#26: Teaching to learn, with Dr. Dan Phillips.

Dr. Dan Phillips earned his veterinary degree from North Carolina State University in 2011 and then completed an internship focused on small animal emergency and internal medicine at Tufts Cummings College of Veterinary Medicine. Since then he’s been working as a small animal practitioner near Chicago, and for the last 4 years has served as the primary extern and preceptor director for his group of practices. I had to look up what a preceptor is, and google summarises it as someone who teaches, supports, counsels, coaches, evaluates, serves as role model and aids in the socialization to a new role, which is a pretty good description of Dan’s passion. In fact, he feels so strongly about the importance of mentoring that he partnered with Drs. Dan Markwalder and Adam Conroy from Markroy consulting and the 7S society to create a new venture called Vet Mentor Solutions. With VMS they aim to mentor confident, effective and productive veterinarians through a comprehensive video library of practical small animal techniques and client communication skills. In this episode Dan demonstrates why he’s qualified to help guide the next generation of vets into the profession: we cover topics like how to effectively give feedback, how to avoid worrying about being judged when you put your opinions out there, teaching to learn, and why goal setting is one of the most important skills you need to develop. We put Dan’s mentoring skills to the test when we ask him how to ask for a pay increase, and Dan gives one of the best summaries we’ve ever heard of how to select the practice you want to work in, and how to interview for culture. His explanation, like all of the content in this episode, won’t just resonate with young vets, but also serves as a useful reminder for practice owners and managers about what to keep in mind when creating positions for less experienced vets.