Defining the Profession | Association of Shelter Medicine Veterinary Technicians

The Association of Shelter Medicine Veterinary Technicians

AVMA POLICY ON VETERINARY TECHNICIANS

"Veterinary technology is the science and art of providing professional support to veterinarians. The AVMA CVTEA® accredits programs in veterinary technology that graduate veterinary technicians and/or veterinary technologists.

The veterinary technician's role is to provide professional health care in conjunction with the veterinarian. The duties of veterinary technicians shall be performed under the direction, supervision, and responsibility of veterinarians. These duties shall be accomplished in compliance with federal, state, and local laws. These duties shall not include diagnosing, prescribing, or performing surgery except where explicitly permitted by regulation. The veterinary technician must be knowledgeable in the care and handling of animals, their normal and abnormal life processes, medical and surgical nursing, anesthesiology, diagnostic imaging, and clinical laboratory procedures.

At its June 2006 meeting, the AVMA Executive Board approved a recommendation that the AVMA recommends that veterinary technician credentialing (i.e., licensing, registration, or certification ) entities in the US recognize graduates of Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA)-accredited veterinary technology programs as eligible for credentialing. In turn, the CVMA recommends that Canadian provincial licensing bodies recognize graduates of AVMA CVTEA-accredited veterinary technology programs as being eligible for licensure. As always, eligibility for licensure/registration/certification of veterinary technicians is the purview of each state and provincial credentialing agency."

Read the full statement here:

https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/avma-policies/avma-policy-veterinary-technology

The Alphabet Soup of Veterinary Technology

While the nurse equivalents are veterinary technicians, and are recognized as veterinary nurses in countries outside of North America there is no unifying terminology across the states and Canada. Even more confusing are the state requirements for credentialing, the title protections, credentialing transfers, and duties expected of these technicians. While the base title is veterinary technician it can have the licensed, registered, or certified designation before it depending on the state. For the most part the credentialing process is the same: practical learning as an apprenticeship of sorts or graduation from an AVMA accredited program, sitting for the Veterinary Technician National Exam (the VTNE or “the boards”), continued education and renewal of licensure/registration/certification. Some states vary the years between renewals or the amounts of CE required while others will waive the need for brick and mortar schooling if an adequate amount of on the job training is provided. Only two states do not require any hoops to become a veterinary technician (Utah and Connecticut) while Tennessee uses the LVMT credential (adding the word ‘medical’). However, only twelve states offer title protection after these professional goals are met. In Canada the designation is registered veterinary technicians but again credentialing depends on the province and is not compulsory...While there are some legal variations to the duties of a veterinary technician what they are not is just nurses. In human medicine there are many roles that are split amongst trained individuals, possibly to avoid litigation should something go wrong because there is a clear figure for finger pointing. However, despite the availability of specialties for both veterinarians and veterinary technicians, there is not one type of patient being seen by both or one discipline...[technicians] are still expected to act as pharmacy technicians, laboratory technicians, radiology technicians, surgical technicians, anesthesiologists, phlebotomists, midwives, morticians, dental hygienists, and more. What veterinary technicians are, undoubtedly, are individuals with multiple competencies and the ability to fluidly shift between sets of physiologies, anatomies, and behaviors to deliver quality care to their populations across a spectrum of human-animal bond understandings.

March 2020, DeMeo

What is a VTS?

Veterinarians can now be recognized as specialists in shelter medicine. While credentialing for veterinary technicians across North America is a contentious subject due to the varied titles bestowed in the profession, NAVTA, the National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America, offers a deeper scrutinizing service for technicians wishing to specialize. While only 12 of the 48 states that recognize credentialing for veterinary technicians offer title protection (Utah and Connecticut do not have stipulations for any veterinary professional outside of doctors), a VTS or Veterinary Technician Specialty, can only be offered to an elite population of professionals. Most academies, the founding bodies which offer the VTS title in a specific field or related field, require at least the following for additional credentialing:

Graduation from an accredited AVMA program or reciprocal licensure/registration/certification from a state approved pathway.
A determined amount of expertise immediately preceding, or within a certain amount of inactive years, the candidate’s application. The standard is 3-5 years of full time work (hour amounts to be disclosed by the academy).
A determined amount of case studies with a selected few demonstrating the proficiency of the technician in carrying out the workload. The standard is 50 cases and the ‘highlight reel’ as needed.
A board exam highlighting principles of the chosen field (a sort of specific version of the Veterinary Technician National Exam).