I would hazard a guess that some of the pushback for techs becoming more involved is that a fair few of them end up feeling like they know what’s best anyway and get what I feel is a bit of an ego. I’m pretty well acquainted with a few and have heard from others online and I’ve yet to meet one that takes their animals to the vet after tech-ing because, “I know how to do everything, why bother?” and, “I know as much as the vet does, I’m not paying them.”
No offense to what I am sure is the majority of techs who are perfectly great and don’t feel that way, but it’s a definite vibe out there.
I’m trying to find the words to say this without sounding disrespectful to vets…
…but in some cases, this is partially true. I don’t mean this in an anti-vet way. Obviously, the education vets receive far surpasses anything a tech may have.
But when it comes to practical skills, depending on the circumstance, a lot of techs are doing more direct animal interaction than the vets. A tech with decades of experience in a job where they are working closely alongside the vet and handling most of the work probably knows more in terms of practical skills than a recent veterinary graduate with an intense education but limited hands-on experience.
One of the greatest challenges with the entire veterinary technician field is the incredible variability in education and experience. Depending on what state you are in, you may be able to call yourself a “veterinary technician” with zero experience. In other states, you have to complete an education program and sit for the AVMA boards. The field also attracts all kinds of kinds. Because it requires less rigorous education, you get a mix of intelligent people who are a good match for the field and people who pursue the career because they love animals can’t handle the rigor of some other educational programs. And because state licensure is so variable, some of those latter people aren’t easily weeded out of the career. However, I feel like you can address this problem with the mid-level practitioner admissions requirements.
I know vets who would promote their good techs to “practitioner” in a heartbeat if they could. But I also know vets who have so many bad techs that they could never get behind something like this.
I also think it’s important not to devalue vets and the unbelievable wealth of knowledge they have from their rigorous education. A tech and a vet are not the same in terms of their education. I feel like a lot of vets get angry when it is implied they are even close to the same level, and rightly so. But my gosh, if we had a pathway to streamline the good techs into being able to assist with the veterinary shortage, it would be a win-win for everyone.
A couple weeks ago I went for a PA appointment at the hospital and it turned out to be…a former vet tech. He sent me down to the lab for blood and my phlebotomist happened to be…a former vet tech
Right? Attrition is insane. Especially when you are making barely over minimum wage while maintaining an unbelievable skill set.
But I know quite a few “career” veterinary techs who have been in the field their entire adult lives and retired from it. It’s not the norm, but there are a lot of people who manage to persist. This is especially true if they find a position with good benefits, like through a university.
A vet I hadn’t used before came to the barn for an emergency (thank you doc!), her daughter was acting as the tech until she made it through vet school. The vet joked that then they’d switch places.
I work in human healthcare (cardiac sonographer) and it bothers me how many human nurses give off this vibe as well. I might be able to start in IV or take better ultrasound pictures than the cardiologists that I work with, but dang everything else they’re in a totally different league. I have so much respect for them, I can’t even imagine putting myself up an a pedestal beside them.
In my area regular care for small and large animal is pretty reasonable. Emergency care for small animal is only available through the ER in the nearby city (45 minutes away). Luckily I haven’t had to use them. Emergency care for large animal is available from an old school nearby vet or through the mixed practice down the road from me. It wouldn’t surprise me though if that becomes an issue over the next decade.
SO and I’s parents, siblings, etc still live in our hometown which is just over an hour north of us. There are couple small animal clinics, several of the vets are in their sixties though. There is no after hours or weekend care. Anyone from that area is required to drive 1-2 hours south to get to the above mentioned ER clinic. There hasn’t been a large animal vet in that immediate area for over 10 years. There’s one about an hour east that my mom used. Last year my mom decided that it was getting to risky though. She was stressing about having an old gelding colic or go down and be forced with having to make the decision of trying to get the horse on a trailer to haul somewhere, wait hours and hours for the vet, or euthanize by herself. Thus, my parents sold the farm and her old gelding is boarded with my trainer.
Maybe they can afford to pay a living wage. I know in my area they make bare minimum and often no benefits either. You have to move to the bigger cities with emergency vets to make more.
My friend tried to get me to do the college vet tech program with her years ago and I just couldn’t swing it between driving time and classes and studying and my full-time job and I’m very glad I didn’t try. She graduated and worked a couple years and then never went back.
I fully agree. My argument for mid-level techs is mainly because how many times are vet appointments just for things like you describe: imaging, pushing meds, taking samples, running basic lab work, etc. Like do you really need to see a veterinarian for a rabies shot? A well trained nurse is just as capable of autonomously assessing the health of the animal and administering the meds.
Heck, most of the time I worked as a veterinary nurse, that’s what was happening. It was like going to the dentist— I’d take the history and do the basic exam, administer the vaccines (like how a hygienist does all your routine dental work) and the vet would pop their head in to say, “looks good, any questions?” No, I’m not on the same level as that vet, not even remotely, but I don’t feel like the patient was at any more risk whether or not the vet was present for that part.
I was using a multi species practice until they fired the equine vet. The equine vet was old school and used to sending people bills and the practice wants instant payment and didn’t like to schedule farm calls. Since the practice had my credit card on file and the money was gone from my account before I left the building I had no idea it was an issue and seemed to be more of a old school vet vs new practice issue. Ironically they still do cattle.
I do have to get my flea meds from an alternative source, they won’t give flea meds unless the pet has been seen every 6 months and my barn cats are not exactly easy to catch ( I can drip flea meds while they eat). I had to take a day off and schedule the spay appointments with someone else as well because they wanted a “intro appointment” and then a “wellness visit” then the spay, then a follow up appointment.
The Colorado program is a master’s degree, with relatively little hands on–
3 semesters are online, 1 is hands on skills training, and there is a semester “internship” at the end.
The prerequisite requires a bachelors’ degree in any field, along with some standard prerequisite courses (chem, math, biology, etc.) most of which may be taken online.
There is a requirement for 150 hours of paid or volunteer work “in the verterinary field”.
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I’ve been a tech, a pacticing veterinarian, and now teach in a vet tech program, and I am entirely unimpressed with this idea.
Keep in mind that anyone coming out of this program is still an entry level practitioner.
I’d feel better with a good skilled long-term CVT/LVT handling my animals.
Depending upon the state, CVTs can perform a wide range of tasks, from placing IV lines to taking rads to running anesthesia, etc.
There are also specialty certifications for techs now–I work with one who has her specialty certification in emergency and critical care. It’s rigorous enough to qualify that there are only about 500 of them total.
That’s the paraprofessional I want in the room if my dog crashes.
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There has been lots of discussion here about pricing of services and salaries for veterinary professionals.
We lose vet techs to a signficant extent because we don’t/can’t pay them what they’re worth, and a CVT degree is typically an AS.
Here we have grad of a 6- year program at the masters level who is going to want/need more than a tech, but is not a DVM, so the income is going to fall somewhere between bad and worse.
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Also, unless it has changed since the last time I checked on it, these folks need to be practicing under the umbrella of a licensed DVM.
I can’t imagine being asked to hold the liability bag for somebody who is off doing things without my supervision.
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As I’ve said before, I wish I had the answer to the crisis (well, funding education adequately vs. using $$ as a club to squash academic freedom would be a start), but this ain’t it.
(edited to fix numerous typos)
Yes.
And that’s not because of lobbying from the AVMA.
It’s from the public health folks.
Because they want assurance that the vaccine was handled and administered properly by someone who was able to assess that the animal being vaccinated was an appropriate candidate for vaccination at the time.
And the easiest way to do that is mandate a DVM do it.
It has always struck me as weird that even if I’m standing in the same room, having performed a PE on that animal and supervising the tech, that they cannot “legally” give the rabies vaccine.
I appreciate your feedback and I agree that the CO concept was fundamentally flawed.
I tend to think something like a CRNA or NP type pathway would be appropriate— where you already are licensed with work experience under your licensure before you can even be considered for admission.
Do you not think something like your program could adapt into a mid-level professional?
The vet clinic that is closing in the original post is semi-local to me and I’ve used another one of their clinics to do both of the TPLO surgeries that my Cane Corso had. They are a fabulous place. Are they a little pricey? Yes but they’re a big emergency clinic in an expensive area so I would expect that
I hate how much malice and entitlement there seems to be towards small animal vets and what they charge. So many people who seem to think that vets should do things for free or pennies just because. I love my dog vet and it’s sad that she always seems to be walking on egg shells, apologizing for how much things cost etc,
I agree.
The small animal and horse practices that I use (two totally separate places/practices) are both not the cheapest place around, but I feel both are worth it.
They have also (both places) not charged me for things at times, likely because I am a long term client and they realize I am doing the best I can.
I have never asked for a discount.
I previously taught at a school that had both a 2 year and a 4 year vet tech degree, and I enjoyed that because I was able to teach some more advanced material to the 4 year students, but realistically, the financial aspect of doing 4 years was a lousy ROI.
Many of the 4 year students were looking towards applying to vet school, though.
We had a 4 year prevet program that originally had the vet tech AS embedded in it, which gave the ones who decided not to go on or who didn’t get in some marketable skills.
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I do think something similar to the human nursing field might be the way to go–an ascending scale of duties/knowledge/expertise like CNA, LPN, RN, NP, but since we can’t even get nationwide licensure of CVTs, that’s a whole mountain range to scale.
But yeah, I think something akin to a veterinary nurse practitioner would be cool.
Apparently not.
Then again, I’m always bemused at how superficial a physical exam by many MDs is compared to the PE that was beaten into me in school.
I guess it’s because the MD assumes the patient will say something hurts, or they found a small lesion, or whatever.
I guess I always took vet availability for granted where I grew up and had multiple equine options. Now I am in an area where the only emergency vet option is to haul in to the vet school 2 hours away, and there is only one single practice (was one vet, now his son as well) that will even do farm calls to my area (which is very rural /ag heavy so plenty of livestock) and they are very much farm/livestock vets and not equine specialists by any means. I am very grateful to have them as an option and maintain a relationship with them (even if it means having to be lectured that my horse’s perioples were “from him getting really sick and hooves not growing”…finally just had to agree that my horse who lives in my backyard and gets hours of attention each day must have developed a serious and unnoticed illness causing symmetrical event lines on all four hooves…even better part was that he kept gesturing his tech over to teach her “what they were”…).
I was in there on a Saturday to pick up a cat (who got neutered, vaccinated, treated for fleas/worms, and held for monitoring for a day all for $120), and the phone literally did not stop ringing. It does not seem sustainable to me and I cannot even imagine the stress for the vets and the techs.
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