ABSTRACT OF THE WEEK

Today's Veterinary Practice
Volume 13 | Issue 4 (Jul-Aug 2023)

Key Takeaways for Veterinarians from the NAVTA Demographics Survey

Today's Vet Pract. Jul-Aug 2023;13(4):10-14. 4 Refs

Kate Boatright¹

¹ University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.

Author Abstract

Supporting the credentialed veterinary nurses/technicians in your clinic will help them to achieve their professional goals and take a step toward profession-wide improvements in utilization, mental health, compensation, and title protection.

Companion Notes

Key takeaways for veterinarians from the NAVTA demographics survey

(NAVTA = National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America)

Results of NAVTA’s most recent demographics survey earlier this year

(last performed in ‘16, usually done every 5 years, but delayed due to COVID-19 pandemic)

- CrVTs are critical to veterinary team and patient care

(CrVTs = credentialed veterinary technicians)

- it’s important veterinarians understand the findings of the survey

- and how to best support our colleagues going forward

- compensation is improved but remains a problem

- 25% increase in computed average annual salary since the 2016 survey

- $52,000 in ‘22 compared to $41,600 in ‘16)

- this number is calculated based on the following:

- average number of hours worked per week: 37.5 hours

- average pay per hour: $26.50

- “I’m certainly seeing this [pay increase] with our graduates,” said Kathy Koar

(MSEd, CVT, director of veterinary nursing at Harcum College in Philadelphia)

- higher compensation allows graduates to start “grown-up lives with only one job”

- increase is not profession-wide, especially in more rural areas

- according to Ashli Selke, RVT, CVT, immediate past president of NAVTA

- she’s based in the Midwest and said,

“The average technician I see does not make that.”

- most survey respondents were attendees at 1 of 2 major national conferences

- Selke says it’s important to ask,

“Who are the technicians who are able to go to these conventions?”

- she hypothesizes attendees are likely to have jobs with higher pay

- also, more veterinary nurses/technicians employed in research responded

- they have the highest hourly pay and more responded this year

- 39% of respondents ranked salary as the top challenge currently

- 1 in 3 CrVTs maintains a second job, often full time

- mental health and wellness remain major concerns

- “high volume of colleagues experiencing compassion fatigue”

- considered 2^nd biggest problem for the profession in the next 5 years

- 65% of respondents reported experiencing compassion fatigue

- 70% reported professional burnout

- 1 in 3 veterinary technicians knows someone who died by suicide

(someone in the veterinary profession]

- 61% of respondents reported concern about someone dying by suicide

(someone in the veterinary profession]

- veterinary schools and veterinary technician/nursing programs are trying

- they’re openly discussing wellbeing and mental health issues

- including coping skills

- but, clearly efforts to support mental health must continue

- establishing a national credentialing standard and title protection is a priority

- the title “veterinary technician” is often used for licensed and unlicensed individuals

- title protection would limit the use of “veterinary technician” to licensed individuals

- Selke notes that compensation and title protection are closely linked:

“If there’s not title protection, we can’t differentiate ourselves from veterinary

assistants”

- currently, 31 states have no title protection for CrVTs

- 12 of those states do not define veterinary technician in their practice act

- in the ‘22 demographics survey

- 83% of respondents indicated a national title is important

- 87% felt title protection was important

- 85% prefer the term “veterinary nurse” (a dramatic increase from ‘16

- currently, CrVTs can be denoted by 1 of 4 different credentials depending on the state

- CVT, RVT, LVT, and LVMT

- staff turnover was ranked the second most challenging aspect of the job

- turnover is multifactorial and influenced by concerns around the following:

- salary and benefits

- mental health

- lack of title protection

- proper utilization

- only 40% of respondents felt they were fully utilized

- major factors that CrVTs viewed as barriers to utilization

- lack of trust or confidence in the CrVT skillset by clinicians

- training uncredentialed staff to do the same tasks as CrVTs

- not allowing CrVTs to do the tasks they are trained for

- due to perceived control issues

- Selke stressed “We want to help veterinarians”

How veterinarians can support their CrVT colleagues

- Selke and Koar suggest the following ways to support CrVTs in the clinic:

- use appropriate titles

- reserve the term “veterinary technician” for those with credentials

- know the practice act and scope of practice for your state

- let CrVTs perform at their highest level

- share business data with CrVTs when discussing compensation packages

- invite CrVTs’ opinions into practice protocol development and other decisions

- offer student debt relief or assistance as part of a benefits package

“Selke reminds veterinarians that `We went to school to try to elevate ourselves and practice with veterinarians.””

Article Tools:

Email to me

Archives Highlights:

Toxicity of House Plants to Pet Animals.
This review article describes in detail the most common and popular indoor poisonous plants grown in Europe, the mechanisms of action of their active substances and clinical signs of the respective poisonings. This manuscript is supplemented with rich photographic documentation of these plants not found in similar articles, and also includes a description of the treatment of individual types of poisoning.

Evaluating Communication Training at AVMA COE-Accredited Institutions and the Need to Consider Diversity within Simulated Client Pools.
Participating institutions summarized their communication curricula: 18 (85.71%) used simulated clients (SCs). Over 55% of these did not track SC demographic data or social identities; among institutions that did track, SCs were primarily monolingual English-speaking (77%), non-disabled (94.2%), white (90.4%), non-Hispanic/Latinx (98.6%) women (57%) over age 56 (64%). Sixteen institutions agreed with the statement "I do not feel that our SC pool is adequately diverse."

Understanding the Role of Therapy Dogs in Human Health Promotion.
Therapy dog programmes are delivered across a variety of settings including hospitals, aged care facilities and mental health services, highlighting the important role they play in human health outcomes. Research has shown that that there are biomarkers for stress in humans and other animals engaged in human-animal interactions. This review aims to assess the impact of human-animal interactions on therapy dogs engaged in providing support to human health.

Rabies surveillance in the United States during 2021.
Texas (n = 456 [12.4%]), Virginia (297 [8.1%]), Pennsylvania (287 [7.8%]), North Carolina (248 [6.8%]), New York (237 [6.5%]), California (220 [6.0%]), and New Jersey (201 [5.5%]) together accounted for > 50% of all animal rabies cases reported in 2021. Of the total reported rabid animals, 3,352 (91.5%) involved wildlife, with bats (n = 1,241 [33.9%]), raccoons (1,030 [28.1%]), skunks (691 [18.9%]), and foxes (314 [8.6%]) representing the primary hosts confirmed with rabies. Rabid cats (216 [5.9%]), cattle (40 [1.1%]), and dogs (36 [1.0%]) accounted for 94% of rabies cases involving domestic animals in 2021. Five human rabies deaths were reported in 2021.

Risk factors for unilateral cranial cruciate ligament rupture diagnosis and for clinical management in dogs under primary veterinary care in the UK.
After accounting for confounding factors, dogs aged 6 to less than 9 years, male neutered and female neutered dogs, insured dogs, and Rottweiler, Bichon Frise, and West Highland White terrier breeds, in particular, had increased odds of unilateral CCL rupture diagnosis. Insured dogs and dogs = 20 kg had increased odds of surgical management, while dogs = 9 years and dogs with one non-orthopaedic comorbidity at diagnosis with CCL rupture had reduced odds. These findings inform identification of at-risk dogs.