speakout The following two Letters to the Editor
were written in response to the Visionary Voices article by Sandy Sponaugle titled “Your Image Matters,” (Trends, Decem- ber 2011).
I wholeheartedly agree with your statements about appearance. For years technicians have done themselves a great disservice by not dressing appropriately at CE events. I purposely sit outside the conference rooms and watch people come and go and assess what they are wearing. It used to be very easy to tell the vet- erinarians from the technicians. The vets always wore business or business casual clothing, while the techs looked like they were on vacation or worse! But I am seeing more and more doctors
that are dressing down at conferences all in the name of comfort. I am of the old school (1977 graduate) and believe you should always dress a notch above what you normally wear. Nowadays I appear to be in the minority. Look around at con- ferences and you will see mostly only us old geezers dressing the part. Thanks for reminding people to step it up a notch!
Barbara McCullough, CVT I also feel that there is a problem with
the dress code when attending meetings. I have seen T-shirts, jeans and flip-flops. I feel that that is inappropriate. I also feel that we are representing our profession and if we don’t take ourselves seriously, then who will?
Susan J. Farris, CVT
AAHA Accreditation Does Matter The past couple of weeks have been
very busy, but great. In particular, my work has taken me to three practices that share a common distinction: they are all AAHA accredited.
Trends magazine, April 2012
READERS’ RESPONSES TO TRENDS MAGAZINE
9
I’m speaking specifically about Cob-
ble Hill Veterinary Clinic, Sayrebrook Veterinary Hospital (N.J.) and Blooms- burg Veterinary Hospital (Pa.). Each of these practices is employed with tal- ented, fun, driven and compassionate team members, but because they have undertaken the AAHA challenge to review their systems and make sure they are in line with the guidelines set forth by the experienced AAHA accreditation team, they have...what’s the word?... framed?...underscored?...outlined? if you will, their superiority. Cobble Hill is the newest hospital
to join the other distinguished prac- tices in the U.S. that enjoy the honor of accreditation. In fact, I worked with them closely on refining their protocols to make sure they were in line with the standards set by AAHA. The pro- cess was a tremendous learning experi- ence for the entire team and one of the strongest rallying calls I know of to pull teams together and to highlight every- one’s common interest in animal welfare and client well-being. Initially I dismissed the necessity of
AAHA accreditation, but Cobble Hill is the fourth practice I’ve traveled with on the accreditation journey and I leave the experience more convinced than ever of the process’s benefits. These standards stop mistakes, ensure premium client and patient care, protect team members and practice cultures, and encourage per- sonal and business growth. Now that my eye is trained, I can imme-
diately tell an AAHA-accredited practice when I tour a hospital. Their environment is simply better organized, better man- aged, cleaner, safer and more pleasant to be in. No need to hang the fancy bronze AAHA plaque you can get when your prac- tice finally achieves the AAHA distinction; your clients, vendors and future employ- ees will see evidence of accreditation everywhere they look. Really.
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