A prayer to St Anthony

I haven’t come over all religious for this blog, but the patron saint of lost things has some relevance in this blog. In fact, I wonder if St Anthony’s prayer might need to be included in the oath the vets swear at graduation?

The non-vets in clinic have long suffered under a part of the “hidden curriculum” that St Anthony is relevant to. A hidden curriculum is something that isn’t taught as a learning outcome, but is something students learn as part of the culture of their workplace or college.

There are many things on the hidden curriculum, but the one I’d like to focus on as the start of an occasional visit to this area is “the Vet Look” – a genderless version of “the Man Look”, which results in similar frustrations, tense conversations and the eventual realisation the lookee was missing the point of looking all along; the point of looking for something is to locate it.

Seek, and ye shall find

We vet nurses, patient care assistants and receptionists are at the mercy of the Vet Look, – as, once they become an MRCVS, apparently, they lose the skill to find things that help them in their everyday job. The most common causes of the Vet Look are:

• new packaging on a product
• anything with fewer than four units left on the shelf
• anything moved more than 4mm from where it was previously kept

To demonstrate this fully, Dr Judy Puddifoot (@Judy the Vet) has kindly agreed to share her video of her own Vet Look.

Strong evidence an MRCVS really does affect your eyesight.

Other examples

Specific items that seem most affected include:

• otoscope
• pens (their own)
• stethoscopes
• pens (the nurse’s)
• bandaging materials
• pens (anyone’s pen)
• scissors (usually the nurse’s)
• ovaries in a dog

Because we’re a superstitious bunch (blog coming – it’s a HUGE area) the hidden curriculum also prepares students of the vet and vet nurse variety for the actual realities of practice life:

• The Friday pyo.
• Blocked bladders come in threes.
• Get two catheters out and you will only need one.
• Urgent surgical cases always arrive after you’ve deep cleaned the theatre.
• Using the Q word results in chaos.

What can you do to improve your “Vet Look”

Say out loud what you’re looking for:

• ovary
• scissors
• pen

Apparently the evidence is your brain will go to the last place you saw it – and I have found this works (not that, as a VN, I ever lose anything). Instead of a quiet panic/rage, politely asking the world where something is might actually work before you decide to track down your VN.

Other options are to think of all the places an item may be and work from there:

• Backtrack your steps from where you are now until you find it – in clinic, hopefully this won’t be too far.
• Check the messiest areas – have you just been in a group hug trying to help restrain a Yorkshire terrier for an adrenocorticotropic hormone stim? Maybe your pen is under the Yorkie?

Most importantly, stay calm as you look. The more stressed you get (how can I consult without my stethoscope?) the harder it is to look methodically – then you’ll need to ask for help. Not that asking for help is a bad thing, but the Vet Look isn’t in our curriculum either – it’s just another something we VNs learn about from the hidden curriculum, but one part of this is true we do all know where everything is.