Why Choose VetRoam to Manage Your Relief Bookings?
In my last blog post, I talked about some of the pros and cons of becoming a relief veterinarian. Now, if you’re really thinking about shifting your career towards relief work, the next question is going to be - How? You want to start scheduling some shifts, but how do you get started? Luckily, today there is a lot of demand for relief veterinarians so the actual task of finding work isn’t that hard. I personally think you’ll find success with whichever route you want to take. But there are lots of different ways to book shifts and manage your calendar, this blog post will break it down.
Old School
Being a relief veterinarian is not a new thing, vets have been doing it for quite a while now. It just happens to have shot up in popularity lately. But the old school methods of booking relief shifts still work perfectly fine. Right now there is such a demand for relief veterinarians that you can literally just start calling or walking into hospitals with your business card/resume and you’ll find yourself booked up in no time! With email and text messaging, you can easily manage your entire relief schedule. Actually, a lot of full time relief veterinarians still do it exactly like this, and that’s perfectly fine. The biggest benefit with this method is complete autonomy, and no need for a third party. However, whether you’re just looking into relief or are already full-time, keep reading. I’ll try to show you how VetRoam can simplify and help you secure more and better bookings.
Modern Options
In the past few years, quite a few new online platforms have come out to help modernize how relief veterinarians are scheduled. If you’re reading this blog, I’m sure you’re already somewhat familiar with a few of them. Basically, they work as an online match making service to help hospitals fill relief shifts. Now with hospitals and vets on the same platform, the hassle of the old school method of reaching out to individual hospitals to book relief is alleviated. And there is less back and forth texts/emails between vets and hospitals trying to make arrangements for a shift. Everything can be managed online, including your profile, schedule, and payments. Some relief platforms even offer health benefits (though that comes at a cost of lost autonomy, i.e. minimum shifts). With these platforms, you no longer have to collect individual checks from different clinics, payments are all digital and delivered quickly. Another huge benefit is cutting down on the number of end of year 1099 tax forms. Let’s say you work with 10 clinics last year - you’re going to have to collect and file ten 1099 tax forms. With online platforms (at least VetRoam), it’s just one end of year 1099 summary.
VetRoam
So then why would you choose VetRoam? First of all, VetRoam was founded, built and is run solely by a veterinarian who actually uses the platform and works as a full-time relief veterinarian. VetRoam was designed with the veterinarian first in mind.
I designed VetRoam to take advantage of the fact that veterinarians are in high demand. With VetRoam, hospitals have to compete with each other and submit the highest Shift Offer to book a relief shift with a veterinarian.
Don’t forget hidden costs. When other platforms advertise as being free for veterinarians - yes that might be true but keep in mind other platforms can charge the hospital upwards of 20% of your shift fee. So that $1000 shift you did actually cost the hospital $1200 - perhaps you could have got a higher shift offer without so many fees? VetRoam has the lowest hospital fees - again it is run by just me so your shift fee isn’t going to paying corporate salaries and offices.
Now What?
Like I said earlier - I believe anyone that chooses to go into relief, no matter which of the above paths they choose to take, will find success and hopefully a better quality of life. I was a full time associate veterinarian for seven years, started full time relief last year and don’t anticipate going back to being an associate anytime soon.
If anyone has questions, feel free to contact me. And sign up for VetRoam! Even if you’re not ready to make the full time switch, you should definitely test the waters with a shift or two.
