Well this topic has been the cause of many heated debates and I for one think that the only person that should assume the title of veterinary technician or work as a veterinary technician are those who have graduated from an accredited veterinary technology program.
What's the difference some may ask? Well there are many differences. On the Job trained techs have had
no formal post secondary school training in veterinary technology. That means that they lack the fundemental knowledge and skills that all technical procedures are based on. The skills they have aquired are those that have been taught to them at the workplace, usually by a veterinary technician or another On the Job trained tech. It can be assumed then that the level of skill aquired is based on the skill level of the one teaching the particular task. This I find discerning as the one teaching the task may have no formal training and may be passing along incorrect methods of performing these tasks. As many working in the field know, not all veterinarians are technically inclined either making them not always the best teachers.
By lacking the background knowledge that makes up the framework for why we do what we do, how can you know if what you are doing is accurate? or what steps you can take to make sure you provide valid results every time? And this doesn't even get into a discussion on uneducated people doing anesthesia!
I am sure I will take a lot of heat from the On the Job trained techs out there for my viewpoint but I feel strongly about this!I started out working as a vet assistant/receptionist in a small animal practice that had no technician. Because I was keen to learn, the vets started to teach me some technical skills. I was happy and confident with my skills and thought it was cool that they gave me these growing responsibilities, I had no fear. At that point decided I would like to take a formal program and enrolled in an accredited course for veterinary technology. I did not realize how little I knew until I started going to school and I probably wouldn't have known either if I hadn't enrolled in the program. I am so glad that I did because I realized how much more there was to know as a technician and how easy it is to learn other peoples bad habits that have been taught to you when you are On the Job trained. So I am not some technician who only went to school and then started working in practice....I started out as being trained on the job, so I speak form experience when I say there is
no comparison.
The other advantage of being school trained at an accredited college is that you can continue on to become
a registered veterinary technician. This requires you to write and pass a national exam as well as keep up with continuing education and belong to the OAVT. This ensures that technicians are continuing to upgrade their skills and knowledge in the fast changing world of veterinary medicine.
In Ontario you can't legally call yourself a Veterianry Technician unless you have graduated from an accredited program. But there are still vets out there who think it is fine to call anyone they have doing technical jobs a technician. This is apalling. Unfortunately it is still legal for vets to delegate technical jobs to whomever they feel is fit, but the OAVT is working to try to change this. Hopefully self-regualtion of technicians in the near future will help. Would a vet be happy if people they were working with called themselves vets because they could perform similar tasks without the background knowledge??? I doubt it.
How would owners feel if they found out that uneducated/unqualifed people were perfoming procedures on their pets when there are properly trained capable people out there to hire? I would guess they would be just as upset as if they found out that the nurse that just took their blood was really not a nurse but the janitor that the doctor decided to call a nurse!
Hopefully, if you are a pet owner and have read this, you will ask your veterinarian next time if they have school trained and registered veterinary technicians!
