My chief of staff at Animal Policy Group is Samantha “Sam” Geiling, a registered veterinary technician who led the initiative to license vet techs in Hawaii and gain the profession a seat on the state’s Veterinary Medical Board. She also helped build the Hawaii Community College technician program and served on its faculty. She co-chairs the National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America’s Government Relations Committee, and the organization recently named her the 2023 Veterinary Technician of the Year.
It shouldn’t surprise readers that Animal Policy Group and its founder (your author) plan to wade deeply into the waters of non-DVM veterinary professionals. Sam has a lot to do with that decision, but it also is driven by my perspective that the topic of non-DVM veterinary professionals will dominate the pet health care horizon over the next few years and beyond.
Weighty Matters
Which issues surrounding the vet tech profession deserve our respect and attention? Here’s a list for starters:
- Compensation.
- Licensure in all 50 states.
- Accreditation of veterinary technician academic programs.
- Some integrated training of technicians and veterinarians.
- The availability and willingness of veterinary practices to provide clinical training opportunities for vet tech undergraduates.
- Inconsistencies in titles and license privileges nationwide, which creates a patchwork nearly impossible to decipher. Connected to it is how or whether to credit on-the-job training when states adopt technician licensing.
- Technicians’ scope of practice in veterinary practice acts and, for that matter, the respect they deserve in the clinic environment.
- The unresolved matter of a title. Should it be “veterinary technician” or “veterinary nurse”?
- Only a handful of state boards allow a credentialed veterinary technician to serve as a board member even though they govern the veterinary technician profession.
- Inadequate industry support for trade groups like the National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America and its state equivalents.
- What could (and should) we learn from human medicine about the governance of nurses? It’s handled by independent state nursing boards (nurses), not state medical boards (doctors).
The Tide Is Turning
That’s quite a list, but I won’t dive into each issue now. Instead, I’ll leave you with this news flash: We must turn our considered attention to each topic over the next year, the next few years and the next decade.
So, look for me to write about the issues in detail in Today’s Veterinary Business. And I’ll speak (often with Sam) about them. I promise not to complain or deride but to explore and evaluate the solutions.
If I haven’t captured your attention, no worries, I’ll keep trying. But ask yourself this: With which professional do you and I spend most of our time in medical offices? Nurses, of course. It’s no different in veterinary clinics.
Let’s use our highly trained minds and experience to figure out the answers that will work for technicians, veterinarians, veterinary schools, pet owners and, not least of all, pets.