At the Vets Now ECC Congress, we caught up with Mandisa Greene, Medical Director at Vets Now, former RCVS President, RCVS Knowledge trustee, STEM ambassador and Vetlife volunteer.
Renowned for her work on diversity, championing vets in general practice and speaking in schools as a role model for young people interested in joining the vet profession, a passion for people seems to shine from Mandisa, along with a deep desire to work towards positive change and make things better.
Veterinary emergency and critical care is a fast-paced, challenging and emotionally rewarding environment where effective team leadership is vital to patient outcomes. Mandisa explains more about her career story and leadership within ECC medicine and beyond.
Mandisa, please could you give us an overview of your career story so far?
I graduated from the Royal (Dick) Vet School in Edinburgh in 2008 and was so keen to get going, I started working the very next day. After a few months part-time, I took a full-time role in a mixed practice in Staffordshire which was where I realised I liked out-of-hours. When I came back to work after my first child, I decided to focus on OOH as I’ve always tried to follow my bliss, do what made me happy. I loved feeling I was making a difference and continued doing that on a locum basis for a few years. In addition, I took on a role lecturing at Harper Adams University as well as having a career at the RCVS from 2014. I was on several committees, became junior Vice President in 2019 and then President until 2021, alongside my locum work. Then, looking for a new challenge, I became Medical Director at Vets Now in 2022.
What is the appeal of working in ECC? And what are the challenges?
You get to learn so much and it’s great for growth and development, both personally and in your career. You’re dealing with urgent cases, and you learn how to control your emotions in your approach to people and patients. There are no scheduled appointments in ECC, and you can see anything from something fairly simple to a catastrophic blue light emergency. So, part of the appeal is becoming that person who can deal with any emergency. And in a female-dominated profession, there is also the appeal of it working around the family. If you have young children, this is the ideal job as you can be with them when they need you. I guess the unknown can be a challenge for some, as can full time hours.
A strong team and the support of colleagues is clearly very important. How can everyone contribute to build a supportive culture amongst veterinary teams?
Talking about challenges we face in a constructive way and without fear of judgment is very important. Part of being human is making errors and we should talk about that in an open environment so we can all learn. I’m hugely proud of our culture at Vets Now where we look at such issues collectively and there’s a Just culture. I also think it’s important for us all to be accountable for the energy we bring. When we come into a night shift and are dealing with people who are naturally very emotional, we need to meet them with compassion and empathy. We should bring that to our team, too, and everyone can set that tone.
“Talking about challenges we face in a constructive way and without fear of judgment is very important.”
A familiar challenge for women in the profession is balancing family life with veterinary practice. How did you manage this and how can others find ways that work for them?
I had a lot of help, and I don’t shy away from asking for help if I need it. My husband is hugely supportive, and we moved to be closer to my mum who helps look after the children. My siblings have children around the same age, and we worked out a system to help one another. My colleagues also offered a lot of support when I was going back to work. There are lots of wonderful, kind people out there and the important thing is to ask and take the support they offer.
How have your experiences of serving on the RCVS Council influenced you? How does it feel to be able to make a difference to the profession?
I viewed the RCVS from the outside as the regulator, thinking it would be very cold and formal. But when I got into Council, I realised it was very organic and open to change and taking constructive feedback. I understood that I could make a difference, speak on things happening in practice and have a unique perspective and valuable input in conversations. As a practitioner, having an equal voice alongside all my colleagues on council regardless of their background was important.
It feels wonderful to make a difference to the profession. From the outside, you may not see things happening that fast. But you do appreciate what’s happening from the inside, and that’s hugely rewarding.
“As a practitioner, having an equal voice alongside all my colleagues on council regardless of their background was important.”
What have you taken forward from these experiences that you can apply in your current role?
I’ve had a huge respect for veterinary nurses throughout my career. My RCVS Council experience reinforced that you have to demonstrate value, not just pay it lip service. I’ve brought that passion about really demonstrating anything I consider valuable to my new role. I’ve extrapolated the feeling that my voice is valid out to my team and anyone else I meet. Anyone can bring important matters for consideration. Everyone’s voice is equal.
With increasing feminisation in the veterinary profession, how do you see a new model of female leadership developing?
When I got to the presidency of the RCVS, it was a majority female executive and officer team, shortly after it was an all-female presidential team. And our current board at Vets Now is majority female. I have been able to see female leadership demonstrated for me, so I think this is something that’s currently happening. It’s not something we’re at the start of and will eventually get to, it’s already here. And for a new generation of young women coming into the profession, it’s very important to see leadership that looks like them. They can see women who have chosen not to have families, women who have families and even women who may be balancing responsibilities with caring for elderly parents. Societal expectations are often that women will be care providers and this new generation should be able to see they can do everything they choose to do as women and still be leaders in their professions.
“Societal expectations are often that women will be care providers and this new generation should be able to see they can do everything they choose to do as women and still be leaders in their professions.”
What makes you happy at work?
Making change for the better. Talking to our teams, understanding what is going on with them and knowing that I’m working towards a better future for our professions makes me happy. One of the things we’re working on here at Vets Now is nurses leading in our clinics, something we’ve always thought should be a priority for any company. We have hugely impressive nurses in the veterinary professions; seeing nurses shine at Vets Now is making me extremely happy.
What do you see as the most pressing issues the profession faces, and what steps should we be taking to address them?
There are many, but one is that we are seeing fewer vets on the register. The numbers are looking a bit more encouraging, but we need more vets and one step I think we should be taking is embracing diversity and inclusivity. While we have a majority female workforce, we have to understand the pressures and adapt to changing needs, perhaps looking at shift requirements. And we shouldn’t expect our vets to come from one single space. The investment from vet schools towards home-grown vets is great, but we’re not yet seeing the results as far as vet retention. I think we need to consider taking people from non-traditional backgrounds and also consider looking further afield to get vets.
What is your vision for healthy future leadership of the profession?
I’m going to say professions as that includes veterinary nurses. I have a simple mantra: train well, work well and leave well. I think it’s important we have people who go through their training and are happy and motivated to be vets or nurses. But that motivation should be there all the way through, as you develop your career and move into leadership roles. Healthy leadership for me is people who have reached the stage where they have something to give back. And being adaptable and diverse helps create a healthy leadership body.
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