National Receptionist Week only comes once a year, but the work receptionists do in veterinary medicine happens every single shift, every single call, every single difficult conversation at the front desk. This episode is dedicated to them.

I'm joined by Caitlin Palmer, veterinary receptionist, community builder, and member of the NAAVR President's Advisory Board. We talk about what the receptionist role actually demands, the emotional labor that goes largely unacknowledged, and why the profession keeps underestimating the people holding the front of the hospital together.

This is not a fluff episode about appreciating your front desk staff. It's a real conversation about imposter syndrome, career expectations, mental health, and what it looks like to build a professional identity in a role that a lot of people still treat as a stepping stone. Caitlin brings the kind of clarity and candor that this conversation has needed for a long time.

If you lead a team that includes receptionists, this one is required listening.

What we cover:

• The emotional toll of receptionist work and why it doesn't get named enough
• Imposter syndrome and career identity at the front desk
• What recognition actually looks like for this role versus what hospitals typically do
• The mental health dimension of client-facing work in veterinary medicine
• NAAVR, the President's Advisory Board, and what's being built for this community
• Training, certification, and the future of the receptionist role in vet med

If this resonates, share it with every hospital manager who has ever underestimated their front desk. Subscribe for more real talk on the operational and relational work of leading in veterinary medicine.

I'm Suzanne Thomas. This is Leading Veterinary Teams. Until next time, lead where you are. Even when it's uncomfortable. Especially when it's uncomfortable.

Chapters

• 00:00 The Role of Receptionists in Veterinary Medicine
• 07:51 Navigating Social Media and Work Persona
• 21:16 Recognition and Support for Receptionists
• 31:02 Supporting Receptionists in Veterinary Medicine
• 36:35 Recognizing the Emotional Labor of Receptionists
• 44:20 The Role of NAAVR and the President's Advisory Board
• 49:46 Empowerment and Recognition for Receptionists

Connect with Caitlin: @thedeskwench and @desk_wench across all platforms

Learn more about NAAVR: https://naavr.org/

Take the CLARITY Leadership Assessment (free, 14 questions)

Join the Leading Veterinary Teams Community

Get the book, From Competent to Capable: Available on Amazon in paperback, hardcover, and Kindle.

There's a distinction that most hospital leaders never make, and it's costing them constantly: being understaffed and running a model that structurally produces more work than it can sustain are not the same problem. They just feel identical from the inside.

In this episode, Suzanne breaks down what's actually driving the staffing and retention crisis in veterinary medicine, starting with the high-volume, fee-for-service model that most practices have inherited and never questioned. She gets into what lean staffing actually produces in practice (hint: it's not efficiency), why credentialed technicians are leaving even when pay isn't the issue, and what forward-thinking practices are doing differently.

You'll hear about structural models from human medicine and veterinary medicine, including Direct Primary Care, subscription-based care, VEG's people-first hospital design, and what Modern Animal built on the client communication side before the Chewy acquisition.

This is not a theoretical episode. Suzanne closes with four concrete things you can move right now, without rebuilding your entire business model.

If you're not sure whether your practice has a staffing problem or a model problem, the CLARITY Leadership Assessment was built to help you see exactly that. Fourteen questions, free, at LVT.vet.

All resources, links, and tools mentioned in this and all episodes are available here.

Find everything at the link below:

https://www.lvt.vet

stan.store/therealsuzannethomas

DISCLAIMER

A note before you listen: this episode references subscription-based care models and draws comparisons to how Direct Primary Care has been structured in human medicine. Sharing that context is not an endorsement. Suzanne is not saying subscription models are the right answer for veterinary practice. She is saying that veterinary medicine is actively looking at what human medicine has built, and that hospital leaders should understand what that looks like, why it's being considered, and what the implications are for staffing and team structure. Awareness is not advocacy. Know what's in the conversation so you can engage with it on your own terms.

What does emergency medicine teach us about leadership? More than most leadership books ever will.

In this episode of Leading Veterinary Teams On Air, Suzanne sits down with Dr. Brianna Tobin, small animal emergency veterinarian, shelter medicine advocate, birth doula, yoga practitioner, and the voice behind @emergencypetvet, to talk about what it actually takes to lead in one of the most high-stakes environments in veterinary medicine.

Brianna brings a perspective that is both clinically sharp and genuinely human. She shares how a rough internship with poor leadership shaped everything she wanted to become as a doctor, why psychological safety isn't just a nice-to-have in emergency medicine, and how trust between doctors, technicians, and assistants is the thing that holds a team together when a hit-by-car dog rolls in at 3am.

This one covers a lot of ground: the "sink or swim" myth in emergency medicine, why hierarchy is one of the most damaging things we've imported into veterinary hospitals, what real teamwork looks like in a code situation, how she navigates compassion fatigue without losing herself, and why she thinks the most important thing we can do for this profession is let people see it honestly.

She also shares why she started @emergencypetvet, what it means to lead without a title, and the one book that changed the way she thinks about meaning, resilience, and why we keep going when things get hard.

If you've ever been the person in the room who knew something was off but wasn't sure if you were allowed to say it out loud, this episode is for you.

Brianna's Book Recommendation: Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl — https://www.amazon.com/dp/0807014273

Connect with Dr. Brianna Tobin: Instagram: @emergencypetvet

Connect with Suzanne + Leading Veterinary Teams:

🐾 Join The Leading Veterinary Teams Community

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Have a topic you'd love Suzanne to cover, or want to be a guest? Submit here: http://www.lvt.vet/podcast-questions