Top 5 Ways My Vet Could Make My Life Easier with LVT Amber LaRock
A doctor and a technician work hand in hand, helping to provide assistance to animals in need. We often work with each other day in and day out, so it’s incredibly important to make sure that we are supporting each other, and making for a positive working environment for all.
After speaking with a group of technicians, I’ve put together a list of some of the things we wish doctors knew, and ways to make our days together even better! After all, we couldn’t do this hectic, challenging, fulfilling job without each other, so let’s work together to make each other’s lives easier.
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1. Know Your Game Plan
Now, we know things can change in an instant in veterinary medicine, but for those other times, it makes our lives SO much easier to have the treatment plan ready all at once. Think about grabbing an aggressive pup, finding a helper to assist you in tag teaming the muzzle application, subcutaneous fluids, a Cerenia injection, and managing to make it out alive once it’s all said and done. The pup is now back in the room with its owner, and waiting for discharge instructions. But wait, the doctor just came to tell us that they decided they needed to do a rectal exam after all, and would like us to bring Cujo back to treatment, and start the process over again. This makes for a frustrated technician, and a now overwhelmed patient. We know these things happen, but when possible, having everything prepared to perform at once makes everyone in the hospital happier.
2. Share Knowledge
There is nothing better than working in an environment that encourages growth, and feeling like your veterinarian truly wants both the team and client to succeed!
With experiences in working in helpful and non-helpful environments, I know just how important this is. As a technician, if we are asking questions about a condition or any other perplexing situations, it’s because we are truly interested. Veterinary medicine offers the potential to learn something new every day, so by working side by side with you, we gain opportunities to learn from you. We are proud to be a knowledge soaking sponge in all things animals, so please encourage us to do so!
Educating clients and making sure they understand the pet's condition and treatment goes a long way! There are many times we get stuck on the phone with clients who didn't understand what the vet said or felt they weren't told something at all. Giving us resources to share with clients at the time of check out or discharge will help reduce client confusion, save us time and make sure we are all on the same page.
3. Minimize Mess
We know it can be tough to keep track of the things you leave behind during a crazy shift. All we ask is that you try your best to be conscious of the messes you may produce during your hectic day. Little messes can add up, and it can start to feel like we are the clinic maids. We will try our best to clean up after ourselves as well!
4. Priotitize your Requests
While I sure wish we had eight arms that could simultaneously do treatments, assist in surgery, answer the phone, and check in patients all at once; it’s not the case. It can be incredibly difficult to have an already never ending list of patients to attend to, while working with a doctor that doesn’t seem to understand that we just can’t do it all at once. Trust me, we will work our absolute hardest to take care of our patients, and help you with the twists and turns along the way. Just please understand that though we may want to, we just can’t do it all at once.
5. Appreciation
We love our job. We wouldn’t do this if we didn’t. Let me be the first to say that no matter how much we love the work that we do, feeling over-worked and underappreciated is enough to make us give it all away. A simple, “Thanks for your hard work today!,” or “We sure did rock it today!” is sometimes enough to erase the pains of the day, and have us ready to come back for more tomorrow. A little appreciation goes a long way, and we will make sure to show you how grateful we are in return! Appreciate your Vet Techs!
We sure do have a tough job! Though our days can be long, having an uplifting working environment can truly make all the difference. Let’s work together to support each other, and be the dream team we know we can be!
About VetCheck
VetCheck has you covered at each step of the clinical process, when it comes to pet owner education. Avoid client confusion and call backs with pre-treatment information, discharge instruction templates, home care compliance videos and more. VetCheck conveniently stores all your client education in one spot in the cloud so it is easily accessible by the team and helps keep everyone on the same page.
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