The appeal of relief medicine

Relief veterinary medicine has been surging in popularity. In an interview with dvm360, Andrew Findlaytor, DVM, senior director of veterinary strategy and services at Roo Vets, shared 3 aspects of relief work that excites professionals the most. He also talked about the impact relief veterinarians have on those around them and explained the meaning of cultural transfusions in relief medicine.

Below is a partial transcript.

Andrew Findlaytor, DVM: Relief medicine has seen such a large growth over the past decade. Part of the reason for that is the things that get people really excited about relief. I tell people 3 of the most exciting things about relief is the flexibility, the autonomy, and the professional growth.

Diving into those a little bit, flexibility means ‘hey, I can pick where and when I want to work. If I want to work Monday through Saturday or Monday and Tuesday, that's up to me’.

The autonomy gives you the ability to control really how much income you have coming in. You don't ever really have to worry about asking for a raise as relief veterinarian. You just say, 'hey, I want to go out and work more shifts', or 'I want to work less.' It gives you some social autonomy too to say, you know, 'this is the kind of culture I really want to spend time with', or 'these are kind of the places that really get me excited to work'.

And lastly, professional growth. As a relief veterinarian, I've been amazed to say that I've learned something from every single hospital that I've worked at. There's always new ways to treat animals, and there's some really exciting old school ways too. There's a lot of great things to learn.