Listen in as we talk with Jeanice Waird as she shares her journey in veterinary medicine. She takes us through the highs and lows and lessons learned through multiple veterinary practices and shares her path to self-compassion and finding the importance of emotional wellbeing.
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Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP
Jeanice attended the State University of New York at Canton, obtaining her associate of science in veterinary technology and her bachelor’s in veterinary service management. She was an active member of the New York State Air National Guard from 2004-2010 as a Command Post Controller, providing emergency communications and status reports to the commander and personnel on Hancock Air Force Base. She’s been a certified veterinary technician since 2007 and has worked in various field areas: general practice, academia (University of Illinois), diagnostic imaging, intensive care, and equine/farm animal medicine. She has held many roles within vet med: receptionist, technician, lead technician, charge auditor, and practice manager. While at the University of Illinois, Jeanice obtained her Master of Education, focusing on human resource development, and is a graduate of the Emerging Women Leaders program offered by the University. She previously served as the ISVMA CVT board member from 2021-2023 and actively participated in the CVT committee. She is currently focusing on her role as the assistant director for VSPN and offering mental health and wellness education to veterinary professionals through her business, Veterinary Wellness Education, LLC, or VetWE for short. Her non-professional interests include spending time with her husband, two sons, a spoiled cat, and a troublesome dog. She enjoys meditation, gardening, hiking, yoga, pole fitness, dancing, and loud music. Her favorite music artist is Qveen Herby. Jeanice is passionate about moving the veterinary profession toward a more individual-focused framework, allowing space and grace for all professionals to grapple with and heal from the difficult experiences we all encounter within the field and the daily struggles that all humans encounter throughout their lifetimes. She is particularly interested in teaching, psychology, compassion fatigue, cognitive behavioral therapy, growth mindset, and mental health awareness.
LINKS AND INFORMATION:
- Veterinary Support Personnel Network (VSPN)
- VSPN CE
- Air National Guard
- VIN Foundation Vets4Vets®
- AVMA QPR Training
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TRANSCRIPT
Intro
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: Everything that you see on commercials these days, everything that’s being pushed is promising happiness. So this supplement will make you happy or, get this car, this car will make you happy. There’s so many things like, eat this yogurt and you’ll feel so happy, and I don’t think happiness is the goal because happiness is, it’s an emotional state. It’s not something that’s supposed to be maintained forever. So I think more of the area that we should be shooting for is contentment and satisfaction. I think those are more of the areas where we should be shooting for, and it’s not a veterinary specific issue, it’s a worldwide issue right now, especially mental health is a big hot button issue.
Jordan Benshea: That is Jeanice Waird, and this is the VIN Foundation’s Veterinary Pulse podcast. I’m Jordan Benshea, Executive Director of the VIN Foundation. Join me as I talk with veterinary colleagues about critical topics and share stories, stories that connect us as humans, as animals, as a veterinary community. This podcast is made possible by individuals like you who donate to the VIN Foundation. Thank you. Please check the episode notes for bios, links, and information mentioned. Hi, Jeanice. Welcome to the podcast.
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: Hi, I am so happy to be here.
Jordan Benshea: Wonderful, I’m thrilled to have you. We’ve been chatting about having this conversation for a while and I’m glad that we were finally able to make it work.
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: Me too. I really enjoy having conversations like this, so I was super excited to reach out to you.
Jordan Benshea: Wonderful. This is why we created the podcast, was really to share these stories, which I think helps us connect as humans, and learning from each other and everybody’s story is so fascinating and there’s always opportunities for connection that you might not expect.
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: I agree.
Jeanice Finds Vet Med
Jordan Benshea: So share with us your journey into veterinary medicine. Was there an aha moment where you knew it was the profession for you? Did you have a bunny that you loved at age five? What did your journey look like?
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: Well, I actually grew up on a dairy farm up, like upstate New York. And of course I was around animals most of my life, and especially cats. My parents had just a barn full of cats, and initially, I just knew that I liked science. Science was something I excelled in. I really enjoyed it, especially biology, physiology. So I actually intended, initially, to go into the human medical field and I took a couple courses in high school that were offered to kind of feel out the field. But after a little while, I kind of started to question, especially once I graduated high school, I just wasn’t sure where I wanted to go. That spark hadn’t happened yet, and I was actually Googling. I remember this very specifically. I was sitting at the computer and I was Googling different programs at the college that I was looking at, and I got really frustrated and I turned around, and my cat always sat on the chair behind me, and I kind of looked at him and I was petting him and I was like, huh, I like to make you happy. So that was the night that I changed into the technician program and I’ve been in the vet field ever since.
Jordan Benshea: So was that when you were in high school?
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: Yes.
Jordan Benshea: Looking at colleges or, okay.
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: Yeah, so I actually was in the International Guard right when I got out of high school. So it’s something where you go to basic training and you go to your trade school training and then you can get home and then it’s one month a year to one weekend a month, two weeks a year. I haven’t been in there for a long time. So I was home and I was looking at colleges, and I’d taken one semester of liberal arts and I was just trying to figure out what I wanted to do, and it was just that one moment that kind of made that spark. And I think everybody comes into it knowing that they love animals, that they just really enjoy the companionship that they bring, and that was definitely, I always knew I wanted that companionship, but I wasn’t really excited about the idea. I didn’t really want to do surgery. I didn’t really want to diagnose. I like to have my hands in things and that gave me a lot more flexibility to do a lot more of the, I would say more fun stuff. To me it just sounded more fun.
Tech Skills and Clinic Culture
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: So yeah, it was a great way to get into the field, and I ended up obviously working in general practice first, just right out of school. It was a very rural environment, so when I first came out of school I didn’t utilize my skills very much because the veterinarians always held the patients, they always did the x-rays. It was more of just kind of glorified patient restraint, and then I ended up moving to where I now live in Illinois, and in this area, it was much more hands-on. It was much more utilizing the skills how I felt they should have been utilized. So it was very engaging and motivating when I moved, which I don’t know if I would’ve remained in the field as long as I have if I hadn’t of moved somewhere where they utilize their technicians appropriately.
Jordan Benshea: So can you give an example of that?
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: Oh, well, up in New York I never really placed catheters, and when I moved to Illinois, I kind of had to relearn that skill because that was technician’s jobs to place catheters. Like something as simple as that was new to me. I was great at toenail trims and anal glands because we could do those all the time, but those more technical things like placing urinary catheters or placing IV catheters, intubating, everything basically was. Obviously I knew how to perform those activities, but when you don’t do them for three years and then you’re expected to do them again, it was a culture shock. But it was also super motivating to be able to actually do what my credential, since I took a board exam, the thing I’m supposed to be doing. It was very exciting.
Career Path Beyond Practice
Jordan Benshea: And are you still in practice now?
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: I’m actually off the clinic floor now. I’ve shot through a couple different positions in my career. So initially, certified veterinary technician in general practice in New York, and then I moved to Illinois, stayed in general practice for a few more years, and then I actually transferred into a role at the University of Illinois at their veterinary teaching hospital, which was an amazing experience. I was in the ICU for about only nine months. I’m definitely not the kind of individual who is fueled by chaos, and some people love chaos, they love codes, and that is just not my jam. So I ended up transferring into the diagnostic imaging department where I was able to just basically do radiographs and I learned how to do CT’s and MRI’s. Ultrasonography was a big part that I kinda leaned into there. I really love ultrasonography. That is something that gets me very excited because it’s such a non-invasive procedure, but it can tell you so much about your patient and kind of what to look for. So that was a great experience. And actually around COVID timeframe, I transferred into an overnight large animal equine position, which was very fun and also really good as far as staying away from people. Since it was overnight there wasn’t very much staff in the hospital, and it was kind of nice. And I could keep my kids home, so that was a really nice period for that to happen. And then I moved into the role of charge auditor, where I would just basically check overcharges, make sure that we were charging for what we should. That was a tough role and I think most practices have issues with that type of role or like double checking their finances because we do feel that urge, we want to help as many clients as possible and we do end up cutting corners, but when you cut corners, you can’t provide the support you need. You can’t pay your people, you can’t pay for your building. So there was some tough conversations within that position, but…
Jordan Benshea: And was that also at the University of Illinois?
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: Yes. Yep.
Jordan Benshea: Okay.
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: But I really enjoyed the conversations. I really enjoyed talking with all the different sections of the hospital. There’s so many great individuals working there and just doing their best, so it was just a fantastic experience again. And then I ended up having a stent as a practice manager for three of the practices in this area.
Jordan Benshea: So you left University of Illinois and went to a private practice?
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: Yes.
Jordan Benshea: Okay.
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: And it was actually a corporate practice, which I have mixed feelings about corporate, which I think many individuals within the veterinary field do, and I like the idea. They talk big, but when they don’t follow through with their actions, that’s where I started to have a problem, so I ended up leaving that role. And looking back, I feel like I’m very self-aware most of the time, and obviously when you come out of a bad situation, you have a tendency to look back on it and kind of blame everything on the outside source. But looking back now, I grew so much from that situation. Coming out of it, knowing that like I was trying to do way too much. I was trying to coddle my team members. I wasn’t allowing them the room to spread their wings in that role. So just so much that I learned from that role. And I’m currently with VSPN, so the Veterinary Support Personnel Network through VIN, and I’m currently working with the continuing education department, which is definitely my jam. I love talking to people about continuing education and just honing your skills and kind of like making that niche in the field for yourself and making yourself just more employable. You can go anywhere, you can do anything, just find your niche, and that’s really important. I’m moving into an exclusive VSPN role here in the future, and hopefully we can try to get a little bit more medical staff, administrative staff involved in what’s going on in veterinary medicine.
Jordan Benshea: Are there aspects of practice that you miss?
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: I do miss the interactions with the pets and, getting a little bit older, it was actually kind of nice transitioning from a small animal gig to a large animal gig because you can’t force large animals to do anything. So I didn’t have to like hold down the 120 pound Great Dane or anything like that because I do have lower back issues. So It was kind of nice transitioning out from that role. But as far as just, I still want to place catheters so bad and draw blood and all the fun medical things that I’ve always enjoyed. I still enjoy them and I think I could jump right back in that role if I wanted to, but I have two young kids, a 7 and 11-year-old, and they keep me busy and I’m just really kind of directing my passions elsewhere, where I feel like I can make more of an impact now since I’ve went through the gauntlet and I’ve come out the other end. And I’d really like to be able to be the support for some individuals that I didn’t get when I was first coming into the field. I don’t want new individuals, new graduates coming into the field and feeling like they’re just dropped in the deep end and everyone’s expecting them to swim, but not giving them a life preserver. So that’s a really hard part of coming into the veterinary field and being green.
Defining Support Staff Roles
Jordan Benshea: And how do you see the “veterinary support staff” role in vet med today? I’m saying veterinary support staff with air quotes because, do you also think that’s an appropriate phrase or how would you describe those who are in vet med on the practice floor but aren’t veterinarians?
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: Sure. Well, I think in my mind it’s separated into two different categories. So you have the veterinary medical support staff and you have the administrative support staff, which I’m not saying that they can’t cross over because some people wear multiple hats within the veterinary field. But if we’re talking about technicians and veterinary assistants, the individuals who help with more of the medical management of the patients, I think are more of the veterinary medical support personnel, where if you have more administrative, that’s practice managers and receptionists and those types of individuals. And oh, we can’t forget kennel staff as well. I actually put them into the medical side because they have so much of a responsibility to monitor the pets that are staying with them and alerting the veterinarians and the technicians that there might be a problem. So I have a very deep respect for kennel attendants and kennel staff because they have a lot on their plate to deal with. So that’s how I would kind of separate the two groups, and also they get very different training on both sides. When you’re a veterinary technician, a lot of times they don’t have much contact with the owners that are coming into the practice, whereas obviously the receptionist is kind of the first person they see or the first person they talk to on the phone. The training definitely needs to be there for the administrative staff. That’s one thing throughout my career that I’ve really leaned into because even though somebody works in a practice for 20 years, and if they’re a medical individual being risen up into, they become the practice manager, the office manager, a lot of times they don’t have the people skills that they need to be able to work with the rest of the staff and really make the practice successful. And I think that’s something that we have to be aware of, is that if we are going to elevate individuals into those positions, we need to make sure that they have the training and experience that they need to be successful.
Compassion Fatigue and Joy
Jordan Benshea: So that dovetails a bit into what, from my understanding, is definitely a passion of yours, which is mental health and veterinary support staff. How did you discover that was an area of interest to you?
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: Well, I pretty much think that I was compassion fatigued through most of my career. And I think that’s something that can go unnoticed just because there’s this, what I want to say, a pandemic almost of cynicism and like dark humor about the practice and kind of what you experience daily within the clinic. It just seems like everybody’s feeling the same thing, so it must be okay. Where on the other hand, it’s like, oh no, we’re just all feeling the same thing, we’re just all compassion fatigued, or we’re all burnt out. And the one thing that I always like to tell individuals is there’s a big push, especially for consumerism where everything that you see on commercials these days, everything that’s being pushed is promising happiness. So this supplement will make you happy or, get this car, this car will make you happy. There’s so many things like, eat this yogurt and you’ll feel so happy, and I don’t think happiness is the goal because happiness is, it’s an emotional state. It’s not something that’s supposed to be maintained forever. So I think more of the area that we should be shooting for is contentment and satisfaction. I think those are more of the areas where we should be shooting for, and it’s not a veterinary specific issue, it’s a worldwide issue right now, especially mental health is a big hot button issue at the moment. And I think a lot of people now are looking at the societal norms in the way structures are set up to kind of take some of the weight off of us, like the blame, like, oh, I’m not eating enough yogurt to be feeling better, or, I’m not taking, I don’t have money to buy this new, like, exercise equipment that promises that I’ll be better so I’m failing. So a lot of people have a lot of personal judgment on themselves because of all the shoulds that get thrown around like, I should be doing this, or, I should be doing that, where self-compassion is such a huge part of deciding that, you know what, this isn’t normal and I need to do something to change things, and I think that’s kind of where I hit. I’ve been doing a lot of personal work the last few years, especially trying to understand myself a little bit more. Understand what brings me joy. Understand that joy is okay because a lot of times we don’t give ourselves the grace to find joy, to be happy because we’re like in this state of affairs, how can I be happy when all these horrible things are happening? But joy is what sustains us and really creates that fire for us to engage in the world and make change, and especially within the veterinary field. The veterinary field is created for veterinarians, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Veterinarians obviously were the start of the field. Back in the day if you were lucky, maybe you had a receptionist working with the veterinarian in their practice, but mostly it was just them. But at that time it was a lot more farm animals like, produce animals, dairy, meats, that kind of thing. They weren’t companion animals as much as the huge explosion that is occurring now with so many people getting animals. Like, what do they say? Plants are the new pets and pets are the new kids, and I’m not sure what kids are. But it’s become a thing where the practice is so much more emotionally charged because of the connection that we’re now having with our pets. And we need to do more to elevate our support staff, like our medical support staff, our administrative staff, so that we can contend with this better and not have to rely on the veterinarians so much, because if we keep relying on the skills of the veterinarian, it’s just not capable. Like nobody is capable of doing all the things that we are asking of veterinarians right now. We need to be able to elevate the other staff members within our team so that we take some pressure off the veterinarians and we let them do what they graduated to do and what they enjoy doing, and have the other individuals work to the top of their certification so that we can release a little bit of the pressure and try to move forward and hopefully not lose as many people from the field in the process. That’s tough.
COVID and Shifting Expectations
Jordan Benshea: Do you feel that COVID had a huge impact on support staff because they suddenly became a lot of the front lines, right? So when you went to vet clinic, you weren’t able to go inside for definitely 1-2 years plus potentially, depending on where you lived, and that all of a sudden put, it seemed support staff as that frontline person where they’re used to more being behind the scenes and not having that initial human reaction, or interaction rather, and that like having to manage that emotional intelligence of dealing with the pet owner and then managing that specifically.
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: Sure. I think COVID brought up a lot of deficiencies that we have within the field, that we’ve had within the field. It just made them a lot more pronounced, and I agree we did ask a lot more of the administrative staff, especially when we were going through that timeframe and it was really uncomfortable. And we don’t like being uncomfortable just as human beings. There’s a weird dissonance that happens when we’re just not in our element, we’re not used to this. It’s a big change. I think that also kind of shook a lot of the individuals who may be on the fence of being like, maybe this isn’t for me. I think that kind of pushed them off the cliff a little bit easier. So I think we saw quite a few individuals just kinda giving in and being like, it’s not worth it. It was very stressful at that time and it’s really hard to get through a stressful situation if you’re already stressed. If you don’t have the emotional resources to do what you’re doing on a daily basis and then you’re asked to give even more, that is a crushing weight that I think a lot of people just don’t want to deal with, which I don’t blame them. It’s difficult. And I think also, training wise, I think that impacted everyone a lot because we had to define our roles a little bit more clearly. Like, who is going out to the car? Who’s checking in these individuals? Is the receptionist going out and bringing the pet in the doors? How is this working? So having that set structure is important, especially when you’re talking about roles within the practice and creating a safe space so everybody knows what their roles are and they don’t feel like they’re stepping on people’s toes. I think COVID brought out a lot of those, just these variable little issues that individually, they weren’t catastrophic, but I think it pulled on all the right strings to really cause panic in a lot of practices.
Jordan Benshea: And have you seen a significant shift in the veterinary support, both medical and administrative, aspects since then?
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: I have. I’ve seen, I guess, medical staff expecting more from their administrative staff, like trying to have them, hey, can you triage before you send this phone call back to us? And especially with veterinarians, it used to be a thing where somebody could call a practice and be like, “can I talk to Dr. so-and-so,” and they would just be sent to the doctor, and that’s not really feasible in most practices anymore. We’re moving away from being a super personable atmosphere to trying to be a little bit more like protecting our time in some ways. Like if there’s something that could be answered by a technician, they should answer that question. You don’t want them to go all the way up to the veterinarian because the veterinarian is doing other things. They’re diagnosing, they’re doing their notes for the day, like they’re in surgery. They’re not accessible to the public as much as they used to be, so I think that is a big change where the responsibilities are kind of moving up a little bit to protect everybody’s time and sanity really, because the veterinarian can’t do everything, so the technicians are kind of taking over a little bit more and then the receptionists have higher expectations and so on, so forth.
Wellness Resources and Real Self Care
Jordan Benshea: So what are some of the resources you see in vet med that are available for veterinary support staff from a wellness perspective?
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: I love support groups that you can reach out to. There’s lots of message boards. Being able to discuss things openly is a huge part of being in vet med and kind of releasing that tension that we build up over time with all of our unfortunate medical cases. Also you can see medical, like mental health resources. Basically most veterinary organizations, AVMA has a page about mental health and it has a whole bunch of different articles. I do want to point out that resources not within veterinary medicine are also very important. We don’t need to stick within veterinary medicine. We can go outside of that as well. There’s so many good podcasts that go over mental health and wellness. I listen to several that just kind of give me a different perspective on things on a daily basis, and I think the more you hear, the more that you take in, the better as far as mental health is concerned. I have a course that is going to be coming up on VSPN here in the next year or so on what real self-care actually looks like, and it’s not bubble baths and drinking wine in the evening. It’s not any of that. It’s really doing the work, the self-work to figure out like, hey, what am I dealing with inside? Why do I feel this way when this person does this? Or looking at those cognitive distortions that we all have as far as like the all or nothing bias. Like are you going off the all or nothing bias? Like I either have to quit the field or maybe I could just cut my hours a little bit, or it’s all in and all out. So there’s so many of these different thought process that we have. I love cognitive behavioral therapy. I think it’s just such an interesting side of the mental wellness landscape that could really be dove into a little bit more in veterinary medicine as well, just because your thoughts create your behavior. So being able to really, I don’t want to say, stand up to your thoughts if you’re having negative thoughts, being able to say, “well, is that real, can I find real proof for that or not,” because our brains lie to us all the time. So really digging into more resources that have you really understand yourself, which I love learning stuff about myself. I assume most people do. We’re very self-centered as a human species, so I assume everybody likes learning more information about themselves, and really it just helps you throughout your day to put everything in perspective.
Jordan Benshea: I think those are good resources, and important to remember that it’s not just in vet med. There are resources outside of vet med that are also helpful. And then also, like what we try to do with Vets4Vets® is just, there is also that relatability of talking to somebody that’s in vet med that will understand something that might be harder to explain to somebody that’s not in vet med.
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: Exactly. I think one piece that is really missing from veterinary medicine is specialized counselors and therapists who understand the veterinary field, because I’ve had a lot of comments from individuals I’ve spoke with talking about like, “oh man, I talked to my therapist about this, but she, they don’t get it, they just don’t get it, they don’t get the atmosphere of vet med and they don’t see it in the bigger picture, and I spend a lot of time trying to explain to my therapist why this is a thing, and it would be a lot easier if I could just talk to somebody who knows what I’m talking about, like knows what’s going on in vet med and the little like details, because there are a lot of nuances in our veterinary medicine culture that I think really play into a lot of different perceptions of how we feel about things. So I think that’s one thing that I would really like to see more of, especially maybe in these more corporate organizations. Maybe we got to do some nudging to be like, hey, you know what would be cool?
Jordan Benshea: Yeah, because we definitely hear that with Vets4Vets®, is that it’s really that peer-to-peer support from somebody that understands it, because it’s almost like you have to, you get to leapfrog a whole lack of understanding there, and that’s just super beneficial and there’s so much benefit in that, that we definitely see.
Final Thoughts and Dance Party
Jordan Benshea: You’ve been so generous with your time. I really appreciate it. Is there, anything else you want to leave our audience with?
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: I don’t think so. I just want to tell everybody if you’re feeling horrible, it’s not your fault. We’re all going through a systemic change right now, and society is set up in a way that does not benefit workers, and it’s not your fault. So look for little things that you can do to improve your situation. Sometimes it’s hard to see the little things because it’s a huge problem, but working one little piece at a time, doing what you can, like, I don’t think I’m going to change the world with my continuing education, but if I can affect one individual when I’m having a conversation with someone, that’s one person who maybe I’ve helped. So the same thing in practice, if there’s something that you see that you’re like, hey, this is a broken system, let’s try this. Each piece is a step in the right direction, so maybe I’m trying to promote that.
Jordan Benshea: Wonderful, and one of my favorite questions is, do you have a secret talent or something that you enjoy doing that others might not know about? The answers that we get are all over the map and usually not what I’m expecting or would’ve even considered.
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: Yeah, I love dancing.
Jordan Benshea: Oh, there you go.
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: Yeah. I love dancing.
Jordan Benshea: What kind of dancing?
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: Just whatever I feel like.
Jordan Benshea: Okay.
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: I’m not trained, I’ll just put on some loud music, usually when my kids and husband are away, and just do whatever I feel like, and just moving.
Jordan Benshea: Just a dance party.
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: I love music so much. It moves me. It just moves my soul. It’s one of my joys.
Jordan Benshea: Yeah. That’s wonderful. I love it. Instant dance party.
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: Exactly.
Jordan Benshea: That can be a big mood shifter too, right?
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: Oh, it so can, it so can, but…
Jordan Benshea: Yeah.
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: Usually I have to be in the right mood.
Jordan Benshea: Right.
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: But yeah.
Jordan Benshea: But sometimes I feel like you put on a song and it can also shift your mood.
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: Oh yeah, definitely.
Jordan Benshea: And maybe that’s a little challenge, everybody do like a five minute dance party.
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: Exactly.
Jordan Benshea: Put on your favorite song.
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: Find the music that brings you joy and just enjoy it.
Jordan Benshea: Exactly. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate your time.
Jeanice Waird, M.Ed., B. Tech, CVT, CCFP: Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
Outro
Jordan Benshea: Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Veterinary Pulse. Please check the episode notes for additional information referenced in the podcast. If you enjoyed this podcast, please follow, subscribe, and share a review. We welcome feedback and hope you will tune in again. You can find out more about the VIN Foundation through our website, VINFoundation.org, and our social media channels. Thank you for being here. Be well.