National Vet Tech Week

This week has been National Veterinary Technician Week. 

As a vet tech student it's important to me that people truly understand what it is that vet  techs do and how incredible they are. I have worked with so many incredible vet techs and they deserve the recognition and appreciation. I hope to live up to that greatness once I graduate and become registered (fingers crossed my exam is next month!)

So to help educate people on the profession of veterinary technology, here are a couple questions I am commonly asked about vet techs-- and my answers to them:

So what does a vet tech do? Well I could probably write a whole book if I was to thoroughly explain it. Most of the time when people ask me this I tell them we are the equivalent to a nurse but for animals. This is actually a bit of an understatement, a vet tech does the job equivalent to several different people in the human world. The legal limitations for what a tech can do is that they cannot prescribe, diagnose, or perform surgery. 

Do you have to go to school for it? Yes! Being a veterinary technician/technologist requires an associate or bachelor degree. That is 2-4 years of schooling. There are several schools that offer an associate program, but only a handful with the bachelor program. The schooling is by no means easy. I am in the bachelor program at Purdue University. it is a very rigorous program with a full load of classes in addition to clinical hours in the teaching hospitals. Then in order to become a Registered Veterinary Technician (RVT) you must the VTNE (Vet Tech National Examination). There are Vet Assistants which do some of the same work as veterinary technicians but do not have the schooling. Vet Assistants are a wonderful part of the veterinary team, but there are limitations to what they can do as far as technical medical skills. 

So are you going to go to vet school? No. This is another time when I use the nurse analogy. A person does not go to nursing school to eventually become a doctor. That is the same situation here. You major in veterinary technology to become a vet tech and you do pre-vet and eventually vet school to become a vet. Being a vet tech is not "settling" because I don't want to go to school longer, or I am not smart enough. I chose to be a vet tech because it is my passion and my dream job. 

So you get to play with puppies and kittens all day?! Not so much. Being a vet tech is not easy and it's not all cute puppies and kittens. Its a lot of poop, blood, angry animals, bites and scratches, nasty wounds and masses, very sad times, very stressful times, very frustrating times, and the occasional adorable puppy or kitten that's healthy. But I'm not complaining. I love what I do. It's what I live for. But no one should go into veterinary technology because they think it's easy or they just get to play with puppies and kittens all day. You need to not just love animals but also love the medical side. You often don't work a regular 9-5 job, you hardly ever leave on time, and sometimes (especially if you work at a shelter) you literally take your work home with you!

Do you make a lot of money? Hahahaha. No. This isn't a profession that you go into for the money, but you do get paid highly in satisfaction and puppy dog kisses! Below is an image that really shows how terribly under paid veterinary technicians are. It compares the average salary of vet techs compared to the average salary of the other careers in the human world that techs also do.

So, next time you are at the vet, thank your veterinary technician!