What do you know about the Veterinary Nurse Initiative? And what don’t you know about it?
Launched in May 2017, the nationwide initiative would replace “registered veterinary technician,” “certified veterinary technician” and similar titles with the one-size-fits-all label “veterinary nurse.”
“It’s the standardizing of credentials, it’s about title protection, and [it’s about something] that the public would more easily be able to understand,” said Ken Yagi, RVT, VTS, a representative of the National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America, which is spearheading the effort.
Mark Cushing, JD, a member of the Veterinary Nurse Initiative Workgroup, said nationwide acceptance of the title could result in higher pay for technicians. Cushing serves on the Today’s Veterinary Business editorial advisory board.
“I should hope so,” he said of some veterinarians’ fears of rising payrolls if the initiative succeeds. “I should hope so because the profession deserves it, pet health care shouldn’t take a backseat to human health care, and more importantly, if practice revenues growth, they’re want to pay more.”
Yagi and Cushing spoke about the initiative on the North American Veterinary Community news channel Spark! Watch the interviews here.