Veterinary Professionals

If the practice is providing you with a flat or a car, think about doing a quick scan around and noting any damage when you first take possession, preferably together with the practice manager.
Arguments at the end of a placement about whether or not you scratched the paintwork or broke that chair leg can cause bad feeling and are avoidable. Well-organised practices will do this with you anyway.
Special regard for sole charge assignments There are special considerations that apply if you are taking sole charge of a practice.
As well as all of the above, make sure that you have a contact number for the owner in their absence. Don’t use it, no-one likes to be disturbed on holiday and if you are accepting a sole charge position, you are expected to be able to cope; but if a real disaster happens, for example you manage to burn down the surgery or kill the receptionist, you will need to be able to get in touch.

Also make sure that you have the keys to the premises and to the dangerous drug cupboard, or that a reliable member of support staff has them and you can get hold of them out of hours if necessary.
You will need the code for the burglar alarm, and instructions on how to reset it if it goes off, instructions on how to set, unset and record a message on the answering machine and information on how to get help out of hours if necessary.
If out of hours help is not available, you need to know this and be confident that you can cope; but it is far better to have someone you can contact, rather than risk spending half the night scouring the place for a bag of Hartmans and the other half trying to find a cannula while the patient slowly expires. When accepting a sole charge job, it is wise to make sure that you will get at least an hour or two to spend with the boss before they leave, so you can ask all of your questions and familiarise yourself with the practice, people and policies.

It is not unknown for a practice principal to just hand the locum the keys and leave; but the more information you have on how they want you to work, the better a job you will be able to do for them.

ADDING VALUE.
When a practice takes on a locum, they expect turnover to drop.The popular locums, the ones who get asked back, are the ones who maintain turnover at the same level as the regular staff, if not higher.
The skills that you will develop in doing this will also be invaluable should you return to a permanent practice job. Firstly, never give “freebies” or discount the fees, even if you think the prices are high: the practice is paying you to sell their time and products, not to give them away, and you have no idea of the level of overheads that they have to cover.
Secondly, try to maximise your average transaction value. If a dog comes in for a booster, it is easy just to give it that booster, but, if you take the extra few seconds to say “has he been wormed in the last three months?”, you will be able to sell a worm dose as well to at least half of them, and if you ask if he will be going into kennels in the next year, you might sell a few kennel cough vaccines as well.
Try to sell a few cans of a suitable diet, as well as medication to the puppy with diarrhoea; if the cat has bad teeth don’t just say “he needs a dental”, but accompany the client to the reception desk to make sure that it does actually get booked in for that dental.
No-one would want you to sell products or services that the patient doesn’t actually need, but these perfectly valid extra sales, however small each one may be, can add up to a significant improvement in turnover by the end of the day.
Rather than taking the easy option and just “doing the job”, try to go the extra mile and improve your reputation as a locum as well as improving client service and your own job satisfaction.
Keep the clients (and the boss) happy As well as maintaining turnover, the other factor that will endear you to a practice principal and improve your chances of being asked back, or at least of a favourable reference, is fitting in well with the practice team and work ethos.

Try to reassure clients, who are bound to be worried about seeing a stranger, with phrases such as “I haven’t seen Fluffy before but Mr X has discussed his case with me” or “I have read through all of Tiddles’ notes and I see that …”
As a locum you are “here today, gone tomorrow”; it is not your job to change the treatment plans of the practice’s chronic cases, no matter how inappropriately you feel they are being handled.
The clients have chosen that practice because they like the way they do things, and a total stranger coming in and telling them that they should do something different and change the pills that Spot has been on for the last five years is unlikely to win their favour.
What is more, if you disagree with the previous veterinary surgeon, it is not necessarily they who are wrong, not least because they have a better background knowledge of the patient, the client and local conditions. A better way to approach things is to put a note in the record for the original vet saying “are you sure this isn’t a case of xyz?”, or “have you thought about trying product acb for this, I have had good results with it”.
It is good practice not to criticise the practice to the support staff either, they may well have limited or no experience of other practices and think that their boss is wonderful, and, in any event, are likely to report back what you have said.

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