Another blog post from work.

This is the second blog post I've written at work. Still not sure if it's kosher, but "shrug" is still my response.

I was recently asked to keep blogging because someone wanted to see the change from reasonable human being to raging egomaniac. The person who put in this request has not had a very good track record with vets; they tend not to give her the credit she's due for being an authority in her field or just think that they know all there is to know.

I am entirely confident that I am NEVER going to know everything there is to know about veterinary medicine, and I goof up on a regular basis.

For example, last week I handled a case involving an anticoagulant rodenticide. It wasn't really a significant dose, but the owner was pretty worked up and the vet I was speaking with said that it wouldn't hurt the dog if it went in and got some K1. I thought I did okay with this call and I sent it off to be closed. Nope! Turns out what I said to the owner was a K1 shot, not oral K1. There's an increased risk of anaphylaxis with the injected K1 that you don't have with the oral K1.

Who had no idea about that? This girl.

The situation ended up being not a big deal since the regular vet gave us a call to talk about which method of K1 we wanted, but I still messed up and had to discuss the situation with one of the senior staff.

The point of this little anecdote is that "comfort" and "ego" do not equal "skill" and "knowledge." I feel comfortable with my current job but there are situations that come up on a regular basis that I frankly have no idea how to handle. Even the things I think I'm handling might not be quite right. I think that there is some amount of ego necessary in any medical profession; you have to be confident enough in your knowledge and skills to be able to walk into a room and handle whatever the patient/client throws at you. That being said, there are limits to your knowledge and expertise. Acknowledge that others know things that you don't.

Moral of the story: you will never know everything and there is always someone better, so stop being a dick about it, cheese whiz. If I ever claim to know all the things, you, dear readers, have my full permission to give me a swift kick in the rear. I can't even get mad at you since I put it in writing.