Reprinted with permission from Smart Flow Sheet. As a CVT, I love working with veterinarians. They are smart, compassionate and hardworking. However, there so many times that they destroy my day. Here are the tops 6 ways vets completely sabotage veterinary technicians. 1. They Leave a Ridiculous Mess Vet techs are no strangers to spending half our day cleaning up. However, nothing grinds our gears more than a mess left by our vets that looks like the aftermath of a bomb. A little help with cleanup or a little consideration would go a long way. To add to it, noticing a mess and neglecting to let us know about it can also drive us nuts. 2. Dealing with Clients Clients can be the biggest challenge we face any day of the week. The one thing that makes it worse is when a vet: Undermines our recommendation Doesn't have our back or isn't on our side Leaves us alone to deal with a tough cookie Gives them a discount after we explained the estimate and couldn’t offer a lower price All of the above 3. Bad Handwriting We don't expect many doctors to have good handwriting, but some attempt to make notes and orders somewhat English-looking in style would be a great start. 4. Restricting a Vet Tech I can appreciate when a vet has had a bad experience that haunts them. Whether, it was an intubation gone wrong, a healthy pet not waking up from anesthesia, etc., I get it. However, using this as an excuse to prevent us from performing the very skills we were taught to do is very restricting and ends up slowing us down. 5. Hovering I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, hovering doesn’t make the lab machine run faster or the blood pressure read faster. Hovering can be the worst! 6. Secret Treatments That's when (for all the unfortunate techs who are still using paper flowsheets) vets add treatments to the flowsheet for the hour that's already past and don't tell you. It makes us feel and look like we are behind on treatments. We love vets, we really do. However, there are many ways they sabotage our day. Then, we end up working harder when not necessary.
