Vet or vet tech

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vet tech or just vet

  • Vet tech and then vet

    Votes: 1 5.9%
  • Jump right into vet

    Votes: 16 94.1%

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Ok. But none of those excuse unprofessional behavior. Period.

There really aren't "both sides" to this: nobody should be "making fun of" a colleague. Doesn't matter if that colleague is a jerk. There are more appropriate ways to handle that.

I practically never place catheters or give injections. Like, almost never. Why on earth would I be as good at it as my techs who do it a couple dozen times per day? That is nonsensical.

I didn't say it excused anything. And I wasn't justifying the behavior, but I do understand that a doctor incapable of giving an IV injection adds to the animal's stress. And while you may practically never give injections, our doctors were expected to on a daily basis. That may be a practice issue that should have been changed, but that was the expectation.

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I didn't say it excused anything. And I wasn't justifying the behavior, but I do understand that a doctor incapable of giving an IV injection adds to the animal's stress. And while you may practically never give injections, our doctors were expected to on a daily basis. That may be a practice issue that should have been changed, but that was the expectation.


Anyone missing a stick adds stress. I still don't see your point. Give that doctor time to get better at it, then.

Just seems weird to me to expect that out of nowhere a doctor suddenly would be talented at ANY particular skill.

And yes, it should change. It is financially silly to have your doctors performing tasks that can be done for a lower cost by a technician. It is an inefficient use of resources.
 
Anyone missing a stick adds stress. I still don't see your point. Give that doctor time to get better at it, then.

Just seems weird to me to expect that out of nowhere a doctor suddenly would be talented at ANY particular skill.

And yes, it should change. It is financially silly to have your doctors performing tasks that can be done for a lower cost by a technician. It is an inefficient use of resources.
This. In the one doctor practices I've been in, if the tech can't hit the vein, the entire day comes to a screeching halt so the doctor can come in the back and place the catheter. Doctors should be busy, you know, doing doctor stuff. Getting appointments in and out, writing up charts, etc. Being able to be a master of all technical skills is not a doctor's priority. Why else would they hire a tech?

I'm not sure how it is at other schools, but we don't actually spend that much time learning clinical skills in the grand scheme of things. We have our Clinical Skills Learning Center with models to practice on, exams on said technical skills, and 4th years are expected to be competent. However, I find it far more important to understand how drugs work or how to perform a certain surgery than how to place a catheter. That doesn't mean I should never be able to do it (I mean I have to in order to pass our skill exams), but I'm going to make sure I have a staff member than I can rely on so my responsibilities are taken care of. I would imagine tech students spend hours upon hours practice their technical skills. Vet students spend hours upon hours learning pretty much every aspect of the domestic species covered in the curriculum and how to treat everything under the sun.
 
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