Switching from human to animal health

Claire Lawrence

My interest in the healthcare sector started with a Saturday position in a local chemist in Scotland. I lived in Wales before moving to Dalgety Bay, near Edinburgh. After growing up in Wales, then going to school and university in Scotland, I’ve always had mixed allegiances when they play each other in the Six Nations Championship!

That first role was my initial experience in the world of human health and was the reason I trained in healthcare. I joined the Boots’ graduate scheme at the end of my time at the University of Edinburgh and carried out a variety of roles, including retail commercial management and pharmacy leadership. During the time I spent in pharmacy leadership I gained experience across many sectors, from community and care home to hospital pharmacy. My final years with Boots covered the Covid-19 pandemic, working with teams to support the vaccination programme, testing and various other initiatives, including the Devon Childhood Flu project. In all of these areas, just like the veterinary world, the patient remains at the heart of everything. 

When you’re looking at supporting a patient in human health, it’s about individual treatment, but you also often support relatives of the patient. That is no different from what we see from a veterinary perspective, as all of the pets that we care for are part of someone’s family. 

I knew there would be similarities between the human and veterinary roles when I applied to join Linnaeus at Cave Veterinary Specialists. In its simplest form, we look after patients and their owners by delivering clinical care in the best way we can. It’s not hugely different from the customer journey in human health. We do everything with a skilled team who care about what they do and, in terms of clinical focus, you have regulations, hygiene standards, rules on working in PPE and so on. 

'I am really glad that I accepted the opportunity to swap the high street for the countryside and the prescriptions for pets'

Leadership 

I previously spent some time working for Starbucks and there is a real principle behind how they look at leadership. They promote a servant leadership culture. Quite simply, you are there to serve those around you. I believe the best leaders do this effortlessly. You don’t need to look very far these days to see the promotion of a more empathetic leadership style within organisations. It is important to make sure that the teams around you have what they need. As a leader, it’s so important, more so now than ever, to be authentic, empathetic and able to coach others. These skills are no different, or shouldn’t be, in many professions. If we’re having a challenging time, it’s about being able to shift priorities. Anyone who has ever worked in human health will be able to tell you that ‘agile working’ and the ability to work around the unexpected is very much part of the everyday. It’s a constant learning journey for any leader and I’m really lucky to work again for a company with a similar culture. 

It’s the teams around you who will know the best way your veterinary practice should be heading, so for the first six weeks I spent most of my time just listening to our team here at Cave to understand what they saw as our priorities, and what we could do to make it easier for them to look after patients.

We have seen significant growth in our referral hospital through the increase in pet ownership during the Covid-19 pandemic. Our team has expanded as a result and it has never been more important to communicate effectively. It can be challenging communicating to everyone in a timely manner given the size of our team. As in large retail or pharmacy teams, the key to ensuring that everyone is included and has access to the information they need is having a supportive leadership team and ensuring we adopt creative ways of cascading our communications. 

'It has never been more important to communicate effectively'

The focus on mental health in the workplace is also really similar between human and animal health. It has always been hugely important to me that the teams I work with have the support they need. This is especially true in the veterinary profession and I am really fortunate to have a team at Cave who are trained as mental health first aiders. They provide amazing support 24/7 for our hospital. Whatever we are doing here, there is a good balance of work and play and we encourage our team to focus on their mental health alongside the careers that they are so passionate about. 

I’m now almost a year into working here at Cave as hospital director. I certainly enjoyed my time in the world of human health but am really glad that I accepted the opportunity to swap the high street for the countryside and the prescriptions for pets. Being a leader in animal health is a real privilege and we even get to bring our pets to work! I absolutely love what I do and am incredibly lucky to work with such a talented team who make such a huge difference every day to patients and their owners.

Claire's CV 

  • 1991–1993: Pharmacy assistant, independent pharmacy
  • 1992–1996: University of Edinburgh, MA(Hons) Politics & Modern History
  • 1993–2000: Boots UK
    • Graduate management programme and store manager (1996–2000)
    • Healthcare assistant (1993–1996)
  • 2000–2003: JD Wetherspoon, business development manager
  • 2003–2004: Costa Coffee, area manager
  • 2004–2013: Company director, independent business
  • 2008–2015: Starbucks
    • Franchise operations director (2012–2015)
    • Area manager (2008–2012)
  • 2015–2021: Boots UK
    • General manager (2019–2021)
    • Area manager (2015–2019)
  • 2021: Linnaeus, Cave Veterinary Specialists, hospital director

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