Vet Tech Life

I read an NAVTA article suggesting that the veterinary field isn’t short on technicians; rather, technicians are not staying in the field. Recent studies show that a newly licensed technician typically leaves the field after five years.  The program for becoming a licensed technician is a two-year program. So after two years of schooling, paying tuition, acquiring student loans and studying to pass the VTNE, why are these technicians becoming so disenchanted with the field?

 

At a recent meeting with members of my states’ technician association, I asked them what their thoughts were. There were several consistent answers. To many of us, none of these answers are a big surprise. Sadly, they should be. None of these answers should be the norm.

1. Under utilization is a definite factor.

When doctors are performing tasks that a technician went to school for, it creates a culture of control. We can do it. We need you doctors to let us. Whether a doctor is pulling lab samples, taking radiographs or performing basic microscope work, it is making technicians feel like they aren’t trusted to do these tasks.

 

We fought hard for our education, we beg of you to let us use it. We want to grow, learn and challenge ourselves.  We want you to trust our abilities to perform our technical skills and educate clients. While we may not feel challenged in our clinics we have avenues to further our education.

 

Continuing education or working to one of the many veterinary technician specialties is something to consider. Do not underestimate your ability to teach others. Teach and mentor your coworkers. It’s not always about what we do but about what we know and how we share it with others.

2. Wages are another huge contributor.

We all knew that going into veterinary medicine we wouldn’t spend our time off taking lavish vacations to the Bahamas. We knew that we wouldn’t be making a ton of money. But when we work overtime and we still don’t have enough to cover rent, child care and the basics of living, it is a tough pill to swallow. At one point in my career, I became a divorced parent.

 

I was extremely blessed to be fortunate enough to have my parents help out with watching my toddler. Even still, I could barely afford to pay for a basic 2 bedroom apartment. There were nights I fed my son dinner and I went to bed hungry knowing that leftovers could give him dinner for the next 2 days. I DO NOT want anyone to feel sorry for me.

 

I struggled, but I made it through. But as professionals, at a minimum we should be able to provide a roof over our heads and food in our stomachs. Low wages are not always the fault of the employer. In some areas it’s just not feasible to for a clinic to provide more than they can give. We are our own advocates. We have to work hard to ask for reviews and ask for wage increases. We also have to be brave enough to venture out and see if there are clinics that can appropriately compensate us.

3. Compassion fatigue is prevalent in this field.

We see a lot of sad cases and sad outcomes. We see atrocities that no one outside of veterinary medicine can comprehend.  Many of us have difficulty leaving these things at the door. I know many of us lay in bed at night and think of the cases that haunt us. One of the most difficult cases I had seen was when a Good Samaritan brought in a cat they found in a ditch. Bless them wherever they are.

 

This cat should not have been alive. It was severely dehydrated and suffered from major degloving wounds. Its entire abdominal cavity was crawling with maggots and it was purring. 10 years later, I still remember this cat kneading and purring during its exam. There are things we see in this profession that hurt us deep into our souls.

 

We deal with these images the best we can, but sometimes it just hurts too much.  When it begins to seem like we are seeing more sad cases then happy ones, we need to remember the good things. We need to remember the amount of patients who walk out our doors as opposed to the ones who don’t. We need to focus on the ones we have helped and not the ones we have lost.

4. Toxic environments and team members play a factor.

I run a group online for veterinary support staff. I hear very frequently stories of bullying in the clinic, doctors who yell and throw things at staff, or team members actively sabotaging co workers. In veterinary medicine there are a variety of strong personalities.

 

It’s what has made us strong advocates in the field. But when aggressive and toxic behavior is allowed in the clinic, every one suffers. It chips away at self esteem and motivation. It chips away at peoples self worth. No one should ever wake up and dread going to work.

 

Toxicity is contagious and will drag others down into its depths or chase away good, hard working team mates.  No one deserves to be disrespected on a daily basis. No one deserves to be disrespected. Ever. No job is worth the loss of your self esteem or your happiness.

 

As veterinary medicine continues to evolve, I am pleased to see we are broaching some uncomfortable discussions. There is no magic answer to eradicate these issues but as a field we need to try. We need to strive to let our technicians excel at their chosen profession. It is a choice. Make us want to stay. Wage increases are not something that is immediately feasible for all clinics. But a reasonable wage based on a state demographic is a start.

• We need to take care of our people.
• We as technicians need to not allow ourselves to settle or become doormats.
• We need to set boundaries and practice self care.

 

If you experience a tough day at the clinic, acknowledge it. Work through it. Try to talk about it. We can’t keep bottling up our emotions and expecting our compassion and caring to remain intact.

As a profession, we need to not allow staff members to berate, sabotage or bully colleagues.  As coworkers, we need to stick up for staff members when we see someone attacking them. As humans, we need to quit tolerating bad behavior at work.  We all deserve respect, from the doctor to the kennel attendant. So as we begin talking about these things, I remind you that talk is cheap. It’s time to take action.

 

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the DrAndyRoark.com editorial team.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jade is a licensed technician of 9 years who lives in Port Orchard, Washington. She enjoys emergency and critical cases, dentistry and creating a bond with her clients and team. During her off time she is busy keeping up with her two crazy Basenjis!

Vet Tech Week is a time to acknowledge and show that you appreciate us. We don’t always need pizza or fancy gifts to make us feel like we are appreciated. Sometimes just acknowledging the work we do and that we are part of what makes your clinic great is enough. We want to feel valued and there is no dollar sign attached to that.

 1. Teach Us Something

One of the best parts of working in this field is the ability to learn something new daily! For many of us, we have been through schooling but we truly don’t want our education to be over. We want to learn from our veterinarians and we look up to you. In between booked appointments and returning client phone calls, doctors don’t have much time to share their vast knowledge. Please make the time even if it is only for a few minutes. Discuss a complicated disease process with us. Tell us how a medication affects the body. Show us a cool veterinary journal or an interesting slide on the microscope. We will listen! We want to learn and we look to you to teach us.

 2. Promote Us To Your Clients

A lot of times clients and the general public don’t understand what a veterinary technician’s job entails.  Tell them! We are a team that functions as a unit to provide quality care to patients and clients. Technicians are collecting and running lab samples, monitoring anesthesia and providing quality nursing care to severely ill patients. We are taking radiographs, filling prescriptions, and doing dental procedures.  On occasion it can feel like we are just doing job duties and clients don’t have the opportunity to see how hard we work for them. We count on you to help educate the public on how hard we work for them and you! Tell clients who we are and what we do.

 3. Say Thank You

Whether you say it out loud or write a quick “thank you” note, it means the world to us. We are people pleasers at heart and sometimes just hearing you say “thank you” can turn the crappiest of days around.  You may know techs that have collections of unusual things. Some of us have collections of teeth, bladder stones, or other veterinary oddities. (Is it just me?) We like to save things. I personally have a collection of birthday cards, work anniversary cards and nice notes from doctors in the clinic. On bad days, I look at those to know that you guys care. As technicians we took an unspoken oath to protect you from vicious Chihuahuas, ferocious felines and overbearing clients. It’s our duty but it is always wonderful to hear “thank you.”

 4. Listen To Us

How many of you know your techs pets by name? Do you know if they have a family or what they do when they are not in the clinic? How long have they been a tech? By no means am I saying work should be a social event where we discuss our weekend at the bar, but knowing who your techs are outside of in the clinic can key into what they find important. It can make us feel important. Also if we come to you with a concern with a patient, please don’t dismiss us. One of the ways to keep anyone happy is to make them feel like what they are saying is being heard.

 5. Empower Us

None of us want to feel like just another cog in the wheel. We all want to feel like what we do every day matters.  Encourage us to discuss a new protocol or medication. Ask us our input on an involved case. When techs feel like they have input on the medicine we practice and the clinic we work at, we feel like we matter. What we are suggesting may work well for the clinic. Maybe it won’t. We should always encourage each other to improve patient care and the growth of the clinic.

If you even do a couple of these small things, not just on vet tech week, many of us will continue to work happily for you. We will jump in front of the anal gland expression gone wrong for you. We will take a message from a client when we know you are 20 minutes behind on appointments. We will happily retake that radiograph for you for the third time. Above all we will continue to look up to you and trust you.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the DrAndyRoark.com editorial team.

This week, while over a bandage change or an extruded dog penis or placing a purse string in a dog’s rectum (hard to remember exactly what I was doing, but some veterinarian-related group activity), a few technicians were trying to describe one of the surgeons I work with. The description was not particularly flattering. I asked them how they describe me when I am not around (Why????!!!!!????) and my technician (who I love) looked at me plainly and bluntly said, “Well, some people say that you are a bit of a Diva, but I just figure that you just know what you like and how you like it.”

For some reason, I was instantly offended.

Let’s unpack that a bit.

di·va ˈdēvə/
[C19: via Italian from Latin: a goddess, from dīvus divine]
noun
1. a famous female opera singer or a famous female singer of popular music.

I don’t think that this is the definition that was intended for me, although I still have not given up on my dreams of a folk singing career. I just need to learn to sing and play the guitar.

2. a woman regarded as temperamental or haughty who demands that attention be paid to her needs, especially without regard to anyone else’s needs or feelings.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that calling a female surgeon a Diva is not a compliment and it is laced with sexism. I think that is what hurt me. There is no male equivalent to the word Diva. A male surgeon who wants things the way he wants it and who wants his needs attended to is also called a surgeon. However, most surgeons, male or female, want things a certain way because ultimately, they are responsible for the patient and everything that happens to them in the OR. Yes, I am particular about my patients and I am not going to apologize for that.

3. a famous and successful woman who is very attractive and fashionable; especially : an attractive and successful female performer or celebrity

Now here is a definition that I can get behind! Maybe that is what they (whoever they are) meant when they called me a Diva. I’m sure it is. If you are not sure if someone is trying to insult you or complement you, turn it into a complement. There is nothing sweeter than being too obtuse to have an insult stick. So, I have decided to celebrate my Diva-ness. In fact, I am going to turn up the volume on being a Diva.

The term Diva has been appropriated and women need to take it back and redefine it in a positive way. But this time, instead of Diva referring to an opera star, it can just refer to any woman who rocks in her workplace, her aria is her success is her aria.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the DrAndyRoark.com editorial team.

I met a young technician once who was at the end of her rope at work: “I work with three doctors, and they’re out of control!” she said, desperate to get some advice. “They hate each other and now they refuse to work together. They won’t even take phone calls from clients who aren’t ‘theirs.’”

“Have you talked about this with the practice owner?” I asked.

“YES!” she said. “He doesn’t want to hear it. Any time someone brings up the trouble among the doctors, he either starts yelling at us or he gets in his car and leaves.”

He leaves? Where does he go? Does he take his phone? (And does he have a suntan when he gets back?) How long is he gone?

“Sometimes he doesn’t come back until the next day,” she said.

I was standing there trying to imagine what it must be like to work in an environment where personal animosities have gotten so disruptive when the technician asked me: “So — what can I do?”

Part of me wanted to say, “You can do this!” and get her fired up to make changes in her practice. After all, I was sure there were some steps she could take to try to make things better. In the past, I probably would have focused exclusively on those options. But I don’t do that any more.

Instead I asked: “Why haven’t you quit?”

 

Harrington Up the Middle

When I was a kid, I occasionally found myself participating in ill-advised, non-parent-approved activities like padless,
helmetless tackle football. On one such occasion, my team included Mike Harrington*, the most obnoxious, perhaps least-liked kid in our entire neighborhood. During the game, the opposing team made it clear that they would very much like my team to hand the football to our unfortunately irritating colleague and send him straight up the field into their midst. So we did. Again and again.

We’d huddle up and someone would say, “You know what’s worked well so far? Harrington up the middle.” Everyone (except Harrington) would agree, clap our hands in unison, and off we’d go. Again and again, the outcome was the same. Harrington got clobbered. Every. Single. Time.

I’m not proud that I participated in this, and I’m grateful in retrospect that Harrington didn’t get significantly injured. I wish I could go back and intervene on behalf of this poor kid, but I was simply too immature and worried about fitting in. I still look back and feel guilty.

But I learned a few lessons from that situation. The relevant one here is: sometimes the deck is so stacked against you that you simply are not going to break through. When that’s the case, the more times you grab the ball and charge right up the middle, the more times you are going to get punished.

The same can be true in our jobs. Some situations probably just aren’t going to get better. In some scenarios, trying to be a hero will only get you ground down. That’s why the goal in life should never be to overcome all obstacles, but rather to recognize which obstacles should be overcome, and which ones you should just turn and walk away from.

You Have Options

Please know that I did not jump to tell this technician that she needed to quit her job. I simply wanted to know why she had not done so already, because she seemed truly miserable. She told me she hadn’t left yet because she had wonderful hours and the pay was quite good.

It’s fantastic to have a “can-do” attitude. I pride myself on having that mentality and generally being a glass-half-full kind of guy. Sometimes, however, we need to remember that we have more options than just “can-do.”

Here are three choices we all have:

• Work to improve your position – The technician and I discussed a variety of techniques and approaches for improving morale, creating personal boundaries, and trying to bring the fragmented team together. I made clear the fact that she would have the most success with changes that are within her control (changes in her perspective, strengthening of peer relationships, etc), because no one can change how another person thinks or behaves.

• Accept your position (at least temporarily) – Unless you own the practice where you work, there is nothing wrong with taking a breath, stepping back, and taking your hands off the wheel from time to time. When you reach peak frustration, you can think to yourself, “This is not my practice. It’s just a job.” It’s not an ideal perspective to have all the time, but taking this break has saved many of us from getting in our cars and just driving away.

• Walk away – Why is this option so taboo? I think it’s because we have been taught quitting is equal to failure. That’s lunacy.

We can all agree that if you quit things as soon as they become difficult, you will not get far in your career or life in general. You can miss out on some of the most rewarding aspects of life.
We should also agree that there are some situations where quitting is the best option by far. There is no honor in sacrificing yourself in an unwinnable situation. Martyrdom is not a stepping-stone on the path to career success. If you are in a terrible work environment, there is NO shame in leaving. Be smart and professional about it: do your absolute best to avoid burning bridges, and know where you are going when you leave.

Make the Right Choice for you

After our conversation, the technician told me she wasn’t ready to leave her job. The benefits were too good. Instead she wanted to start by trying to do what she could to improve her situation while accepting the parts of her job she didn’t have control over. She felt much better just knowing she had options.

Too often we convince ourselves that successful people always overcome and never walk away. That’s ridiculous. If you’re getting clobbered in a game that’s rigged, never stop playing hard, but realize that the best thing you can do may be going to play with a different team. That’s a kind of success in its own right.

 

*Names changed

I am a Registered Veterinary Technician. I work in emergency and critical care, working every day to care for people’s companion animals.

 

RVTs will relieve their patient’s pain, perform diagnostic tests, treat/cure their ailments, soothe and comfort them, provide fluffy beds and hand feed pets, administer and monitor anesthesia, and assist in their surgeries and recovery. RVTs have exhausted themselves fighting to save a life with CPR, and cried with owners when they’ve made the difficult decision to let their pet’s suffering end with euthanasia. We are constantly furthering our knowledge so we can provide the best care possible.

 

What might sound like news to some people is this: veterinary hospitals are businesses. An animal ER does not work the same way as a human ER. We are not obligated to see your pet, especially if you are being belligerent or confrontational. We are not required to treat your pet without payment. Payment is due at time of service, not tomorrow, Monday, or at the end of next week. Yes, there are many pet insurances available, but most simply reimburse you after the fact… meaning you still have to pay at time of service. I’m not saying these things to be mean but to make you aware of the reality of the situation.

 

If your pet needs life saving treatments or surgery do not try to place blame on the veterinary staff for your lack of planning for a potential emergency. Do not call us uncaring, say we are killing your pet, that we clearly only care about money and not animals, or anything of the sort. And especially, do not threaten me, my coworkers, my job, or my hospital.

 

We care more deeply about each and every patient in our care (yes, even the biting ones) than you could possibly imagine. I’m truly sorry that we see you when you are upset, scared, angry, or worried, but I want you to know that we are there to be patient advocates and will do everything within our power to make your beloved friend/companion better.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the DrAndyRoark.com editorial team.

 

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About the Author

Nicole is an RVT who works in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is currently in pursuit of specialty certification in emergency and critical care.