Listen in as we talk with Jeanice Wiard as she shares her journey in veterinary medicine. She takes us through the highs and lows and lessons learned through multiple veterinary practices and shares her path to self-compassion and finding the importance of emotional wellbeing.

As always, we want to hear from YOU. Please share your thoughts by sending an email or joining the conversation.

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Jeanice Wiard, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP

Jeanice attended the State University of New York at Canton, obtaining her associate of science in veterinary technology and her bachelor's in veterinary service management. She was an active member of the New York State Air National Guard from 2004-2010 as a Command Post Controller, providing emergency communications and status reports to the commander and personnel on Hancock Air Force Base. She’s been a certified veterinary technician since 2007 and has worked in various field areas: general practice, academia (University of Illinois), diagnostic imaging, intensive care, and equine/farm animal medicine. She has held many roles within vet med: receptionist, technician, lead technician, charge auditor, and practice manager. While at the University of Illinois, Jeanice obtained her Master of Education, focusing on human resource development, and is a graduate of the Emerging Women Leaders program offered by the University. She previously served as the ISVMA CVT board member from 2021-2023 and actively participated in the CVT committee. She is currently focusing on her role as the assistant director for VSPN and offering mental health and wellness education to veterinary professionals through her business, Veterinary Wellness Education, LLC, or VetWE for short. Her non-professional interests include spending time with her husband, two sons, a spoiled cat, and a troublesome dog. She enjoys meditation, gardening, hiking, yoga, pole fitness, dancing, and loud music. Her favorite music artist is Qveen Herby. Jeanice is passionate about moving the veterinary profession toward a more individual-focused framework, allowing space and grace for all professionals to grapple with and heal from the difficult experiences we all encounter within the field and the daily struggles that all humans encounter throughout their lifetimes. She is particularly interested in teaching, psychology, compassion fatigue, cognitive behavioral therapy, growth mindset, and mental health awareness.

LINKS AND INFORMATION:

• Veterinary Support Personnel Network (VSPN): https://www.vin.com/vspn/
• VSPN CE: https://www.vin.com/vspn/default.aspx?pId=8505&id=8286322
• Air National Guard: https://www.airforce.com/ways-to-serve/air-national-guard
• VIN Foundation Vets4Vets®: https://vinfoundation.org/v4v
• AVMA QPR Training: https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/wellbeing/qpr-suicide-prevention-training
• Please consider a gift to help support this podcast: https://vinfoundation.org/give

Get updates to stay tuned for the VIN Foundation webinars on student debt.

You may learn more about the VIN Foundation, on the website, or join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

If you like this podcast, we would appreciate it if you follow and share. As always, we welcome feedback. If you have an idea for a podcast episode, we’d love to hear it!

Listen in as we chat with VIN Foundation Vets4Vets® team lead Dr. Bree Montana as part of our Inhale, Exhale Series and this time were talking about preventing burnout and compassion fatigue In this episode we have six major topics we’re addressing:

1. Identifying burnout and compassion fatigue
2. Understanding the cause
3. Task switching
4. How to handle feelings of losing the joy and fulfillment of vet med
5. The importance of team culture
6. How to get support

As always, we want to hear from YOU. Please share your thoughts by sending an email or joining the conversation.

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Dr. Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP, is a small animal practitioner and Founder of the Agate Bay Animal Hospital and Dog Gone Crazy boarding/training facilities in North Lake Tahoe California. Following the completion of a B.S. in Biology at the University of Cincinnati’s McMicken College, Dr. Montana graduated from the Ohio State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine with a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine in 1992. A past member of the external advisory and admissions committees for UC Davis’ College of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Montana also served as a working member of the VIN Foundation Board. In 2010, Dr. Montana helped to create the VIN Foundation’s innovative Vets4Vets® program, a confidential support group providing critical emotional care to veterinarians struggling with all forms of stress/addiction/mental health issues. The program is international and free for all veterinarians and veterinary students. Learning to balance the life of a rural solo practitioner, mom, wife, husky wrangler and aspiring dressage queen while coordinating the Vets4Vets® program has allowed Dr. Montana to become an expert at thinking outside of the box when advising veterinarians who feel stuck in their careers and personal lives. Dr. Montana enjoys lecturing on topics at the intersection of personal and professional life balance, including strategies for a healthy mentoring relationship, job seekers’ success techniques, effective communication in the workplace, as well as teaching the workplace ergonomics section of The Other Side of Veterinary Medicine: Healthy Clinicians Make Better Practitioners (a RACE approved course).

LINKS AND INFORMATION:

VIN Foundation Vets4Vets®: https://vinfoundation.org/v4v

VIN Foundation Veterinary Pulse Podcast Future’s So Bright Series: https://vinfoundation.org/category/futures-so-bright/

VIN Foundation get updates: https://vinfoundation.org/updates/

VIN Foundation GIVE page to support these programs & tools: https://vinfoundation.org/give

You may learn more about the VIN Foundation, on the website, or join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

If you like this podcast, we would appreciate it if you follow and share. As always, we welcome feedback. If you have an idea for a podcast episode, we’d love to hear it!

Listen in as we talk with Dr. Kate Creevy about her fascinating and insightful path in veterinary medicine. She shares how decisions she didn’t see as impactful at the time played crucial roles in her career development, and the important role of science and research for the future of human and animal kind. Plus, learn how a phone call that started with “I got this guy in genetics” led to her role as Co-Founder and Chief Veterinary Officer with the Dog Aging Project, and her advice to veterinary students and colleagues as a veterinary school professor. This is one of those episodes you will want to listen to, save, and listen to again.

As always, we want to hear from YOU. Please share your thoughts by sending an email or joining the conversation.

Photo credit: Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences photo, Dr Creevy with two Border Collies at different parts of their lifespan journey - Poet at age 3, and Sophie at age 14.

GUEST BIO: Kate Creevy, DVM, MS, DACVIM-SAIM

Dr. Creevy's educational path includes Georgetown University (BS), the University of Tennessee (DVM), the University of Minnesota (small animal rotating internship) and the University of Georgia (internal medicine residency and MS in Infectious Disease). Along the way she has worked in emergency practice in the Twin Cities and Washington DC, as well as academic emergency practice at UGA, and completed a Cancer Research Training Award Fellowship developing protocols for chimeric bone marrow transplantation in immunodeficient dogs at the NIH's National Cancer Institute. After ten years as a small animal internist on UGA's faculty, she joined the faculty at Texas A&M University's School of Veterinary Medicine where she is now a Professor in Small Animal Internal Medicine. Dr. Creevy is the Chief Veterinary Officer for the Dog Aging Project, a multicenter, multidisciplinary research collaboration, with over 50,000 dogs enrolled across the US. The long-term goal of the Dog Aging Project is to understand the genetic and environmental determinants of healthy aging in companion dogs. In addition to her work on canine aging, Dr. Creevy’s research interests include infectious disease, and the development of lifelong learning skills and critical thinking skills among professional students and early-career veterinarians.

LINKS AND INFORMATION:

• Dog Aging Project: https://dogagingproject.org/
• University of Tennessee, College of Veterinary Medicine: https://vetmed.tennessee.edu/
• University of Georgia, College of Veterinary Medicine: https://vet.uga.edu/
• Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine: https://vetmed.tamu.edu/
• One Health: https://www.who.int/health-topics/one-health#tab=tab_1
• Zoobiquity book: https://www.zoobiquity.com/
• Lessons in Chemistry book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58065033-lessons-in-chemistry

If you like these podcast and want to hear more, please support these efforts through a donation to the VIN Foundation: https://vinfoundation.org/give/

You may learn more about the VIN Foundation, on the website, or join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or signup for the newsletter.

If you like this podcast, we would appreciate it if you follow and share. As always, we welcome feedback. If you have an idea for a podcast episode, we’d love to hear it!

Listen in as we talk with VIN Foundation Mike Dunn, DVM Veterinary Student Scholarship awardee Walter Baker. Walter shares insights and advice from his first year in veterinary school, and what he is looking forward to as he starts his second year.

As always, we want to hear from YOU. Please share your thoughts by sending an email or joining the conversation.

GUEST BIO:

Walter Baker Walter has been devoted to becoming a veterinarian since seventh grade, and took all of the animal science courses that were available to him throughout my grade school education. He attended the University of Kentucky for his undergraduate education, and received a Bachelor of Science in animal sciences. As a current second year at Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine, he was fortunate to secure the Kentucky residents’ in-state institution. Walter was one of two recipients of the inaugural Mike Dunn, DVM Veterinary Student Scholarship created by Becky Godchaux. Walter’s goal is to return to rural Kentucky to practice general mixed-animal medicine.

LINKS AND INFORMATION:

• Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine: https://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/
• Veterinary Information Network (VIN) 3D Anatomy: https://www.vin.com/3danatomy
• Cornell Merlin App: https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/

Do you like this podcast and want to hear additional stories? The VIN Foundation needs your help supporting this program: https://vinfoundation.org/give

Get updates to stay tuned for the VIN Foundation webinars on student debt.

You may learn more about the VIN Foundation, on the website, or join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

If you like this podcast, we would appreciate it if you follow and share. As always, we welcome feedback. If you have an idea for a podcast episode, we’d love to hear it!