Jaime Pickett has spent her career not only delivering advanced medical care for animals, but also making an impact on the veterinary field. Pickett's career spans more than 20 years of ownership, leadership of franchises, medical consulting, and executive roles. At the center, is a simple mission: help pet owners understand their pets better and help veterinarians to practice with transparency.
As a clinician and as an executive consultant, Pickett understands the power of information. She believes in a practice of mentorship, strategy, and compassion in communication. Even while building a dozen hospitals or coaching start-ups on medical products, she stays firmly rooted in her experience, whether in the examination room or with the relationships between the pet owner and their veterinary team.
Educating Pet Owners as A Way to Gain Trust
One way Pickett builds trust with families is through education. Pickett does not advocate for overloading the client with jargon or being all “medical” about making a plan. "I think it’s important to stop, slow down, and explain ‘what’s going on’... and ‘this is why that is happening’," she explains.“ Whether it is in a bug-eyed, high-stakes emergency or during a routine examination, I want the pet owner to feel like they can leave our no-waiting room confident in the next step post-visit.”
Pickett remembers a tense moment when a dog was presented to her for acute respiratory distress. The medical team was acting quickly. The family was understandably afraid.In this situation, her responsibilities consisted of two elements: clearly directing her team and calmly walking pet owners through each of these high-stress steps. That moment reinforced her view that leading means decreasing fear. Whether that be for the team, or for the families who place their trust in a clinic.
Clarity and Structure in a High-Demand Profession
Veterinary medicine is known to be simultaneously emotionally demanding and fast-paced. Pickett leads her team with a mixture of preparation, discipline, and collaboration. While she uses evidence-based practice to decrease ambiguity, she relies on structure in high-stress situations. She also proactively attends to her own physical wellness, which builds resilience over time.
Most importantly, she has had a hand in cultivating clinic cultures with colleagues who have the opportunity to discuss and speak about difficult cases after the fact. To Pickett, mental resilience is not about holding emotion in. Mental resilience is about being able to respond thoughtfully and deliberately when responding with a clear head,informed tools no less. Jaime Pickett believes that veterinary teams require as much care as their patients!
Unpacking Stereotypes of Veterinarians
Part of educating the public is dismantling old or inaccurate stereotypes of veterinary professionals. For example, Pickett often fields opinions in the media that say her profession must be entirely about playing with pets. In reality, veterinarians are performing problem solving, surgical interventions, business management, and of course, communication, and supporting families through periods of loss, intrusive and complex decisions, and coordination to bring care to an ever-wider array of animal species.
Moreover, the misconception that veterinary medicine is somehow less intense than human healthcare professions, is quite to the contrary. Veterinary professionals deal with often far more complexity with less resources and certainty.They are assumed to have knowledge across species and to weigh medical care with economic circumstances. Pickett is working to change this narrative by discussing the science, accountability, and leadership that is required of veterinary roles.
Mentorship and Development Between Generations
Mentorship is an important part of Pickett's leadership framework. She credits her mentors with encouraging her early in her veterinary career to step into leadership roles. These mentors helped her understand that veterinary medicine takes more than clinical skill; It also required communication, humility, and a willingness to think of the long game.
Today, she pays it forward through mentorship of her own. Pickett provides opportunities for younger veterinarians to take responsibility and learn by experience. She also instructs them on trust, with all clients and teams. One thing that was formative for Pickett early on in her career was that a senior doctor took the time to pull her aside, not to talk about what medical steps she would take, but to give her feedback on how she communicated with a client. This lesson and feedback lingered with her and she consistently uses this as a mentoring moment.
Linking Clinical Experience with Executive Leadership
Jaime Pickett over the years has held multiple executive roles including as Chief Executive Officer of Hannah Pet Hospitals, and Chief Medical Officer at Pet Paradise and New Day Veterinary Care. These multiple executive experiences have influenced her leadership style and how she envisions the future of veterinary medicine.
Within her executive roles, she focused on organizational systems and increasing access care. She played a crucial role in guiding strategic initiatives, developing successful medical teams, and ensuring ongoing excellence in practices across multiple hospitals. However, she never detached from the clinical side of the profession, and all of her decisions related to leadership took into account the most likely benefit to the patients, pet owners, and clinicians providing the frontline veterinary services.
Pickett now works directly with medical device companies to help them incorporate a variety of tools into veterinary clinics. Her leadership style considers both medical accuracy and clinical, business planning, while always looking for new ways to optimize patient outcomes, while acknowledging and supporting the limitations and responsibilities of veterinary teams.
Challenges Facing the Veterinary and Animal Health Sector Today
Pickett has identified a few key trends that she sees as potentially impacting the future state of animal health. One of the biggest challenges, in her opinion, is workforce burnout. A lot of really talented people leave animal health, clinical or not, because they became emotionally exhausted in practice, or those they worked for tended to operate in under-resourced clinics. There are solutions, she believes, in the forms of mentorship, flexible scheduling, and less traditional role paths.
Access to care is another issue. With mounting costs and provider shortages, many pet owners are simply unable to access care, especially when in distress. Pickett supports alternate practice models in urgent/emergency, telehealth, and recurring wellness fees to ensure all pets can receive timely care.
Finally, with an ever-evolving array of tools and treatment options, the profession must ensure that new processes are supported. Pickett is task focused on supporting the staff to minimize poor change implementation, to improve efficiency rather than adding stress.
Building Trust through Digital Engagement
In the online world, Pickett knows that a person's reputation is formed long before a family walks in their door. A website and an online review are often the first interaction a pet owner has with a veterinary provider. This means that an online presence is not just a marketing play; it is part of patient care.
Being proactive with digital content allows for the correction of misinformation, reassurance for families, and a place for veterinary leaders to participate in the conversation as trusted voices. Jaime Pickett encourages her colleagues to find ways to digitally engage that are reflective of their values and expertise. Transparency and education should be foundational components that lead to lasting sustainable relationships with clients.
A Technician’s Advice for New Graduates and Students
Pickett offers practical advice to students and new graduates. First, remember that this profession is a marathon, not a sprint. It will be hard, but it will also bring you some of the most rewarding experiences of your life. Trust the process.
Second, find mentors and do not be afraid to ask questions. Pickett believes the best veterinarians are students of the profession. Nobody is expecting you to be perfect. Instead, they are expecting you to grow.
Third, take care of yourself. Burnout can be mitigated by developing healthy habits, supportive relationships, and having perspective. Your ability to care for others is only as strong as your ability to care for yourself.
Most importantly, stay open. The profession is going to keep changing. The veterinarians and technicians who are adaptable and collaborative will steer the path for the next generation of veterinary care.
Why Jaime Pickett is a Trusted Voice
As a thought leader in veterinary medicine, Jaime Pickett DVM continues to advocate for the user experience between veterinarians and the people they serve. Having a unique background in clinical care and executive leadership allows Pickett to take a clear perspective on what truly matters: education, access, and compassion.
The search term "Jaime Pickett” appears to be trending on Google, highlighting an increase in her professional presence and branding as both a veterinarian and thought leader. In an age of continued requests for transparency from pet owners and requests for guidance from veterinary professionals, Pickett’s message is timely and timeless.
By firmly establishing herself as an outstanding clinician and lifting others up in a mentorship relationship, Jaime Pickett is helping to shape the future of veterinary care, not just for pets, but also for the people who love them.
