By Lindsey Oechsle
The number of women involved in veterinary medicine has changed greatly over the past several years, and with women now outnumbering men in the profession, new challenges are evolving. A growing interest from veterinary graduates in small animal practice is creating a real crisis in rural practice and mixed animal practice. We caught up with one TVMA member to discuss this growing crisis, and how she has managed to beat the odds.
Dr. Tracy Kelly is not your average veterinarian. She is the sole owner and practitioner of Ramsgate Veterinary Clinic, a beautiful mixed animal practice just outside Waco, TX. She is a wife and a mother, she owns the only rural mixed animal practice in her area, and she let us in on some of the things she has done to make it work.
One fear that many women entering this profession have is the difficulty of owning a practice, especially a rural practice, and juggling a family as well. What are some of the things that you have done to make it work for you?
Dr. Kelly: Basically I have been the sole owner of this practice since I graduated in 1994. I am now married, and I have a 7-year old, a 5-year old and a teenage stepson. Once I had my babies, the obvious dilemma was how I was going to be the sole practitioner of this practice and juggle having kids too.
What I elected to do worked fabulously for me. I actually took a room in my barn, converted it into a nursery and I hired a nanny to stay with my children while I worked. I never missed a beat. So many of my friends that were professionals had a lot of anxiety about either giving up the profession to stay with the kids, or having to put their kids in day care, and I had absolutely no anxiety. When I went back after my maternity leave, the babies were right out the back door. I didn’t have to worry about them. I really had the best of both worlds, and on my lunch break I would give the nanny a break and spend time with the kids, and I could see them as often as I wanted. It was wonderful.
They are in school now, and after school they will come here. Once they started pre-school and were going half days, I would pick them up from school on my lunch break and have lunch with them, and then the nanny would be here in the afternoon. It’s been great. Since they aren’t inside my facility, they don’t interrupt. They could have screamed their heads off back there, and the clients would never know, because they’re not in the building, they’re right out the back door. I think a lot of people that buy rural practices usually have extra property–either barns or acreage–that they could do something like that with.
I also used to work every Saturday, and I have cut that back to two Saturdays each month. Several people are doing that these days, either not opening on weekends, or opening limited hours. I also take one day off during the week now, and I have a relief vet come in. That’s been my day to spend time with the kids, and it has really worked well for me.
What would you consider to be the toughest challenge about your career choice?
Dr. Kelly: The biggest challenge for me, and I think for most women especially, is balancing your personal and family time. One of the things I think I have to ask myself is: “Could I grow this practice faster and make more money if I put in the hours that I used to pre-kids?” The answer to that is absolutely, I could, but you have to choose what you want in your life. Do you want to build the mega practice and make mega bucks, or would you rather scale back a little bit and have more time with your family? Obviously I’m in that phase right now where I’d rather have more family time, and that may change when the kids go off to college, but for right now, this has worked for me, and I think that’s what a lot of women deal with.
As far as recruiting more interest in the rural sector of veterinary practice, what have you done and what can be done?
Dr. Kelly: One way I’ve tried to attract students to rural practice is with volunteers. In the Summertime especially, we are absolutely overrun with volunteers here and I know there are liabilities associated with it, but it’s been amazing how many of my volunteers have gone on to veterinary school, and I’m really proud of that, and it’s been fun to watch them evolve, get accepted and move on. I think that it is really important for us to encourage kids to come to the practice and see what goes on. Mentoring those new veterinarians has been very rewarding. It’s kind of fun too, because when they see things that we see every day and we no longer get excited about and they say, “Oh that’s so cool” you can see it again their there eyes, and that keeps you fresh.
What has TVMA done for you personally to assist in your efforts?
Dr. Kelly: I think that, being a solo practitioner, sometimes I feel out of the loop, and TVMA helps keep me informed. They help me to know what is going on in the profession and what changes are happening, and that’s important for me. Also, I’m very proud that TVMA is trying to do things like this, in highlighting what others have done to hopefully get new people involved and not worried about tackling rural practice or owning a practice.
Do you feel it is important for women to be represented as proportionately in veterinary organizational leadership as they are in practice?
Dr. Kelly: My answer to that would be, of course! I would love to see more women in TVMA leadership, especially now that we have more women in practice, because I think we need some shifts in thinking. Times have changed and we’re going to have new issues coming up in the future.
