Economists forecast that our veterinary workforce shortage will persist. By 2030, they predict, we will be short 15,000 DVMs, and given current graduation rates, we would need 30 years’ worth of credentialed veterinary technician classes to meet the rising demand. Seventy-five million pets are at risk of not being cared for because of the shortage. Scary! As more and more Americans recognize the value of pets in families, veterinary medicine advances, pet lifespans increase, and the demand for our services grows. So, how will we keep up?
Various solutions are available, none of which alone will be enough to fill the void. The answers include:
- Graduating more veterinarians.
- Graduating more veterinary nurses/technicians, expanding their roles and retaining them.
- Addressing the profession’s personal wellness needs.
- Focusing more on preventive care.
- Embracing technological advances such as telehealth.
Fair compensation and generous benefits are givens, but what more can we do? Start by investing in your people. We must engage our less experienced yet hardworking, enthusiastic team members and help them grow into outstanding veterinary professionals. Listen, learn and lead.
I reached out to my good friend and colleague Kara Burns, MS, MEd, LVT, VTS (Nutrition). In addition to Kara’s many roles, she is the editor-in-chief of Today’s Veterinary Nurse, the director of veterinary nurse development at WellHaven Pet Health and a long-time force for good in our profession. We put our heads together and came up with the following initiatives we’re driving at WellHaven practices.
1. Nutrition Certification
WellHaven enrolled veterinary assistants and credentialed veterinary technicians in a nutrition course sponsored by Hill’s Pet Nutrition. Graduates of the certification program are empowered to counsel clients about a pet’s nutritional needs, manage obesity cases, counsel new pet owners and manage chronic conditions requiring special diets.
2. Wet Labs
Small hands-on wet labs taught by veterinary technician specialists have great value. We cover topics such as anesthesia monitoring, dental radiology, dental cleanings and charting. WellHaven partnered with Midmark on the labs, which our teams love.
3. Lunch and Learns
A standby of our profession, these gatherings are always fun and informative. The free lunch is a bonus. However, practice leaders must allow team members to fully attend, not just grab a bite to eat and head off to the next patient. Your vendors will jump at the chance to speak with your team.
4. Paid CE Days
A continuing education allowance and paid days off to attend sessions keep team members engaged and excited to bring what they learned back to the team. The attendees also see that they are treated like the professionals they are.
5. Tuition Reimbursement and Scholarships
Hospital leaders can nominate team members to receive financial assistance toward an associate degree and veterinary technician credentialing. The recipients learn new skills, help more pets, and stay engaged with their hospitals and the profession.
6. AAHA Accreditation
The exercise of becoming credentialed or recredentialed by the American Animal Hospital Association helps keep your clinic on the cutting edge of medicine and operations and instills pride in the team.
7. Online, RACE-Approved CE
Provide regular online continuing education. For example, WellHaven focuses on preventive care topics like dentistry, which team members can view when and where they choose.
8. Overcommunication
Baseline tools for success in a practice include job descriptions, team meetings, daily huddles, safety measures, training guides, feedback, career ladders and a clear roadmap for every hospital role.
9. Leadership Training
Practice managers are vital to a veterinary hospital’s success. Provide workshops on essential responsibilities like scheduling and inventory control.
10. More Responsibilities
Delegating duties encourages the empowerment of credentialed veterinary technicians and builds trust with the doctors. Veterinarians are sometimes reluctant to delegate, but they can review essential skills with team members to determine which tasks can be handed off and which require additional training.
11. Leadership Dinners
Regular gatherings of neighboring hospitals’ leadership teams provide an opportunity to network, learn, commiserate, build community, share and have fun.
12. Fear Free Team Training
By alleviating anxiety in the pets we care for, we relieve anxiety in our caregivers.
13. EAPs
Employee assistance programs provide expert counseling on real-life challenges, from financial to physical to emotional. Additionally, WellHaven provides My WellPath, a collection of personalized self-care plans covering seven dimensions of well-being.
14. Adverse Event Processes
For the inevitable cases gone south, build a process that avoids shame and blame within teams and helps everyone learn from the events.
15. Enjoyment
Virtual happy hours and scavenger hunts are a blast and provide much-needed fun in our challenging profession. Celebrate National Veterinary Technician Week each
October and mark other occasions. Think food, T-shirts and acknowledgments. We can never say “Thank you” and “Well done” enough.
In the end, let’s take care of the great people in our profession and invest in enthusiastic new members’ professional development. Listen, empower and grow. Constantly seek feedback and thank someone for it. Replacing a doctor or veterinary nurse/technician is costly, up to 10 times the annual salary by some estimates. Think about that.
What happens when we foster, educate and invest in our team members’ professional development and encourage our new hires to grow? They stay and flourish. Many things improve, such as employee retention, medical quality, client satisfaction, efficiency, profitability and engagement. Win, win, win, win, win, win.
America’s love affair with pets is not going away. The workforce shortage will persist. How can we keep up with the demand for our services? Take good care of your team members. Cultivate, develop and foster.
CULTIVATE
KUHL-tuh-veyt (verb)
To promote growth and development. To develop one’s self. To foster or improve by educating.