Silke Salava

We discuss the day and make plans for the patients we will be seeing. The rest of the day is mainly shaped by supervision of clinical tasks, discussion of incoming results with the consulting clinicians and refining plans for our patients. I often feel like I sit in the middle of a huge information network and my job is to keep all the threads together and make sure everything gets connected smoothly. The goal is to give our patients the best care from the moment they come to our Service until we can discharge them again, while our students can also learn in a safe and engaging way. I also answer advice requests from referring colleagues from all around Scotland and the rest of the UK.

I am passionate about advancing knowledge in the small animal medicine sector, and particularly interested in gastroenterology (diseases of the gut). When I am not performing clinical duties, I design, perform and analyse studies and research data with that in mind. My particular interest is chronic inflammatory gut conditions in the dog. You can read more about this here:

How did you get to where you are today? (obligatory question)

During my undergraduate studies in Germany, I wanted to become lots of different things, including a surgeon or cardiologist, but a number of brilliant lectures by our professor in Internal Medicine made me curious about this speciality. Hence, I pursued a doctoral degree in his hospital while also learning how to “think like a medic” and performing medical clinical tasks (like endoscopy). Because I loved this so much, I subsequently embarked on the journey to become a small animal medicine specialist. This involved completing a rotating internship in a small animal hospital as well as 3 years of a so called residency, where you work under the supervision of specialists and sit exams to become a European-recognised specialist yourself. During that time, I also realised that I loved the academic working environment for the ability to combine clinical work, research and teaching. Due to that, and because of a lucky coincidence meeting a great gastroenterologist during my time at the Royal Veterinary College, I was offered and subsequently completed a PhD in small animal gastroenterology. After that I worked as a junior lecturer back at my alma mater in Germany for a number of years, before coming back to the UK as a senior lecturer in Edinburgh.

How did you land your current role?

I was simply lucky to be at the right place at the right time. I was looking for an academic position that would allow me to advance my teaching skills and offer good research opportunities alongside state-of-the-art clinical care. I wanted this to be ideally in the UK, as my husband was working here, and quickly realised what a perfect place the University of Edinburgh would be. It is a great pleasure to work in the Hospital for Small Animals alongside so many passionate colleagues, and to have immediate access to collaboration with The Roslin Institute.

Was there a time you messed up and felt like you’d failed? How did you bounce back?

I’ve come to believe that working in a clinical environment, where no patient is quite like the other, mistakes are inevitable. Luckily, the vast majority of these are mistakes of thinking and interpretation, rather than mistakes that harm our patients. However, thinking that “you know it all” is a dangerous thing, and something I have been told by my very first mentor in Internal Medicine. It is good that every now and then, a particularly complicated case makes you rethink everything you know, and maybe explore entirely different solutions.

I also believe that all “medics” suffer from impostor syndrome to a certain extent, where we always feel that we could have done better for ourselves and our patients. But in fact that is probably what makes us good at our job. The veterinary profession is full of ups and downs for everybody working within it, and it helps to remember that even when you had a very bad day, that this is just part of it and there will be gloriously happy days to follow.

How did you learn to embrace risk-taking?

Certain risks are of course part of life and we negotiate them without much thinking about it. To be honest, in veterinary medicine a lot of procedures are for obvious reasons designed to avoid any unnecessary risks. However, the best way to describe how to deal with the ones that are difficult to control or unexpected in my view is to take responsibility and be prepared. If you make sure that you feel always 100% responsible for the tasks given to you and the trust put into you, and you are also prepared in the best way possible, then you can be sure you have done everything needed to keep everybody safe.

From a career point of view, I recommend taking some risks along the way. Stepping out of your comfort zone by trying something new, maybe a job that you are not entirely sure you will like or will suit you, or moving abroad, has the potential to be tremendously rewarding. The feeling of accomplishment and boost in self-confidence when you actually find that this “risk” turned out to be worth it is simply fantastic. “Thinking big” enables us all to reach our goals and dreams.

What’s the most important leadership lesson you’ve learned and how has it proven invaluable?

I believe there are three main characteristics to great leadership: being authentic, assertive and a good listener. Your own passion for what you are doing has to drive your leadership, which automatically means you will lead by example. However, being supportive and protective of your team is equally important, as loyalty has to go both ways and a leader needs to “have everybody’s back”. Finally, listening to other people, truly trying to understand how and why they might perceive things differently to yourself, and – crucially – reflecting on how this impacts back on yourself, is probably the most important lesson. Maybe this can all be summarised into one main lesson: show (com)passion!