I am afraid this month’s article sees us returning to the village of Ambridge, set in the beautiful county of Borsetshire, England (yes, The Archers, once again, is the inspiration for a blog post).
Animal health in Ambridge has been headline news for us listeners, with a strangles outbreak at the riding stables and livery run by Lilian and Alice. This unites several ongoing storylines and results in Jakob the vet making an unfortunate comment about a staff member at the stables…
The stables
First, to bring non-listeners up to speed, let’s explore the organisation of the stables…
As ever, there are silent characters in Ambridge, and at the stables we have Joanne, who appears to be a stable hand providing horse care. Lilian Bellamy and Alice Carter manage the stables between them, but Alice is not currently at work due to her storyline of alcoholism (which may have other implications in the strangles storyline). Ultimately this means the stables are a team member down and management of the business is solely down to Lilian at a time of increased workload.
We can’t be sure how many people work at the stables, but at its most basic the team is down by a third, which is a big change. It’s also worth noting that Lilian is Alice’s aunt and Justin Elliott (more to come of him) is Lilian’s partner and has a keen interest in the business.
Roles and responsibilities
The absence of Alice as a team leader is compounded when Duke, a horse owned by fellow villager Oliver, starts deteriorating due to strangles. Jakob Hakansson – one of two vets in Ambridge – attends and carries out a tracheotomy for poor Duke. However, while there, he notes the issues around the management of the stables and approaches Lilian about this.
Jakob notes the lack of staff, but chooses to single out Joanne, saying she has “strong boundaries” around her role. He follows this up by saying this “lack of initiative” is creating problems, such as Duke’s condition not being monitored properly.
I’m sure Jakob means well; knowing the boundaries of your job role and your skills base are very positive attributes. However, there are appropriate times to be open to opportunities for adding new skills and responsibilities, and I don’t think a time when the business is chronically understaffed and the team is missing significant skills is necessarily the best time for this. That said, Lilian’s husband Justin does appear to be making some moves to cover the skills gap in managing the stables.
Care in context
Strong boundaries seem to be frowned upon in many veterinary clinics. There is often pressure to “step up”, “take on more responsibilities” or “widen your role”, but this is often compounded by such “opportunities” being made available at a time when there is inadequate staffing for the workload.
As part of Veterinary Humanities UK and considering our work on contextualised care, I can see one solution is to ensure you consider the team dynamic in your decision-making. With staff missing it is clear that what your team can provide for care changes. A change in staffing levels shouldn’t mean the course of action is to burn out the remaining staff.
Finally, considering the context of what you can provide is an essential part of care provision. Suitable staffing for medical care is often a complex situation and often requires thinking beyond the pragmatic. However, ever the pragmatist, Jakob can see the problem and is making quick decisions to replace like with like. From his point of view the problem needs to be addressed as soon as possible, and he believes hiring another member of staff is the easiest way to solve the issue.
In our other corner of contextualised care we have Justin. It’s not often he’s seen portrayed as a knight in shining armour, but he may be here. He is looking at the stables holistically and is trying to work out a way to support Lilian and her business in the short to medium term.
Undoubtedly, he will also be looking to see where he can make the most money, but his approach to this delicate situation is not merely an attempt to replace an “Alice”, but to consider how the stables work and what skills he has access to to support this.
Who knows, maybe Joanne has these skills but has not utilised them as her job role did not require it…
- Catch up with the latest goings-on in Ambridge on BBC Radio 4 or via BBC Sounds.
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