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Veterinary technician

A veterinary technician (also called a vet tech), is a person trained and licensed to assist veterinarians. Their job is similar to that of a nurse.

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Job description

Common tasks performed by a veterinary technician include taking histories, providing treatment to routine problems, and giving counseling to clients. Technical skills include venipuncture, collecting urine, performing skin scrapings, performing routine lab procedures and tests in hematology, chemistry, microbiology, urinalysis, and serology. They assist the veterinarian with physical examinations that help determine the nature of the illness or injury. Veterinary technicians also administer medications, anesthesia, and blood products to the animals as prescribed by the veterinarian. Tasks in patient care include recording temperature, pulse and respiration, dressing wounds, applying splints and other protective devices, and cleaning teeth. They perform catheterizations, both urinary and venous, ear flushes, intravenous feedings, and tube feedings. Equipment use includes operating electrocardiographic and radiographic equipment. Veterinary technicians commonly assist veterinarians in surgery by providing correct equipment and instruments and by assuring that monitoring and support equipment such as anesthetic machines, cardiac monitors, scopes and breathing apparatus are in good working condition. They also maintain treatment records and inventory of all pharmaceuticals, equipment and supplies.

Veterinary technicians are very different from veterinary assistants, because veterinary assistants have not been properly trained to perform many of the tasks that veterinary technicians can nor do they have specific education in this field. Assistants typically have only a high school diploma or GED, but some may have limited college experience or be in school studying to become a board certified technician.

Although a veterinary technician do not go to school as much as a veterinarian, they still work as closely to animals as they do.

Education

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) is responsible for accrediting schools with either a 2-year Associate's degree or a 4-year Bachelor's degree. The organization just recently started to accredit schools that offer distance education. As a requirement of AVMA-accreditation, all distance learning programs require a significant amount of practical clinical experience before the student will be allowed to graduate. Clinical experience is usually obtained by employment or volunteer hours at an animal clinic. Preceptors must be a veterinarian or a credentialed vet technician and are required to instruct and sign off on clinical tasks and then submit the records to the school for approval while some tasks are required to be videotaped and submitted to the school for grading. All distance-learning students in an AVMA-accredited program are held to the same standards as on-campus students in order to be eligible for graduation.

Different states have different titles for veterinary technicians. Some call them Registered Veterinary Technician (RVT), some, Certified Veterinary Technician (CVT), and still others Licensed Veterinary Technician (LVT). However, graduates of any AVMA accredited program may take a national certification exam (and in some states a state exam and/or references are required as well) and, upon passing, become certified/registered/licensed in any state. The technician is then subject to the regulations of the state Veterinary Medical Practice Act of the state she or he practices in.

In the United Kingdom veterinary technicians are known as Veterinary Nurses (VNs). The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons awards the veterinary nursing qualification and maintains a statutory list of veterinary nurses. VNs on the list are entitled by law to give animals medical treatment, and carry out certain minor surgery, under veterinary direction.

Many are employees are self proclaimed or called "Veterinary Technician" but are not. To be a "Technician" one must be Certified, Registered, or Licensed (varies by state). To become a Certified/Registered/Licensed Vet Tech you must attend a 2 year accredited school, obtain an Associates in Vet. Technology and pass your states' board exam (some states allow on the job training, usually five years, to substitute for a degree then require sitting for the National Boards). Vet Assistants are different than a licensed/registered/certified technician. Vet Assistants cannot legally perform as many procedures as a technician can.