Tech Talk: Utilization is not just a buzzword

While the members of your clinic may not display this level of cheer, utilizing each staff member properly can increase the wellbeing of each person and the practice. Photo: Gettyimages: kali9 The most popular topic in our industry this past year has been—by far—technician utilization. There have been numerous articles and lectures on this topic. When we delve into the subject, we try to bring attention to the topic regarding how our profession got into this situation, as well as what can be done to rectify it. The struggle of getting practices to utilize their credentialed veterinary technicians is one that has been going on for decades. The staffing shortage brought this to the forefront of people’s minds again, partly in relation to the pandemic. Proper utilization of technicians is something both credentialed veterinary technicians (CVTs) and practice owners want. Or is it? It seems everyone always thinks it is a great idea but just does not know how to move forward to make it happen. Lots of conversations are happening in our profession to try to figure out just how to do this. Why all the talk and so little action? Where is the hold up? Technician utilization focuses on allowing and empowering CVTs to perform the wide range of veterinary medical tasks that fall under their scope of practice. This both benefits the practice financially and encourages retaining individuals with valuable skill sets and experience within the profession. While this seems like such a simple concept in one’s mind, the actionable part of this remains a mystery. Before the pandemic, our profession was already lacking in veterinarians and credentialed veterinary technicians. COVID brought with it a decrease in our profession overall regarding staff members to work in clinics. Some clinics ended up having to furlough staff or even permanently terminate them. While this was happening, some staff decided the option to work from home or move into another profession was best for them. Veterinary clinics are still short staffed because of a decrease in our workforce. Whether these numbers will improve or not remain to be seen. A key issue across job titles What can be done to help increase the numbers of support staff as well as continue to grow the staff members we currently have to be better versions of themselves? Veterinarians and CVTs are a valuable resource in our world, but without our boarding staff, veterinary assistants, and receptionists, we would be lost and unable to successfully provide the desired outcomes for our patients. People who love animals but may not want to continue their education to become a veterinarian or CVT help make up our teams, including boarding staff, receptionists, and veterinary assistants. For many of us, getting our start in the profession meant we worked in a kennel or boarding facility. We walked dogs, cleaned cages, and may have helped to give our patients medications that they needed to remain happy and healthy. Boarding facilities are such a big contributor to our profession, they allow our clients to be able to take a vacation or spend some much-needed time with loved ones who may be sick and need an extra hand. Working in a boarding facility or kennel is a good steppingstone to get involved in the profession. One learns about the husbandry and wellbeing of so many different types of animals and their needs to help make them a more well-rounded employee. Sometimes those boarding facilities work in conjunction with a veterinarian’s office. This allows those people who excel in working in a boarding situation to potentially be trained to move into a receptionist or veterinary assistant position. Receptionists are at the forefront of our practices. They are often the first faces our clients see and the last. They are responsible for client communication and education. In some circumstances they are a compassionate ear to allow a client to vent about a frustration or even talk about how their pet is doing to get advice on what needs to happen next. Receptionists handle the financial aspects of many clinics, working to provide excellent customer service. Allowing a receptionist to be the face of your clinic in your client’s time of need or just for a regular visit lets them do what they do best: work with your client to give them the best experience they can possibly have. Receptionists help to give medical advice to our clients and make sure that our days run smoothly. Veterinary assistants Veterinary assistants are an integral part of our support staff. They work closely with our veterinarians, CVTs, and receptionists to provide excellent patient care. A veterinary assistant may be someone with little training or someone who has several years of experience but is non-credentialed in their state. Veterinary assistants help to perform a variety of tasks in a veterinary clinic, depending on the states in which they live. Some states are more stringent about what a non-credentialed technician (veterinary assistant) can do versus others. Every state has a Practice Act or Scope of Practice that can be reviewed to ensure legally what duties staff members can perform. Some of these things vary with different levels of supervision as well. There are veterinary assistants that work in practices that are very skilled as well as should be utilized to their fullest extent, based on the legalities in their own state. CVTs CVTs are a resource that, for some reason, n remains untapped in our profession. For decades, we have been struggling to be able to have a voice and be utilized. Over the past few years, the word utilization has pushed itself forward and has become one of the hottest topics to be spoken about. We as technicians are continually striving for self-satisfaction in our profession. Being effectively utilized is a huge part of that goal. In not allowing us to use our skill sets we are being crippled in our growth, both professionally and personally. Imagine obtaining your education through years of hard work, sweat, and tears, then not being able to use those skills and knowledge in your chosen profession. Several groups, primarily those involving CVTs as their spokespersons, are working hard to be heard by others in our profession to advocate for effective utilization. This has been going on for years; currently positive strides are being made in the right direction. When we look at the different avenues that are being taken, it seems there is not a wrong option in these efforts. The only wrong would be doing nothing at all. Looking at all the reasons technicians are not being utilized in practice is a great starting point in trying to pull apart this mess, see where we are and what is next in these efforts. If you ask how long lack of utilization has been going on, answers such as “decades,” “years,” and “forever” are given. For the past several years, we have been trying to get this under control with many efforts being placed on getting to the root of lack of utilization. It has been said older generations of veterinarians are the demographic causing of all of this. They are used to doing things for themselves and not allowing their support staff to help them. Why do we think that is? What is the reason for that? Did they have staff to help them in the first place? Some veterinarians, in the past, have not had the support staff, credentialed or not, to help them in their practices. This may have caused them to have to rely on just themselves to get things done and to take care of their patients. In continuing to do things alone, over and over again, the habits are just further cemented in their brains as acceptable. When in fact, as time as gone on, there are more and more resources available to them to help get the job done. Old habits are hard to break. A question of trust If a veterinarian cannot trust the technician or assistant that works with them, the same vicious cycle continues, and the support staff member is not utilized. Building trust takes time and effort on all parts. The veterinarian needs to allow the technician to perform their duties and use their skill sets. The technician needs to work with the veterinarian to show them their skills and show they are skilled and dependable individuals. How can trust be built? Open conversations are the starting point to so much success in our profession. These conversations are crucial to having an open relationship within the team and, hopefully, letting the technician really see what the concern to the veterinarian is. Perhaps the concerns are the same. Or maybe they can be easily remedied with talking together and making sure everyone is on the same page. Discussing what veterinarians’ concerns are about letting go and delegating tasks to the technician may also open further opportunities for continued growth for other members of the clinic. If the technician is also aware of the guidelines of their state’s practice act, they can come armed to the meeting with an actual list of things they are legally allowed to perform. They can then go over the information with the veterinarian, discussing their ability to do the tasks referenced. If there are tasks the technician cannot perform, them being truthful about those things will go a long way with the veterinarian feeling comfortable the technician will admit if they do not know how to do something. This may also lead to opportunities to discuss what other practice members may be able to do, as well. Credentialed technicians that have graduated from an American Veterinary Medical Association-(AVMA) approved program have a list of skills that must be able to be performed for them to be able to graduate from those programs. There is a range of skills listed that encompass a variety of levels. That list can be found on the AVMA’s website at www.avma.org. Talking to your veterinarian about those skills and helping to educate them on what your education has entailed will help in your discussion about being utilized and the impact that can have on your position in the practice. Being utilized as a technician will also allow you to potentially be paid at a higher rate, depending on the structure that is put in place in your practice. You may be able to talk to your veterinarian about how being utilized will allow them to do more in the practice, as well. You may be able to help more patients to be seen and increase the medical care performed in the practice. As a utilized technician, you will also be able to contribute to the continued overall financial growth in the practice. This can allow for you to be able to bargain for a higher wage, expounding on the skills you may have and can use in your day-to-day ongoings in the clinic. Effective utilization of a credentialed veterinary technician can benefit everyone in multiple ways. The practice benefits from the financial increase when doctors can see more patients in a timelier manner. The patients benefit from being cared for by educated, skilled employees that are constantly flexing their skills in practice. The veterinarian also benefits from being able to have a better work-life balance, letting their technicians help them to carry the load in making the practice successful and providing the desired patient outcomes. As technicians, we benefit from being utilized appropriately as it allows us to fully use our skills and gives us a better feeling of self-worth and effectiveness in our profession. The benefits to utilizing technicians far outweigh the risks if the communication pathways are kept open, and everyone is on the same page with what is expected by all. Our path to success is paved with us doing what we love the most while being allowed to continue to be the most amazingly skilled individuals that we can. With the continued support of our profession, we are working on achieving just that. Jamie Rauscher is a licensed veterinary technician at a 24/7 GP/ER practice in Atlanta. She has been at this practice for more than 20 years and is part owner of the practice, as well as the medical manager. She is the current president of NAVTA and the vice president of the Georgia Veterinary Technician and Assistant Association. Her interests in include anesthesia, pain management, emergency and critical care, as well as hospice and palliative care.

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Tech Talk: Utilization is not just a buzzword

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