practice owners to the various resources SPVS has on offer. For example, when a young colleague of mine was setting up a new practice, her questions were exactly the kind that could be answered and helped with in our SPVS discussion list. Vet practice owners who have ‘been there, done that’ are a great source of knowledge and insight to assist the younger vets starting on this road. Or when asked about marketing, SPVS had some great lectures and practical workshops about this at the last two Congresses and recorded as CPD for members to learn from experts in this field. Another very popular question I repeatedly get from practice owners is about salaries in the profession, which is again something that SPVS can help with, thanks to the annual salary survey. The Thriving In Practice hub will be a fantastic resource that the SPVS members will be able to access to really help them learn, in their own time, how to create that sustainable, happy and profitable practice.
What are your tips for practice teams to get the most out of Congress 2023?
At next year’s Congress 2023, we are focusing on how practice leaders can provide an environment where everyone can Thrive In Practice and how we can create enthusiastic and motivated teams. Those who know me will know that I love attending vet conferences. So, my top tips for the SPVS Congress 2023, are:
- Come to the conference as a team! That delivers so much more. You get to bond with your colleagues and you are much more likely to get traction with any projects on your return.
- Before attending, have a look at the program and speakers and decide which sessions would be most valuable for you to attend depending on the stage of your veterinary business.
- If there is a particular area of concern within your veterinary business at this stage, connect with and arrange meetings with experts who will be at the conference so that you can briefly consult with them on your issue and create connections for any future needs
- If there are more than one team members attending, attend different sessions and then share your key insights with the whole team
- The workshop sessions are related to a lecture delivered prior to the workshop, so if there is a particular area of interest, it is worth pre-thinking and attending both of these as ‘combo’ sessions.
I know flexible working is of particular interest to you. How does your work at SPVS help support healthy working practices?
The goals and objectives of the SPVS initiatives and strategy align perfectly with my values, hopes for the profession and my activities in other parts of my role as a veterinary professional. Yes, flexible working is of particular interest to me, as it is very closely aligned with improving work-life balance, which is the number one reason why veterinary professionals are leaving clinical practice. While this is a key area, it is only one of the areas that are important for consideration when creating a thriving team in practice. However, the motivation to thrive, improve, and change where needed comes from the top, from the leadership team. Flexible working is a team effort, but without the leadership aligned, how can anything move forward? Therefore, my work at Flexee and at SPVS is to help provide a kind of ‘supported autonomy’ for veterinary leaders to better navigate the modern veterinary practice needs – whatever that means to their practice.
How can membership of an organisation increase representation in the profession, and why do you feel this is important?
In its basic sense, what is ‘the profession’ or ‘the organisation or ‘the vet practice’? – it is a community of people that are interested in the same greater cause. However, there are many ways to work towards this ‘greater cause’ and to overcome barriers that may arise en route. To best overcome these barriers, it’s valuable to hear the varied perspectives of the people who will be affected or influenced. For this reason, it is important to have a varied and diverse representation in our organisations and businesses. My point is well summed up by Malcolm Forbes when he defined diversity – “Diversity: the art of thinking independently together.” At SPVS, our community discussion group is central to hearing what our members are saying so that we can then take those views forward to BVA council meetings and RCVS meetings. For example, lately we have been supporting our members’ opinions on topics such as RCVS Under Care review and EMS, which are absolutely crucial to get right if practice is to thrive.
“My top advice for veterinary leaders would be to develop teams where each individual can play to their strengths.”
Drawing on experiences from your own career, what would be your top piece of advice for veterinary leaders to help their teams thrive in practice?
My top advice for veterinary leaders would be to develop teams where each individual can play to their strengths. Understanding an individual’s strengths, weakness, needs, how they wish to work and how they may be most productive will enable leaders to create delegated and empowered teams. Delegation and empowerment are massive motivators for engaging teams. It’s important to support people to rise to their potential, and also to harness feedback from colleagues and clients. But everyone is different, and fitting everyone into one job description is nonsensical. Roles that truly support an individual will help retain them and provide them with an environment where they thrive, not just survive and eventually leave. From personal experience, I appreciate this is easier said than done. The important things to consider are to create time and opportunity to get to know the person, having open, honest, and continual communications, ensuring both sides understand the ‘give and take’ attitude within the practice, and being proactive about adapting and trialling new things, otherwise they will be left behind.
It sounds like you have a strong desire to drive positive change. What is your vision for how veterinary practice will improve for women in the future?
Yes, everything I dedicate my time to professionally is to create more positivity in the veterinary workplace, and by extension, more positive life. In terms of where we are in practice, I think there is great opportunity to go forward either within established practices or as start-ups. Often self-doubt holds us back and what I have learnt is that if you network and step forward, opportunities arise. There is so much talent in the vet profession and so much to do. Perhaps we are guilty of holding ourselves back and not using all the levers we could to develop ourselves in whatever way we wish. The more we put in the more we get out, whether that is in work or in life in general.
At SPVS we strongly believe that the four key factors within the ‘Thriving In Practice’ initiative have to be optimised individually and at practice level. The successful practices are doing this already and most centre around having an inclusive culture, flexible workability that can be supported by the practice team, good time and priority management, relationship leadership and good self-awareness on an individual level. If you get that right then the practice and all who work within it, thrive. Come to the SPVS Congress and learn more!
SPVS Congress takes place at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole on Thursday 26th, Friday 27th January, plus Saturday 28th morning workshops and has been built to inspire everyone in the team and help ensure practices are sustainable, profitable, happy and productive places to work. For more information, visit: https://spvs-congress.co.uk/
For more information about SPVS and membership visit Join Us – SPVS Ltd
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