Chapter 05: Opening a Practice and Steps into Academic Medicine
Files
Loading...
Description
In this chapter, Dr. Tinkey explains how she came to open her own veterinary practice, the Prestonwood Animal Clinic, and the lessons she learned.
She also discusses how she began to consider how there might be more she could do with a veterinary degree, leading her to take a year out for a pathology fellowship at the Baylor College of Medicine (’87 – ’88). She explains how the fellowship came about through a “cold call” to Fran Doppel, who created a position for her as Clinical Veterinarian in the research animal area. Dr. Tinkey explains the importance of specialty certification for a professional working this area and why it was not possible to obtain at that time in her life.
Identifier
TinkeyPT_01_20160531_C05
Publication Date
5-31-2016
Publisher
The Making Cancer History® Voices Oral History Collection, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Topics Covered
The Interview Subject's Story - Professional Path; Overview; Professional Path; Personal Background; The Researcher
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Disciplines
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Oncology | Oral History
Transcript
T. A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Exactly. When did you decide to open your own practice?
Peggy Tinkey, DVM:
So the next decade I guess you could say from ’83 to ’93, the next decade was really I had the theory to be a veterinarian, but I needed to learn how to be a veterinarian. So I was in practice. I was learning how to be a veterinarian. I got married again to my husband who I’m still married to.
T. A. Rosolowski, PhD:
And his name?
Peggy Tinkey, DVM:
David.
T. A. Rosolowski, PhD:
And his last name?
Peggy Tinkey, DVM:
Tinkey.
T. A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Oh, OK.
Peggy Tinkey, DVM:
Yeah. My maiden name is Taylor. Right, yeah. So we got married in 1984 and he’s a veterinarian. So I’d met him in veterinary school. And he had relocated to Houston. So we still knew each other. And so he was in practice, and I was in practice. And learning how to be a veterinarian. And really having a great time. But somewhere along the line, I really loved practice, I wouldn’t say I got bored. But it occurred to me hmm, I think there might be something else I can do here. Maybe there’s something else I can do with my veterinary degree. You spend a lot of time as a general practitioner dealing with the same things over and over. A lot of vaccines, a lot of wellness, a lot of standard surgery, castrations and spays. We call it the heartworm speech and the flea speech. Only so many times you can give the flea speech. And so I had an interest in whether I could do something else. And midway through that time, I guess probably it’d be ’87 or ’88, I actually took a year off of practice, and did a pathology fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine. And at the time I had lab animal medicine in my mind. This is where I think my father’s influence came in. I hadn’t pursued it much at all in veterinary school. But I said to myself, “I know that my dad did a lot of stuff in lab animal research, and I wonder if there’s something there for me.” So I had taken that year off and come to Baylor. And for many reasons I had decided that the elements to be a lab animal veterinarian, the learning and training I needed, wasn’t available to me. And so I got out of practice. Well, so let me back up a little. So I was thinking about that. And so I just did a lot of cold-calling. I think I cold-called here, I just hit the medical centers. So I think I just knocked on people’s doors or called them up, tried to find people’s names, and said, “Hey, I’m a veterinarian, I’m in practice, I’m looking to do something else. What do you have for me?,” kind of thing.
T. A. Rosolowski, PhD:
I was actually going to ask you how you found out about the fellowship. Just cold-called. That’s interesting.
Peggy Tinkey, DVM:
And I think I probably talked to Ken Gray here, who didn’t have anything at the time. And maybe he referred me to the veterinarian at the time at Baylor, Frances Doepel. So I just had people’s names. And anyway long story short, just serendipity that Fran Doepel, the veterinarian at Baylor, I don’t even think she had a position. She created something and said, “Hey, I could use another veterinarian, and you could come in this training thing and do this year. We’ll do a year, and then we’ll see how it goes.”
T. A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Why was she interested in doing that at that time?
Peggy Tinkey, DVM:
I think her motivation was she was the only veterinarian at Baylor at the time. Now they have a large animal care program now, just like we do. But at the time she was the only veterinarian and I really think her motivation was I need another veterinarian, and oh, here’s this person calling me, and how can I get another veterinarian here to basically just help me. Because they had a lot of animals, they just didn’t have very many veterinarians. So I think that was her motivation. And of course like I said my motivation was is there another veterinary career, is there some other career I can do with my veterinary degree that’s different from what I’m doing now. And part of the reason that I didn’t stay, at the end of the year my remembrance is Dr. Doepel was very interested in getting me to stay. I went into a training position and I was getting paid like a typical postdoc at the time. I wasn’t making a lot of money in practice, but this was a big pay cut. So it was a hit on the family. But I figured it was just paying my dues. But at the end of the year, what I had determined through that year is I had learned a lot more about lab animal medicine. I had learned a lot more about the specialty board certification for lab animal medicine and what would be required to actually be able to pass that certification exam at some point. So I had learned a lot about what you had to do to be able to be eligible to take the board specialty exam in laboratory animal medicine and some of what I thought it would take to actually pass it.
T. A. Rosolowski, PhD:
I should ask you what exactly did you do during that year. What were your roles?
Peggy Tinkey, DVM:
So even though it was called a fellowship in pathology, what I really did was function as a clinical veterinarian in the research animal program. And Fran as the director was busy doing director things all the time. So really I was the go-to veterinarian for that whole animal colony. If it was a sick mouse or rat or monkey or pig or sheep, they called me. So it was a crash course. I remember restraining sheep. The physicians when they’re over there, I’m sure they’re in their residencies or whatever. They get stuck with research projects that they don’t know how to do either. So I remember working with a couple of the residents. And they come down, they’re like, “OK, we’re going to do this and this and this. And we need some blood samples from the sheep. How do we take blood from a sheep?” So I remember restraining sheep for these guys while I was trying to explain, “Well, we’re going to take blood from the jugular vein.” “We’re what? From a sheep? Can’t I just stick it in the arm somewhere?” “No, you can’t.” So it was great, because it was a crash course. And I was consulting books and calling people, like I have no idea how to do this either, can you help me. But the flip side to that was there was really no one. Fran was great, but she was busy all the time in meetings and so forth. And so it became really really clear to me during that year that the infrastructure at Baylor to train me, to teach me what would be needed to know to pass a board certification exam just wasn’t there. I was the only other veterinarian. And this is the overachiever part of me. There are certainly veterinarians working in animal research who are not board-specialized in lab animal medicine. And they’re great. There are a lot of nonboarded veterinarians, and they’re doing a great job. But my own personal way I live my life is I have determined if I’m going to do this as a career, work with laboratory animals, then I’m going to get specialty-certified. And if I can’t get specialty-certified I’m not going to do it, because it didn’t feel right to me. I’m either going for it and getting the certification or I’m not. And so at the end of the year those two thoughts were in my mind. If I’m going to do this as a career I want to be board-certified, and there is not the infrastructure here. And so I investigated a little bit. And at that time the only laboratory animal residency program was located at Texas A&M and I couldn’t commute back and forth to A&M. So I just let that dream go and thought it was a good deal, I learned a lot in the course of this year. But that’s the other thing I think that I had learned through practice. I learned you investigate things, and you learn what you can do and you learn what you can’t do. And sometimes learning what you can’t do and making a decision based on that is just as valuable as learning what you can do. So I had assessed this is not something I can do. It’s not available to me here in Houston, not going to happen. Great, got that out of my system. I’m going to go back into practice. And now that next evolution. I’m now determined I’m going to practice for the rest of my life, so I want to own a practice. That’s what my decision is. I’ve made it now. I’m going to own a practice. So that’s what led me to owning the practice. I’d gone through that evolution.
T. A. Rosolowski, PhD:
So tell me about that.
Peggy Tinkey, DVM:
That was fun and scary too.
T. A. Rosolowski, PhD:
You were like your own businessperson.
Peggy Tinkey, DVM:
Yeah. And my husband had purchased -- when he got out of school he went to work for somebody. We got married a year or so later. And about a year after that the guy he was working for offered him the opportunity to buy that practice. And Dave being Dave, he’s very decisive. If he’s nervous you never know it. He went for it. So at least I think that gave me some confidence because he had been running his own business for four years, and we hadn’t gone broke yet. So I had him as a counselor and resource. But still and all, it was my business. And the great thing was it was my business. And I still have pictures. It was just this little spot in a strip center, there was a shingle on the door that said owner Peggy Tinkey. That was cool.
T. A. Rosolowski, PhD:
What was the name of your practice?
Peggy Tinkey, DVM:
Prestonwood Animal Clinic.
T. A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Why did you choose that name?
Peggy Tinkey, DVM:
The practice had been established for about a year or two when I bought it. And that was the name of the practice. And it was located right outside Prestonwood Subdivision, so that made sense.
T. A. Rosolowski, PhD:
So talk about your learning curve and what you took away from that.
Peggy Tinkey, DVM:
Well, golly, there were so many things. I’m probably starting with some of the trivial things first to tell you the truth. But one of the things that I took away from that that affects me here, I think people get exasperated with me here at MD Anderson from time to time, or get tired of me because I get a little preachy. When you’re in a sole proprietorship business, if you don’t work you don’t get paid. There is not such a thing as PTO or extended illness bank. If you’re not working, you are not getting paid. And when I came to MD Anderson, some of the benefits that we get here as employees, even now after all 20 years, that’s what people get tired of. I’m like, “If you’re a little disgruntled today, go work in your own business. You will come running back here like oh my God, I can’t believe I get PTO, because I can take off and I’m still getting paid.” So there were many things. Like I said, it’s great to be your own boss. And it’s hard to be your own boss. Because it’s just you. And everybody that I employed depended on me. I was it. The only reason someone comes to a veterinary clinic is to see the veterinarian. But it was fun. It was small. It was fun. I think I did a great job building the business. The business is still thriving today. My brother owns the business.
T. A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Oh, really.
Peggy Tinkey, DVM:
Yeah. And he’s taken it to tremendous heights. I wish I could show you some pictures of what it was and what it is. Now it’s a freestanding clinic on zoned ground that’s just a couple blocks away from the original location. And it’s beautiful. It’s a four-man veterinary practice now. Yeah, it’s just wonderful.
T. A. Rosolowski, PhD:
You laid the groundwork.
Peggy Tinkey, DVM:
I think I did, yeah. So it was fun. But I was working six days a week. Shortly after I opened that business -- my sense of timing is just epic -- my daughter was born.
T. A. Rosolowski, PhD:
And her name?
Peggy Tinkey, DVM:
Katherine.
T. A. Rosolowski, PhD:
K or C?
Peggy Tinkey, DVM:
K. K-A-T-H-E-R-I-N-E. And I’ll have to pause here and tell you that this Saturday Dave and I will watch her graduate from medical school.
T. A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Really. Wow. Congratulations on that.
Peggy Tinkey, DVM:
Thank you.
T. A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Passing on the tradition in a way. Wonderful.
Peggy Tinkey, DVM:
In a way. Yeah. So I was working six days a week. Like I said, you can’t really take many sick days or anything when you’re there on your own. Had a small child. Had a wonderful wonderful lady who lived close by who practically raised her for the first three years. But still and all, it was still a daycare situation. And so it was in about 1993 when my daughter was 3 and my son was 13 and Dave was very busy in his practice and I was very busy in my practice. And things were good but things were really tough. They really were tough because not only did I have my Monday through Friday daycare, I was telling somebody else. Maybe it still is. That was in the day where my Saturday option was this list of teenage babysitters. I was just frantic every week. Oh, man, if Jody cancels then I have to get Mikey, and if Mikey cancels, then I have to get Susan. So I had a lot of balls in the air.
Recommended Citation
Tinkey, Peggy T. DVM and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 05: Opening a Practice and Steps into Academic Medicine" (2016). Interview Chapters. 1225.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/1225
Conditions Governing Access
Open
