In 2019, Meagan Parks, RVT, found herself sobbing on the phone while speaking with her mentor, the director of a veterinary technology program. Parks was asking for advice, even though she knew what she had to do. By then, she had worked in the veterinary field for more than 12 years. She started as a veterinary assistant in 2007, went back to school to earn her credential and, by 2019, was married to a teacher and living near Kansas City. She wanted to continue working in veterinary medicine but couldn\u2019t afford to live on technician wages.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was bawling my eyes out because I didn\u2019t want to leave practice. I wasn\u2019t ready to leave the floor, and I didn\u2019t want a desk job,\u201d Parks recalled. \u201cBut my mentor told me, \u2018Meagan, you have to take care of your family.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what Parks did. She took a desk job with Boehringer Ingelheim but missed working as a technician. Today, she is the senior veterinary technician recruiter at Mission Veterinary Partners, a corporate group with 330 U.S. hospitals.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to help increase the number of veterinary technicians,\u201d Parks said. \u201cThis position has helped me educate hiring managers on what we need to do as an industry, as a company, as people in this field, to support veterinary technicians.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soon after starting at Mission Veterinary Partners, Parks was asked by corporate leadership: \u201cWhy did you stop working as a veterinary technician in practice?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI started digging deeper within myself,\u201d she said, \u201cbut then I started thinking about all the amazing individuals I had met and worked with over the years who had left practice or left the veterinary field entirely. I had reasons for leaving, but I wanted to know why they left.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when Parks decided to ask. So, in May 2022, she posted a 13-question Google Form on social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin a couple of days, I had several hundred responses,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople just kept sharing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The respondents, representing all 50 states, included 859 current or former veterinary technicians<\/a> and 66 other people, most of whom identified themselves as veterinarians or practice managers.<\/p>\n The survey revealed:<\/p>\n