An ode to smartphones at the veterinary clinic

A year or so ago, when smartphones became so fun and necessary, we noticed that every team member, from doctors to kennel technicians, appeared surgically attached to their phones. Even team leaders who should know better had their phones out constantly. Half of my Facebook newsfeed was posts by employees who I was pretty sure were on duty.

The hospital administrator and I knew we could not simply issue a policy that said no phones at work or you're fired, because our practice owner is a very kind person who doesn't want team members to be sad—even if she's paying said team members to play on their phones. So the hospital administrator asked me to write something funny to go along with her new policy on phone use. So I wrote, "Can You Put Your Phone Away?" Humor is indeed truth. It can also be therapeutic.

Can You Put Your Phone Away?

I think our team members got the point. We issued the new phone policy along with this poem to every medical team member and also posted it in our ICU.

—Dr. Cindi Welch

Medical director

I-20 Animal Medical Center, Arlington, Texas