The Vet Vault: Veterinary Career, Clinical Skills & Wellbeing

A surgeon hurls a scalpel across theatre. It clatters off the wall. Nobody looks up. 

Twenty minutes later he's in the tearoom offering everyone a biscuit, and someone shrugs: "That's just him when he's stressed."

If you've worked in veterinary practice for any length of time, you've got your own version of that story - maybe a bit less dramatic, but still things that completely destroy psychological safety.  This episode is about that stuff, and the new psychosocial safety laws now rolling out across Australia that say plainly: no, actually, that's not acceptable. 

To make sense of what that looks like on a normal Tuesday in a normal practice, you'll hear from psychologist Rhonda Andrews, who works across high-pressure industries - emergency departments, the courts, and the veterinary profession - and who has spent years watching them all wrestle with the same problem: people breaking. 

This conversation is not about “just be more resilient”, but about systems. Rhonda makes a genuinely good-news case that these laws aren't more bureaucracy to dread - they're the push our profession has needed all along.

You'll hear

• Why the things you've always filed under "just  part the job" might now legally count as a psychological workplace injury - with consequences attached
• The myth spreading fastest right now - that bosses can no longer have an honest performance conversation - and why that's flatly wrong 
• What the new psychosocial safety laws actually require of you as a practice owner
• Why this a team problem, not just something for management to sort out
• Why "workload" is almost never the real problem - and the thing breaking your team underneath it that owners consistently miss
• The one shift available to everyone in the building - whatever their title - that changes culture without a single policy change

A note: this is the second in a small psych-safety miniseries. If you haven't heard Episode 158 with Dr Rebecca Faris on the AVA Thrive programme, start there for the bigger picture.

Resources:

• Barrington Centre - Rhonda's psychosocial safety seminars (two online sessions, plus an in-person Melbourne day) and the Vet ECM training programmes for owners, leaders, and new supervisors: barringtoncentre.com

For show notes, clinical content and the newsletter head to thevetvault.com, and come find your people at a Vets On Tour conference -  email me at [email protected] to find out about our new-grad 50% discount for Wānaka inAugust.

Topics and time stamps

04:52 Rising Mental Health Claims

08:41 Mythbusting Owners Fears1

0:37 Defining Psychological Safety

12:37 Vets Staying in Bad Jobs

14:28 Sponsor Break Vets On Tour

16:03 Systems vs Individual Responsibility

19:35 Burnout Stats and Human Cost

21:17 Who Can Influence Culture?

22:46 Is Vet Work Uniquely Hard?

24:05 Human Sector Parallels

29:15 Business Model Reality Check

30:18 ROI of Retention

32:20 Psychosocial Safety Laws

37:34 Workload and Rostering Fixes4

2:44 Leadership and Being Heard

45:27 From Blame to Pathways

50:27 Training Programs and Teams

52:58 Myth Busting Performance Reviews

54:27 Final Takeaways

The long-term vision is that you walk into a clinic, hit record at the beginning of the day - you walk out at the end of the day, and you never put your hands in a computer. You just did medicine, and everything went into the right place.’

Sound too good to be true? Maybe. But it's closer than you think.

If you've already adopted a veterinary AI scribe, you'll know it's transformed your day. But scribes are just the gateway drug. The really interesting question is what your scribe connects to next - and the answer, for a growing number of vets, is the brain of the clinic itself: your practice management software.

This conversation brings together Dr Caleb Frankel, ER vet and founder of Instinct - the PIMS used by many of the world's largest specialty and emergency hospitals, and now built out for general practice too, and Rohan Relan, founder of Scribble Vet. Earlier this year, Instinct acquired Scribble - and what they're building together is a glimpse of where veterinary software could be heading.

You'll  hear:

• Why up to 80% of your veterinary work day is swallowed by a keyboard 
• What "beyond scribing" looks like - from infographics, to embedded drug references that update in real time as you talk, to anaesthesia records that fill themselves in from across the room.
• The "easy to verify, hard to generate" principle - why the best AI tools in clinic don't try to replace you, they let you stay in the loop without doing the grunt work.
• What it means when your scribe and your PIMS talk to each other.
• Why an "open API" matters more than you think when individual vets can magically build for their own tools.
• The tech patient safety layer that can catch your mistakes before you make them
• Where this all goes next - and why both guests believe we're still only seeing the beginning of what AI in clinical practice can do.

We recorded this as a video with screen sharing, so if you want to follow along and see what these tools actually look like in action, watch it on Spotify.

For our clinical content, show notes, and our full back catalogue, head to ⁠thevetvault.com⁠. 

While you're there, check out our subscriber-only clinical podcast, our newsletter, and come and hang out with us in real life at ⁠Vets On Tour.

Topics and Timestamps

Why Instinct Acquired Scribble 2:08

Beyond Scribes: The Bigger Vision 7:48

Demo: Scribble + Instinct Integration 10:06

Plums Drug Reference Integration 11:30

Mid-Roll: Events & Announcements 14:49

Pushing Notes to Instinct 16:27

Scribble Features: Translations, Care Cards & More 19:29

Record Review & AI Verifiability 21:28

Instinct PIMS Overview 24:17

Instinct Expands to General Practice 24:51

Instinct Features: Estimates, Safety Warnings & Clinical Tools 32:03

Embedded Scribble: Voice-Controlled Anesthesia Records 38:07

AI Safety: Human in the Loop 38:46

APIs, MCP Servers & Vibe Coding for Vets 45:02

Open vs Closed PIMS Philosophy 50:39

"Maybe we're just picking the wrong people to be vets."

You've probably heard some version of that line. Maybe you've even said it. 'The new grads can't cope. The younger generation is too soft. If this profession isn't working for you, maybe the profession isn't the problem - maybe you are.'

But what if that's the wrong conversation entirely? Maybe it's not the people who need to change - but the job itself.

That's the question at the heart of this conversation with Dr Rebecca Faris, the lead of the Australian Veterinary Association's Thrive programme - an industry attempt to figure out how we make veterinary medicine a profession people can actually stay in and enjoy.

You'll learn:

• Why a full-time working week in veterinary medicine probably shouldn't be 40 hours - and the official position from Safe Work Australia that will surprise you
• The difference between psychological safety and psychosocial safety (one is a vibe, the other is the law - and if you own a practice in Australia, you need to know which is which)
• What the new psychosocial safety legislation actually requires of practice owners 
• Why "playing to your strengths" isn't the same as avoiding the hard stuff - and how to have that conversation with your employer without sounding like you're asking for special treatment
• The invisible emotional labour tax you're paying on every consult - and why recognising it changes everything
• What genuinely great veterinary workplaces are doing differently, and why the "squeaky wheel" narrative is drowning out stories of practices that are getting it right
• Why "I can't hack full-time" might not mean there's something wrong with you - and the self-compassion case for rethinking what a sustainable vet career actually looks like
• How to get involved in shaping the future of this profession instead of quietly checking out

If you've ever felt wrecked at the end of a perfectly normal day and wondered whether it was you or the job - this one's for you.

Resources mentioned:

• The Thrive Programme and 2025 Wellbeing Survey: ava.com.au/thrive
• Cultivating Safe Teams training (AVA)
• 2026 Thrive Wellness Symposium at the AVA Conference, Brisbane, 19 May 2026
• Safe Work Australia - psychosocial hazards guidance

This episode is not an ad. We're not paid to feature Thrive or the AVA - we just think this is a conversation the profession needs to be having. If you've got thoughts, pushback, or your own story about thriving (or not) in practice, drop us a line at [email protected].

For our clinical content, show notes, and our full back catalogue, head to thevetvault.com.

While you're there, check out our subscriber-only clinical podcast, our newsletter, and come and hang out with us in real life at Vets On Tour.

00:52 Rethinking the 40-Hour Workweek

03:03 Flexibility and Job Crafting

04:57 Are We Picking the Wrong People?

06:05 Playing to Strengths vs Business Needs

12:39 Psychological vs Psychosocial Safety

15:55 The New Laws: Employer Obligations

17:51 Identifying Psychosocial Hazards

20:40 Cultivating Safe Teams Training

24:45 Workload and Emotional Labor

32:34 Vets on Tour Break

34:27 Should Full-Time Be 30 Hours?

36:12 Inside the Thrive Initiative

39:31 Mental Health First Aid

41:35 Empathy for Difficult Clients

44:13 Wins and Optimism

46:27 How to Access Thrive

51:27 Closing Advice: Get Engaged

You know that feeling: exam time is looming.  You've spent three days making flashcards and highlighting your notes, but you haven't even started actually studying yet...

Whether you're a vet student drowning in slide decks, a membership candidate juggling articles and notes, or a resident trying to jam an impossible volume of clinical knowledge into your skull - the way most of us study is, frankly, not backed by the science. Which is why you might need a little help from technology:

In part two of our Tech Tools for Vets series, software engineer Hasitha Jayatilake joins me to walk you through StudyAnything - an AI-powered study tool that generates quizzes from your notes, tracks your weak spots over time, and builds guided learning pathways based on Bloom's hierarchy of learning. (By the way - he built this tool because he couldn’t bare watching his vet student partner making Anki cards at 2am!)

What you'll learn:

• How active recall and spaced repetition actually work - and why highlighting your notes is basically doing nothing
• What Bloom's hierarchy means for your study plan - and how Study Anything uses it to move you from rote recall to clinical application
• StudyAnything’s guided learning pathway feature (just gone live) - that turns your uploaded notes into a structured lesson plan with concept maps, assumed knowledge, and motivational context
• How the community feature works - study groups, shared question banks, and what this means for educators (or podcast hosts!)  who want to create resources
• How to generate harder questions on demand - using learning outcomes and difficulty levels to get yourself on the honours roll
• What makes this different from Notebook LM or other AI tools 

This episode includes screen sharing, so if you want to follow along, watch the video on Spotify. If you prefer audio only, you'll still get 99% of the value.

The team at StudyAnything are giving Vet Vault listeners the opportunity to try out their top tier subscription (LOTS of quizzes!) with code VETVAULT at studyanything.academy for 50% off your first month on the paid plan. That's about $3.50 to give it a proper test run.

Note: This episode isn't a promotion, endorsement or an ad - it's part of our ongoing series exploring the tools you might be considering. If you have a software you'd like us to look at, let me know at [email protected]

Go to ⁠⁠⁠thevetvault.com⁠⁠ for show notes, access to our clinical continuing education content and to sign up for our weekly 'best of the Vet Vault' ⁠newsletter,⁠ or join us in person at one of our phenomenal ⁠Vets On Tour conferences. ⁠ (Look out for our upcoming New Zealand, Italy and Africa conferences.)

Topics and Timestamps

3:26 Active Recall & The Science of Studying

4:06 How StudyAnything Works - Uploading & Courses

7:57 Bloom's Hierarchy & Learning Outcomes

9:53 Ad Break - Vets on Tour

11:24 Quiz Demo

19:28 Guided Learning Pathway

20:15 File Summary, Concept Maps & Key Terms

29:10 Study Groups & Communities

31:02 Comparison with Notebook LM & Competitors

32:32 Spaced Repetition & Future Features

37:29 Pricing

39:48 Deep Dive: Navigating the Dashboard

41:00 Deep Dive: Creating & Customising Quizzes

Is our podcast getting… repetitive?

Honest question.

Lately, we’ve felt a growing tension behind the mic: are we just saying the same things… just with a new guest and in slightly different ways?

Are we actually helping you? (With is after all the point of this podcast)

In this short solo episode, I ask a few questions that I’d love your input on. 

We want to rebuild this with you. This is your invite.

Feedback to [email protected], or at our contact form on the website, or hit me up in the comments on Spotify.

Ever check your payslip… your student debt… your mortgage… and wonder if you’re just treading water?

You’re not alone, and you’re not stuck.

In this episode we revisit one of the most neglected topics in the profession: money.

Hubert sits down with US-based financial adviser Eric Miller to break down the decisions that can actually move the money-needle for employed vets: from budgeting and debt to investing, insurance, and increasing your income. (We do global principles with US specifics)

No jargon. No guilt. Just a clear starting point for vets who know they should have a plan… but haven’t begun yet.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• Why practice ownership isn’t the only route to financial security
• The one habit that underpins every solid financial plan
• A simple 70/20/10 framework for spending, investing, and enjoying your money
• How to handle student debt without letting it control your life
• Whether to prioritise debt repayment, investing- or both
• The difference between good debt and bad debt (and why it matters)
• How automation quietly builds wealth in the background
• What young vets need to know about insurance, income growth, and lifestyle creep

And perhaps most importantly:

A more grounded, reassuring view of the profession itself.

Yes, financial pressure is real.
But Eric will convince you that veterinary medicine is still a strong, high-potential career - IF you do it right. 

⁠⁠thevetvault.com⁠ for show notes, access to our clinical continuing education content and to sign up for our weekly 'best of the Vet Vault' newsletter, or join us in person at one of our phenomenal Vets On Tour conferences.

Topics and Time Stamps

04:24 Biggest Financial Mistakes

05:42 Budgeting & The 70/20/10 Rule

14:41 Retirement Planning & 401k

24:09 Student Debt & How to Tackle It

26:22 Loan Forgiveness

28:58 Pay Off Debt vs. Invest

31:53 The Debt Snowball Method (it's a good thing!)

33:55 Increasing Your Income

37:44 Constructive vs. Destructive Debt

41:35 Insurance & Health Coverage

44:06 Looking Ahead: The Veterinary Industry

49:45 One Financial Habit for Ne w Grads

We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via our contact or catch up with us on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠.

And if you like what you hear, please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this. 

Four years after our original antibiotic myth-busting episode (Ep 60), we’re back with Dr Riati Scarborough to talk antibiotic prescribing habits. This time we’re joined by fellow stewardship expert Dr Laura Hardefeldt, and this time we’re asking the harder question:

Have we actually changed?

The good news? Some prescribing habits are shifting. We’re seeing shorter courses and less ‘just in case antibiotic usage. 

But let’s not pat ourselves on the back too quickly. Because some of our most entrenched habits are still alive and well, like how we treat skin disease, and our ongoing love affair with amoxiclav.

This episode is a practical, clinically grounded update on what the evidence says in 2026 - and how to make realistic changes without compromising patient care.

We cover:

• Why skin disease remains the single biggest driver of antimicrobial resistance in small animal practice, and what to do about it
• Amoxicillin vs amoxiclav: when de-escalation is not just safe, but smarter
• Why convenience (you know the brand we’re talking about right…) is not a clinical indication
• Trimethoprim-sulphonamide and the real story on KCS risk
• Dentals, heart murmurs, and what prophylaxis actually looks like in 2026
• Simple in-clinic stewardship strategies that genuinely shift prescribing behaviour

This isn’t about perfection. It’s about progress.

If you’d like effective antibiotics to still exist in five to ten years…

This episode is essential listening.

Find out how we can support you in your vet career at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thevetvault.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

⁠Subscribe to our weekly newsletter⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week.

Grab one last handful of spots in the Maldives for our surf/dive vet conference with ⁠Vets On Tour⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Tips and Timestamps

• 3:03 Progress in prescribing habits including UTI durations and surgical prophylaxis
• 4:55 Skin disease as the biggest problem area in small animal practice
• 7:01 Topical therapy versus systemic antibiotics for skin conditions
• 9:28 Deep pyoderma and the new consensus statement
• 11:00 Gut bacteria as a source of resistant infections
• 12:41 Rise of MRSP, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius
• 14:00 Amoxicillin-clavulanate overuse
• 16:47 Vets on Tour conferences advertisement
• 18:08 Pharmacology refresher on amoxicillin, amoxicillin-clavulanate, and cefovecin
• 19:45 Why cefovecin is classified as high importance, vs the convenience argument for cefovecin in cats
• 22:56 Long-acting amoxicillin injections as an alternative
• 24:00 Getting amoxicillin back on the shelf
• 24:53 Communicating antibiotic choices to clients
• 29:32 Dental antibiotics and debunking the heart murmur myth
• 34:07 Subclinical bacteriuria and stopping cultures in asymptomatic patients
• 38:30 Reassessing the dry eye risk of trimethoprim-sulfonamide
• 41:43 Antimicrobial stewardship trial using colour-coded pharmacy shelves

Veterinary life can feel like a treadmill with no off-switch: 15-minute consults that always run over. Emotional labour no one trains you for. A schedule that swings from slow to chaos - in minutes.

Sound familiar? You’re not alone.

In this raw and refreshingly real episode, productivity coach Demir Bentley (Life Hack Method) live-coaches GP vet Dr Ray Gates, tackling the uncomfortable truth of veterinary medicine:You’re expected to be clinically excellent… while running on empty.

This isn’t a listicle of “10 productivity hacks.”This is about reclaiming 1% wins that actually work in the chaos of clinical life.

You’ll learn:

• Why productivity isn’t about doing more - it’s about protecting your energy
• How “chaos as the default” leads to burnout (and how you can change the system, not just yourself)
• How to lower your cognitive load and reduce admin fatigue
• The art of setting goals that don’t become another source of stress
• Small upstream shifts that stop downstream disasters
• How to finish a shift and still feel like you

Whether you’re buried in charting, stuck in overbooked consults, or silently wondering if you’re just not “resilient enough” - this conversation will show you another way.

You don’t need another motivational quote.You need practical tools to get your time, headspace, and energy back.

And it starts here.

Raise your hand here to find out more about our AI for clinics Mastermind

Find out how we can help you build you in your vet career at ⁠⁠⁠⁠thevetvault.com⁠⁠⁠⁠.

⁠Subscribe to our weekly newsletter⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week.

Topics and Time Stamps

10:56 The problem

23:04 The revenge binge

26:10 Taking back the 1%

35:52 Upstream changes to prevent downstream chaos

41:31 Expectations vs reality

52:05 You are not powerless

Ever feel like your anxiety or fear of failure is just... who you are?

The perfectionism. The overthinking. The constant pressure to “get it right.”

It can feel like it’s wired into your DNA.

But what if it isn’t?

Dr Rod Irwin, vet, former clinic owner and author tells us how who went from panic attacks in an empty vet clinic to a completely rewired life - thanks to neuroscience.

After hitting breaking point, a chance encounter with neuroscience set him on a 15-year journey into neuroplasticity and positive psychology - and ultimately changed how he led.

Together, we unpack how our brains are shaped by past experiences, why vets are particularly vulnerable to negative belief loops, and how we can deliberately rewire our thinking to reduce anxiety, improve performance and build healthier workplace cultures.

We explore:

• Why early experiences like bullying and perfectionism hardwire us for burnout
• What neuroplasticity actually means, and why this isn't just “positive thinking”
• How emotions strengthen or weaken your neural pathways
• Dr Irwin’s first 3 practical steps to start rewiring your brain
• Why your identity is the key to lasting change
• How clinic leaders unconsciously set the emotional tone for the entire team
• And how reconnecting to purpose and values can transform your culture

This is a science-backed, practical conversation on mindset, leadership and wellbeing – tailored to the veterinary world.

Because your brain isn’t broken.It’s just wired by experience - and you can change the wiring.

⁠⁠

Learn about all 12 keys here, or here if you're a practice owner, or book a chat with Rod here.

Find out how we can support you in your vet career at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thevetvault.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

⁠Subscribe to our weekly newsletter⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week.

Grab one last handful of spots in the Maldives for our surf/dive vet conference with Vets On Tour⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Get case support from our team of specialists in our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Specialist Support Space⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Check out our Advanced Surgery Podcast at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠cutabove.supercast.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or go all in on surgery with our collaboration with Sydney University's ⁠⁠⁠CVE Surgery Course.

Welcome to episode one of our new Tech Tools series, where we cut through the noise to bring you real insights into the latest veterinary tech that could genuinely make your day‑to‑day vet life easier.

In part one VetRec founder Kevin Cohen helps me put this AI scribe through its paces to show us why veterinary AI software is rapidly moving WAY beyond just note taking. 

Highlights :

• What an AI scribe really is and how it saves vets hours of documentation time
• Beyond scribing - new tools to speed up your workflow with increased reliability and context
• VetRec’s clinical support tool:  D.A.V.I.D. (Diagnostics Assistance for Veterinary Insights and Differentials)
• Team workflows — how receptionists, nurses and vets can collaborate in the same platform

This one involves a bit of screen sharing, so if you want to follow along - watch the video for this on Spotify.

Note:  This episode isn’t a promotion or an ad — it’s the first of many deep dives into the tools you might be considering. If you have a software that you’d like us to explore, let me know at [email protected]

Check out our Advanced Surgery Podcast at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠cutabove.supercast.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or go all in on surgery with our collaboration with Sydney University's ⁠CVE Surgery Course. ⁠

Find out how we can help you build you in your vet career at ⁠⁠⁠thevetvault.com⁠⁠⁠.

Get case support from our team of specialists in our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Specialist Support Space⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

⁠Subscribe to our weekly newsletter⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week.

Join us in person for our epic adventure CE events at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Vets On Tour⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. (Next up: Japan snow conference!) 

Topics and Time stamps

• 04:05 – New Features 2025
• 05:19 – Add to Visit
• 07:46 – DictationFeatures
• 08:35 – A Cut Above Promo
• 10:08 – Snippets
• 12:15 – Insights & Recommendations
• 13:59 – Integrations
• 16:06 – EzyVet Chrome Extension
• 17:05 – Custom Templates
• 17:58 – Phone Call Recording
• 21:38 – Multi-Pet Support
• 22:33 – Client Handouts
• 24:07 – Analysis Features
• 28:38 – David AI Assistant
• 38:03 – Records Recap
• 41:09 – Team Access
• 42:29 – Best Recording Practices