In it for the money

“All you vets care about is the money…”

Ouch! Just reading that line makes your blood boil, doesn’t it?

If you’ve been in clinical practice for any length of time, it’s likely you would have heard this accusation, or a version of it.

Hit a nerve

These kinds of comments tend to hit a particularly sensitive nerve with most vets – and it’s not hard to see why.

The reality is we dedicate our lives to helping animals, often pushing ourselves to the edge of breakdown for comparatively low wages. We really want to help our patients, but situations out of our control often force us to do things that are counter to our caring natures.

Accusing us of “just being in it for the money” could not be further from the truth, right?

Well, yes and no. The thing is, those comments are not entirely unjustified. To some degree, it is about the money.

Rather be elsewhere

We would often prefer to be doing something else than be at work. Yes, we are fortunate to have a career that most of us care passionately about, that allows us the opportunity to do what we set out to do: to help. Most of us would still do the same kind of work, even if money was not a part of the equation – but maybe not quite so much of it?

When I’m there on a Saturday instead of with my family, or I’m there at 3am instead of in my bed, I am unashamedly there because of the money. If I fail to charge appropriately for my work, I will lose that job I love and have no money.

So yes, unfortunately, the money does matter.

Brutal honesty

Being honest with myself about this has gone a long way to assuage the feelings of guilt and anger that invariably threaten to overwhelm me in these kinds of conflict situations.

I’ll often openly agree with clients when they accuse me of being money-driven: “Yes, you are right, and you are justified to be angry, but at this point, it IS unfortunately about money. I prefer to help my patients, but right now we’re both limited as to what we can do by your financial situation. That is the reality. Now let’s see what solutions we can work on.”

It’s hard to keep arguing with someone who’s agreeing with you.

This doesn’t necessarily make them happy, and it doesn’t make them like me, but it leaves no further room for argument and allows us to move towards a decision (and, not too infrequently, once the client realises they can’t guilt me into free treatment, the money will miraculously appear).