Chief Veterinary Technician Officers
Today I am going to take a break from the veterinary debt issue. National Veterinary Technician week is my opportunity to advocate for technician leaders. In our changing industry, I believe we need chief veterinary technician officers to help us build sustainable workplaces that truly provide quality veterinary care.
Veterinary Technicians are heroes
Technicians are the true heroes of the veterinary world . Every day, these professionals provide excellent nursing care for pets and are the crucial backbone of our hospitals. Veterinary technicians administer medication and treatments. They run our in-house laboratories, serve as radiology technicians, and perform dentals. They run ventilators, monitor anesthesia, and provide rehabilitation. They counsel and advise owners. Everyday, they keep veterinarians on time and moving in a straight line.
There are many patients who would not be alive except for the amazing care they received from a veterinary technician. The cat who lived when a technician realized that there was an upper airway obstruction and prompted the veterinarian to perform a life saving tracheostomy. The dog with anticoagulant rodenticide poisoning diagnosed when the technician let the doctor know the venipuncture site was bleeding excessively. The ER cases each and every day where technicians say, “Hey doc, I’m really worried about this one.”
Veterinary Technicians are also crucial part of local hospital management teams
When I ran my hospital, our management meetings involved not only the owners and our practice manager, but also our technician manager. Having the the manager of our largest group of employees at our meeting meant that their main concerns were front and center. A huge number of operational improvements came from suggestions from our technician managers.
Many local hospitals have similar structures to ours. In smaller veterinary hospitals with only one technician, that person is very often the doctor’s true partner in providing excellent care. In these situations, problems in providing quality care can be identified early and fixed efficiently.
When our hospital merged and became part of a larger group, there was no technician voice on the executive team. None of management teams/C-suites of the major veterinary consolidators have Chief Veterinary Technician Officers listed as part of their leadership team. The lack of voice from veterinary technicians means a huge void exists in the understanding of veterinary hospital operations.
Chief Nursing Officers in Human Health Care
In the 1990s, the consolidation of human medicine occurred in earnest. Forward looking hospital groups realized that to ensure quality patient care, they needed direct input from nurses and the role of the Chief Nursing Officer developed.
The number of human hospital systems with a Chief Nursing Officer role has almost doubled since 2013. All of the 10 best human hospital systems have nurses as either as part of their executive team or as part of the senior regional teams.
The Case for Chief Veterinary Technician Officers
Veterinary hospital systems have become larger and more complex and a voice for the largest section of the workforce is important. Turnover and burnout are huge issues in the profession. We need input from veterinary technician leaders to improve the delivery of care and the quality of the work environment.
Factors Impacting the Work Environment
The Nursing Work Index was developed to allow research into the impact of the work environment on patient outcomes. Research found four main areas that affect nurses’ perception of their workplace:
- Autonomy
- Control over practice
- Nurse/physician relationships
- Organizational support.
The developed Nurse Work Index survey has been shown in multiple studies to correlate with patient outcomes – when nurses have a poor work environment, patient care suffers. A recent study demonstrated that outcomes from CPR were directly related to nurses’ assessment of their work environment.
Thus, to sustain and improve quality patient care in our veterinary hospitals, we have to listen to our veterinary technicians and look at how to improve their direct work environment. Because autonomy and control over practice have a big impact on work satisfaction, fixes can not be top down from non-technical staff. We need technician leaders who have “street smarts” from working the floor and the management know how from optimizing local large practices to be present at the national level.
Chief Veterinary Technician Officers should be part of the decision-making teams of our future.
