001 Who's Who in Veterinary Medicine

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In this episode we discuss roles seen in a veterinary hospital. We also discuss credentialing for vet techs, as well as ways to further your career. We dive in little deeper into what it took for Yvonne and Jordan to get where they are. 

Show Notes: 

In This Episode… 
 
Things you will learn 

• Brief history of Veterinary Technicians 
  • ​​We’ve been “Vet techs” for how long? 
• Staff members that make up a veterinary practice 

 

• Receptionist Day: May 8, 2019 

Credentialing for Vet Techs 

• LVT:   Alabama, Alaska, Delaware, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington 
• RVT:    California, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, West Virginia 
• CVT:   Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, Wyoming  
• LVMT: Tennessee 
• None: Connecticut, Utah 

 

• What the heck is a Veterinary Technician Specialist?

 

• Cautions of the job:
  Burn out 
  Biting/scratching 
  Tip of the week 
  Continue learning, even if it is not required 

Page Break 
Resources We Mentioned in the Show 

• A Vet Tech's Take on the Short History of Veterinary Technology:
  • ​​http://www.vetstreet.com/learn/a-vet-techs-take-on-the-short-history-of-veterinary-technology 
• NAVTA 
• Vet Assistant Program: 
  • ​​https://www.navta.net/general/custom.asp?page=vet_asst_program 
• Vet Tech Specialties: 
  • ​​https://www.navta.net/general/custom.asp?page=SpecialtyInformation 
• AVMA 
• Veterinary technicians and veterinary assistants:
  • ​​https://www.avma.org/public/YourVet/Pages/techs-and-assistants.aspx 
• Veterinary Technology Programs Accredited by the AVMA CVTEA:
  • ​https://www.avma.org/ProfessionalDevelopment/Education/Accreditation/Programs/Pages/vettech-programs-all-programs-list.aspx
• AVMA American Board of Veterinary Specialties: 
  • https://www.avma.org/ProfessionalDevelopment/Education/Specialties/Pages/default.aspx 
• Veterinary Assistant Certification: 
  •  https://www.navta.net/general/custom.asp?page=vet_asst_program 
• Continuing Education Options: 
  • ​​​https://www.vetmedteam.com/home.aspx 
• Academy of Internal Medicine for Veterinary Technicians:
  •   https://www.aimvt.com/ 
• IMFPP Blog Posts: 
  • ​Who’s Who in the Vet Clinic Part 1: https://www.internalmedicineforpetparents.com/blog/whos-who-in-vet-clinic-part-1  
  • Who’s Who in the Vet Clinic Part 2: https://www.internalmedicineforpetparents.com/blog/whos-who-in-vet-clinic-part-2  

 
Thanks so much for tuning in. Join us again next week for another episode! 

Listening Options 

•  Direct Download from the website. 
•  Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast player for free! 
•  If you enjoyed this episode, rate and leave us a review wherever you can! 

Contact Us! 

• Check out www.internalmedicineforvettechs.com  
• If you want to get involved, leave us a comment! 
• Visit us and give us a ‘like’ on our Facebook page! 
  https://www.facebook.com/internalmedicineforvettechs 
• Email us at podcast@internalmedicineforvettechs.com 

 
 
Thanks for listening! 
– Yvonne and Jordan 

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Transcripts:

001 Who's Who in Veterinary Medicine Internal Medicine For Vet Techs Podcast.mp3 transcript powered by Sonix—the best audio to text transcription service

001 Who's Who in Veterinary Medicine Internal Medicine For Vet Techs Podcast.mp3 was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the latest audio-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors. Sonix is the best way to convert your audio to text in 2019.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Welcome to the Internal Medicine For Vet Techs podcast. If you haven't joined us before, we're passionate about all things internal medicine that affects our pets. We'll be discussing crazy internal medicine diseases, how to work closely with pet parents, and how to be the best tech we possibly can. Let's start the show.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
So welcome to the Internal Medicine For Vet Techs podcast. I'm super excited you guys are here.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Thank you for taking a chance on us. And I am Yvonne, and I'm super excited to be with here with my friend Jordan.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Hello. As here as here can be.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah, right, exactly. So Jordan and I, we are both vet tech specialists in a small animal internal medicine. That's how we met. And in case you we'll talk about that a little bit later, what the heck all that means. But, so what "here" means is I am in the San Francisco Bay Area. So California and then Jordan, I always forget exactly where you are. Where are you?

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
I'm in like the Hilton Head area of South Carolina. Savannah, Georgia area.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. So we're not even in the same room, but we're gonna try to make this work for you. We are going to start this week with kind of starting into our regular podcasting. We came up with an idea of how we want to format this and hopefully it'll work. So we're gonna kind of start with the topic that we'll be discussing. We'll give you some tips of the week, some cautions about what we're talking about, and then we'll definitely have some resources as well or for you to keep learning. Just in case you don't know this podcast, we are gearing towards the veterinary professionals, but definitely if you're a pet parent and you want to know more about a certain subject, we're happy to have you join us and we'll try to make it so that, you know, you can find out more information about things that we're discussing. Jordan, anything you want to talk about before we dive into this week's topic?

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
No, I mean, I'm ready to just dive right into who's who.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Who's who. Oh, I will say fair warning. Dogs, cats, small children sometimes make their appearance. We're gonna try to keep them out of here as much as possible. But, you know, sometimes they just appear. All right. So what we will be talking about this week.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
So we're going to we're basically going to talk about super basics of the veterinary medicine as far as the profession goes and and what the heck it means to be, working in our field. So both Jordan and I are credentialed veterinary technicians in the United States, we're called technicians, and some other places in the world are they are called nurses. So England, Australia, there are titles are nurses, veterinary nurses. And we just wanted to kind of go quick, quick overview, brief history of veterinary medicine and veterinary technician specifically because, you know, everybody talks about the doctors, but we veterinary technicians were for we're what keeps that hospital going.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
We found this really cool article and we'll put we'll put the link to it in the show notes as well. And that basically, so the difference between human medicine and veterinary medicine is: veterinary medicine is fairly new. You know, people had animals in their worlds, working for them, but really it wasn't until kind of the nineteen hundreds where the idea of dogs, cats, has been more taking care of them, definitely late nineteen hundreds for companion animal type stuff. So interesting fact in 1908, canine nurses, an institute in England was formed and they were kind of the very first program that is not just towards veterinary doctors but actually the you know, I don't know if it's considered paraprofessional?

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean like supporting staff. Staff. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
So that I thought that was kind of interesting that it was in 1908.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. I can't believe, I'm surprised it was that it wasn't sooner.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. We were joking about this earlier as we were like well when the heck was human nursing established. Well apparently in the Roman era in 300 AD. So yeah we have a little bit of catching up to do.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. Nurses have a couple years on us.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Then in the United States the first veterinary training or technician training, although they they still call it veterinary technician until apparently nineteen eighty nine was when they first officially adopted the term. So in the 60s it was still considered, you know, a veterinary assistance training program and that's when when they really were established in the United States. In 1967 the AVMA, which stands for the American Veterinary Medical Association, they actually started credentialing the Veterinary Technician programs, but again, it wasn't called back yet. So really in the late 60s is when we started seeing programs for assistants. Which is crazy to me.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
It is crazy like it took I mean it wasn't that long ago that they started training people to actually do what we do every day now.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Because, I was gonna say because how how long is that? That's fifty...

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
That's fifty two years.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Fifty two years, that's it? I mean that's that's kind of crazy when you think about it.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. It's, it's a little unreal.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. Like I've I've heard it really.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
You just think it would be longer. But I mean like people were caring for animals obviously prior to that but like to actually our career is still in its baby phase.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Oh for sure. Which is crazy because I've been doing this since 2003. So I'm like a third of the time that our career has really been there. Is how long I've been in the field, which is insane.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. Yeah.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
And it really does explain why there's so many changes that are happening that are amazing and crazy and why it's changing so quickly, which is which is cool for us.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. And then I think it also helps explain to why like I mean, even from the client aspect, we have that argument of technician versus assistant. And what do we do? But I mean, the career hasn't been around long enough for people to understand.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah, well, and I think that's really not only has it not been around enough, but I think just establishing some of those communications to like, you know, I don't know about you, but every time I talk to like friends and family, they have no clue what I'm doing. And I only know you like, oh, well, it's kind of like a nurse, but for animals.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Plus a lot more because you know, in the human field, they chop everything up into little pieces.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Whereas we kind of do it all.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. And multiple species. I'll just give us credit on that.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Oh yeah, legit. Right? Which is funny because I've definitely, I don't know about you, but I joke all the time that if if there was a zombie apocalypse, I would definitely have my best friend who's a veterinarian be on my team.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Because she'd be able to treat us. All right.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
For sure. I mean, it just comes with the territory of, like we know, multiple species that if a zombie apocalypse happens, we'll make the A-Team.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Right?! True. So our profession is in babies phases. Which is awesome. So we are hoping to help advance our profession. Get some more information out there.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Everybody in the veterinary field has an important specific job. So I think it's just a matter of informing people what that job actually is.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Very, very true. So, to go along with that, we're going to talk about kind of Who's Who in a Veterinary Clinic. There's many levels and, I actually I don't even know if I would call them levels. I would call them just different positions, right. Because I don't know about you, but I make it a point to try my best not to upset my front staff.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Definitely.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
'Cause they make my schedule. So I try not to make them mad. And it's anywhere from front staff all the way to the technicians, the doctors, management. So we're gonna we're going to talk about those different levels and just kind of job responsibilities, I guess is a good way to kind of talk about it. All right.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Who's who in the veterinary clinic? So the first person we kind of we kind of already said that this is gonna be your front office, front staff. They can be called the receptionist. At the clinic, or at the hospital that I work at we call them client service coordinators. The fancy term. I don't know what their title is where you're at.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
We kind of waver back and forth between receptionist and client service representatives. But as long as they feel like it's, some people don't like the term receptionist, and I don't really know why it's an important job, but we go along with what how people feel.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. I think part of it is a receptionist, it's kinda like saying technician versus nurse, right?

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
The receptionist to me, I see them in like an office and not doing a lot of the other stuff that our front staff is really doing, which is, yes, their client facing, but they're also dealing with incoming phone calls, directing people, checking people and checking people out, there's a ton of stuff that they do.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. And they definitely get overlooked.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Oh sure, sure. Having a really strong person in your front staff front office, I think makes them breaks your day.

Definitely. Because I mean being in the front office makes or breaks your day just based on like how clients handle situations, how your front office staff handles situations. It's stressful, you know.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. Yeah. And they get the brunt of it a lot of times.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Very much so. Like money especially, you know, not getting records or getting records, but not the right records. I mean, they get the brunt of most of the complaints. So yeah, unfortunately.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
So basically what Jordan and I are both trying to say is: we love you front staff, receptionists, thank you for making our jobs easier. And we're really sorry that we don't make your jobs easier.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Definitely. It's one of the hardest jobs in the clinic.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Oh, yeah. I completely agree with that, and underappreciated.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Very underappreciated. But they do have a day now that we should definitely celebrate. I don't remember exactly when our front office day is, but I know they have a day.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
This is true. We'll have to define that. So when, you know, after the front staff kind of what happens after that is typically you're gonna have either a veterinary assistant or veterinary technician that takes a pet and their owner into a room, gets history, gets the vitals potentially either in the room or in the treatment area, and is that next point of contact. We definitely should discuss the difference between a veterinary assistant, and a veterinary technician or nurse. The biggest difference is licensing or credentialing. I know in California where I'm at, it's the credentialed technician is a registered veterinary technician or an RVT. What is it where you're at?

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
So I'm licensed in South Carolina and Georgia, and they're both different, which is a little crazy because they're the same thing. But in South Carolina, I'm a licensed veterinary technician, so I'm an LVT. But in Georgia, I'm a registered veterinary technician.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Perfect. So the United States currently and this is 2019 when we're recording this. Currently there's four titles I believe in and it's state dependent. So there's registered veterinary technician, RVT, a licensed veterinary technician, LVT, credential veterinary technician, CVT, and then I believe it is a licensed veterinary medical technician. There's there's another one.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
I think so. But I'm not that's that one's like the rare one.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah, I think it's just one state. And I'm going to look this up. So. Yeah, so there are four. So the fourth one is a license veterinary medical technician. And that is only in Tennessee. So the Tennessee decided to go with LVMT. There is, I believe, one or two states currently that do not have credentialing with the state,.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Correct.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
And I can't remember off the top of my head which ones they are, but there it will put a link in the notes for the list of which state, in case you want to check that out. And then outside of the United States, we were talking about this is the term veterinary nurse. So I know in in Great Britain, Australia, it is a registered veterinary nurse. You know, it just depends on what governing body you are dealing with as far as what you're credentialing is.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
And why is that a big deal? Right? That's what people talk about. I know in California there's very specific tasks that an assistant can not do, that a technician can. Let me see if I can get this right off the top of my head. So in California, we can apply splints and cast. We can suture existing tissues, gingivitis, gum and subQ and skin. We can induce the anesthesia, whereas an assistant is not supposed to induce anesthesia, but they can monitor, they're just not supposed to induce. Because again, that is the most critical time is induction of anaesthesia. And then the fourth one... Let's see, what is the fourth one?

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Are you guys allowed to do centesis? Because I know some states don't allow that.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Totally fine in California.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
And I know like I know our state like in Georgia, like you have to be you are required to be licensed to intubate, which is like not induction, it's own separate thing. So that's definitely a touchy area where we do have those non credentialed technicians, intubating patients. And it's actually not allowed to be that way.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Wow. Yeah. Well, I was just saying I think in California, I don't know if they separated that out.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
I know. I mean, like around here, like our assistants, technicians are supposed to be the ones like placing catheters and drawing blood. And technicians are really, I mean, assistants are really there to assist us in the doctor with like holding, cleaning of our treatment areas, and cleaning our cages, and just patient management just like their overall stay at the hospital.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
But they're definitely very important. But I do agree with the guidelines that there should be in place between the difference of a veterinary technician and an assistant.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. And I think I think the biggest part of that, too, is, you know, it's up to the individual clinic and hospital whether or not they enforce it because if they're not enforcing it, you know, then it doesn't matter.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. Exactly.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
And without clients or pet owners release asking, hey, who's inducing my pet's anesthesia and, why? Why in the world they would ask that?

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah, exactly. There's not enough education out there for the general public to know that that's a question that they might that they may should ask. You know.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. Yeah. And and and that's up to us to, you know, inform them, hey, we legally follow the rules and we have technicians registered, licensed, credentialed, I'm going to say credentialed, because that's the easiest, credentialed technician doing the specific tasks that they can do that an assistant can't. And that doesn't mean an assistance any less worthy. It just means so different on specific things that they're not legally supposed to do. Same as, you know, technicians. We're not legally supposed to do doctor jobs.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Exactly. We're not legally allowed to be prescribing and initiating surgery.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
It's prescribing medications, making a prognosis or a diagnosis like we're not allowed to do that. And, you know, surgery is the other big thing. So there's there's specific things that only veterinarians can do that we're not allowed to do.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
I think as the general public becomes more aware of this field. I mean, obviously, as we stated, like a field so young that as the general public becomes more aware than they should become more aware of what a doctor does versus what a technician does versus what an assistant does. Just like I know now from frequent hospital visits, I should have an anesthesiologist assist in my induction.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. And I think we're getting to the place where in the larger metropolitan areas, you know, we we have the luxury of some of this stuff and it trickles down. Right?

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
And so it's just education and knowing what's available, what should be happening and getting people on board with it. Right?

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yes. So I guess to kind of go through them, aside from getting into the nitty gritty details: veterinary assistance they can obtain like a certification or a certificate. They aren't required to buy any sort of state. At least I don't believe so.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
I don't believe veterinary assistance that there is a state mandated thing for that. No.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
It's just like the extra program you can take in order to like help get your foot in the door or just improve your restraint skills and things like that, because they are good at restraining. They're able to system x rays, at least the ones that I've worked with. And then veterinary technicians or nurses are required, well most of them are required in order to obtain a license to go to an accredited school, whether getting a associates degree or a bachelors degree. But that's not required in every state, I don't believe.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
I believe that in order to sit for the exam.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yes.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
To be come credentialed. You have to, I believe, you still have to go through like an AVMA accredited school.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
That would fall on those states that don't require any sort of credentialing.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
You wouldn't have to take your VTNE. And then veterinarians obviously have a doctorate.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah, they do a lot of school. We don't do nearly as much school.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
And even human nurses like some of them do a lot more schooling than we do.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Oh yeah. For sure. And then in human nursing they have even more distinctions, like there's a medical assistant. I don't know. I know that there's different levels. "I'm a registered nurse". OK. So there's those. And then what Jordan and I, the reason we're kind of doing a small animal internal medicine thing is we've chosen in our careers to work in a specialty clinic and get our specialty a credential. We both have a VTS, a veterinary technician specialty credential in small animal internal medicine. And what that is, it's at least a two year process.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
A very stressful two year process.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
And you're doing this out of the goodness of your own heart because it's not like their school for it.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Your own free time. You know.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
If you're really lucky and the place you work at, sometimes you can work on it there and during slow time. But most times not. So it's a pretty involved process there. The organization that kind of keeps track of all these is NAVTA, which is the North American Veterinary Technician Association. And there's, we counted today, there is currently sixteen specialties. Every year I feel like they get more and more new ones. So we are under internal medicine and then we do small animal internal medicine. There's large animal. And then under internal medicine, there's also cardiology, neurology, oncology. And I think that's us. The five of us.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. Yeah, that's five.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
And we have to have so many hours in that specialty. Then we do case logs, case reports. We have a list of tasks that we must be proficient in, letters of recommendation,

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
I mean, well, the application process itself is just grueling and nerve racking and if that gets approved, then you have little lucky chance to actually sit for a big test. It's great.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah, the test. I know about you, but I had a beer after that test, cause,.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. Nothing like day drinking or something like it. We all went straight to the bar.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
I went to the bar and I said anybody want to meet up with me? And a couple people did, which was great.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. And we had our wonderful study group. I will give a shout out to them because without them I'm not sure we would have all made it through this process. It was amazing.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. Your study group was pretty awesome, actually. I think everybody passed, right?

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. It was really, really great. Yeah. Everybody in our study group passed the test and it was just nice to go through that stressful of an experience with other people.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah, it's funny because Ashley, Ashley DiPrete, she's part of Internal Medicine For Pet Parents, and she'll be on the podcast at some point as well. She and I actually took the test the same year and it was kind of similar thing where we were studying together and we you know, we hung out.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah, it makes it nice because then after the fact, we were all like, we still chat and it's been how long has it been? We took the test in June. So yeah.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
So it's been three months? Two months?

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Right? No. Three months. Three months today.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Three months today! Ahh, by the way, Jordan's a baby VTS. But yeah, I just got her VTS. So. Yeah, yeah, it's kind of an intense process. And then, by the way, your work was super cool with how excited they were that you got your VTS.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Oh, I know.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
It was really cute.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
That was. Yeah, that was it was funny cause my boss was like, do you care if I share this video? And I was like, no. I mean, it's like I mean, aside from obviously getting married, having my kids, it is one of the greatest days of my life.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Nice.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
It's up there with that.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
I don't know if we'll put a link to the video, but it's very cute. I'll see if I can find it and maybe put a link in minutes if you want.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
It's funny, too, because they were there was a couple of comments about the chair that was like leaning on when I got the phone call about how it was like looking rough. And so my boss went and bought a new chair because of that. And then like in the comments underneath that video, he's like, we bought a new chair and like he made this big thing about it is he is very proud of himself.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Once we celebrate and get our VTS. What it means for us, I don't know about you, but I was able to negotiate a raise at work, which was great.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yes.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
And then the first year afterwards, I spoke at one of the international conferences, ACVIM. I like speaking at conferences. I was a teacher for about oh, gosh, five years, I think. And so speaking at conferences to me is super fun. I'm kind of dorky like that, which is funny because I didn't used to be, like I had to work up to it. It was not, like, natural for me to be like, hey, let me just go speak in front of a bunch of people. I think, Jordan, have you talked at conferences or anything?

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
I have not done a conference yet. I applied to. So I guess we'll wait and see what happens there. And then I've spoken at a couple of different clinics around my area just with like helpful tips about things. I do enjoy doing that. Of course, I've been writing articles and hopefully we'll be having one published here soon.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Nice. Yeah. And writing articles is awesome. I don't think, other than on our website, and then with ACVIM, I haven't done articles. But, you know, it's something that we've kind of talked about that we might do a little bit more of. But, you know, as as a technician specialist, we can do that. You know, we also can do RACE approval, or not approval, excuse me, RACE approved, continuing education without having a doctor, which is really cool.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah, I think it opens the doors for us to just help educate people a little bit more. And obviously our skills are on point and have to be in order to get this credential.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
I would hope so. Right?

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. Right. We have to be able to actually do a job well in the hospital, but outside of the hospital at least it opens doors for education.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. So there's not many of us. I think the last time I looked, for small animal internal medicine, I believe there's around one hundred and twenty, so that's international, so there's not many of us. So we get to wear that little badge of honor.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Right.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
And then, you know, the other part of that equation is the doctors when they are diplomats. So I work with, I work in a larger hospital, so I have three internist internal medicine doctors that I work with. How many did you have at yours?

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
I have two internists. And then the building itself does have an oncologist and a neurologist. One of each.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
My clinic, or my hospital, I should stop saying clinic because it's a hospital. We only do specialty medicine. We don't have general practice. And that's pretty common, I believe, for most specialty clinics. So, yeah. Hospitals. We have the three internists, we have, I think we have three oncologists now, which is kind of crazy. We have a cardiologist, a neurologist, three surgeons, a dermatologist.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Wow.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. And then our emergency team, we have a lot of doctors. There is a lot of staff. It's it's 24/7. The place you're at is 24/7. Right. Like not your department, but the building.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah, exactly. So the building's always open.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. And and that's pretty common for a specialty. So my diplomats, I have three of them, they get their doctorate in their medicine and then they also do more schooling on top of it. They do residencies and intern interns. And then and then they have more of a test that they do as well.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. On top of their already, "I'm a doctor test" they do the "I'm a specialist test".

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Right. Exactly. This week's Tip of the week is going to kind of tie into what we've been talking about. So the biggest things that we recommend is whatever you decide to do with your path, make sure to use an AVMA approved program. And there's definitely some programs out there that are not approved. And then if you want to sit and get your license, you may not be able to without more schooling. You know, our profession, it's growing leaps and bounds. It's kind of crazy how much it's growing. So continuous learning is huge. I love going to CE's. I don't know about you.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
I love it. I mean, like you have the recommended amount of hours that you're supposed to get to keep your license. But I always get more. I just like the lessons. I wish veterinary stuff needs to realize it's not just for people who hold a license or even if you're an assistant and you're not required to get it's always worth going to listen to some sort of new lecture to learn about the new things and the changes in the veterinary world.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah, I totally agree with you on that. Yeah. If you can't go to like a giant conference, you know, consider the stuff locally. A lot of the tech associations or even veterinary associations in the area, whether it's, you know, your county, your state or whatever. They also have continuous education classes. The other like universities like I'm close. Well, kind of close to UC Davis. And they always have stuff. Different educational events and then online, online CE is awesome. I think you and I talked about this at one point, there's, I think it was VetMedTeam.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yes.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
A small animal internal medicine one that Liza does. Shout out to Liza, because she's amazing.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Right. That one is amazing.

Yeah. We both took it and it helped us tremendously with getting our specialty license. And then, you know, consider moving up in the field whether that's, you know, going to management because you love that. Or maybe you're gonna run the social media for your hospital, which is huge. You know, that helps get the word out about your clinic specializing. So there's again, there's 16 different specialties and there are definitely some that you can do within your practice. Even if you're just a general practice, and "just" being, you know, it's not really "just", but even if you are a general practice and not a specialty hospital, you can still specialize and up your skills and up your game. So just remember, that's an option. Any other tips that you want in that field?

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
No. I mean, I think honestly, just the like continued learning is the biggest one, just whether, I mean, even front office has there's always some sort of client communication, education, and there's always something to learn about. And online has great resources, like you said.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Conferences are great. And then also just reach out, I think we briefly talked about reaching out to outside, like Facebook groups as of cautiously. And then,.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah, I would say with Facebook groups, take some of them with a grain of salt, because one of the big things that is prevalent in our industry, cause it's a lot of girls.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Uh-huh.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
There is definitely a little bit of that. I don't know.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
I don't know how to put it.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
There's clicks and then, yeah, everybody gets really intense. Try not to focus on the bad stuff, you know.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
But if you can reach out and find that one technician I know like I've reached out to you when I was studying and it's one of those things where you can find someone to reach out to to like ask questions, too, or just ask for a little bit of help. Like, hey, I want to learn a little bit more about this and it looks like you know what you're talking about. So I'd like to reach out. And that is always an option, too. That's the thing that I grasped from the Facebook groups is to see who seems willing to give good advice.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah, I totally agree with you on that. That one hundred percent. Yeah.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Mentoring doesn't need to always be just for like wanting to specialize.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. And then I guess the things to know the cautions about our job. So the biggest thing I think is going to be on the job injuries. So you guys I mean if you work in the field, you know about it bites, scratches, back injuries. I think Jordan has a war story about some bites and scratches. So I'll let you dive into that one.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah, bites. Cat bites are the worst. You'll hear that if you go to school. I heard it in school, but it was one of those things. Well, once you got in the field, like, oh, it's not that bad. It's that bad. Especially cat bites just because they do harbor a little bit more bacteria than new normal dog. But any dog bite or cat bite, I strongly recommend immediately going and seeking medical help and not being stubborn about it, because I did end up having a cat bite that got pretty bad and I was in another hospital for months and ended it with still nerve damage and chronic pain. And so in my hands. So it does affect my normal day to day. And it gave me that wonderful cat allergy of that I wasn't allergic to cats prior to coming into this career, but the cat bite because I had such a bad reaction to it. Now I've developed an allergy to cats.

Wow.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah, but yeah. And then obviously the longer you do this career of lifting things and stuff like that, the more you need to be aware.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Take and take care of yourself. Like if you feel something. Just take a step back and be like, hey, let's regroup. Maybe talk to your doctor about giving some sort of sedation for that dog that's crazy, right? So that's that's stuff we just have to be careful of.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Along those lines, personal protective equipment. We all know about that. You know, make sure you're wearing where you're radiology gown and gloves and glasses and thyroid shields and all that, you know, making sure you're wearing gloves for gross stuff. Like I get it's not human, you know, the things that we're dealing with, but there is a potential for us to get zoonotic diseases and not even know sometimes that something is present.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Mm hmm.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
I'll share my zoonotic disease story because I always used to share this with my students. I somehow, I don't know how because I did not have a bite or a scratch within the time window of the appropriate length of time. I got Bartonella. So Bartonella is cat scratch fever, Cat scratch disease. And I was the half percent of the population that instead of having your typical, you know, swelling, vomiting, diarrhea kind of thing, I got retinal swelling. And so I actually lost vision in my left eye. I had like a black hole in the middle of my vision for several months.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Oh, man.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah, that was that was interesting. It took a while to figure out, but I was very, very excited to learn that I did not have a brain aneurysm, cancer.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Right? You're like, "Oh, it's just a zoonotic disease."

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
It's like, oh, yeah, it's you know, and he's like, oh, you don't have gonorrhea, syphilis, but you do have Bartonella. And I just started laughing because I'm like: "Seriously, I got this disease from my field?" It was just ridiculous. So thankfully, most of my vision came back in my left eye. But same as Jordan, you know, I do have some long lasting effects with my vision. So, it's knowing how to be careful and keeping an eye on yourself and understanding.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah, I know. And I think I think everybody tries to blow off like things like that, like, oh, I got a little bit of urine on my hands or I got a little scratch or I got like a little bite. And it's it's not always the case. You never know how your body's going to react to something. And you don't know all the time what an animal has. And. So, yeah, it can be scary, but you just gotta try to protect yourselves.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. And we'll we'll dive into some zoonotic diseases more in-depth later and like probably their own episodes. But it's just something, you know, is working in the field. We have to be aware of and just remember that there are there are potential issues.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yes.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
The other thing to know about working in this field. If you work in it, you already know.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yes.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
It is the pay. You know, we can't. There's no way to sugarcoat it. We're not in the human field. So we don't make human field money. But we'll we'll talk about this, I'm sure, in depth at some point. But, understanding that you can ask for a certain amount of pay when you're going into a clinic. And that's on you on what you demand for what you want to do. The other thing, you know, we kind of talked about it a little bit is improving your skills so that your employer sees what your worth is.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Definitely.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
And then you can only wait to let them know. They may not realize that you're doing things or they don't stop and think about it. Right?

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. Definitely. It's so easy for like especially like a small clinic or like a small general practice for the one doctor who's running the entire show to skim over the fact that their staff is super helpful or that someone is going and taking an extra step to get CE with their own money and learning a little bit more and really trying to prove themselves. Don't be afraid to ask.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Yeah, there's there's a ton of things we can learn, I think, to help promote ourselves, too. Because I think it's hard for everyone to do that. You know, we love what we do, but but we also have to live.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah.

You know, we'll dive into that, think in depth at some point, too. And then the last thing that I'm sure is a big subject and we can't kind of all know that is mental health in our field because of compassion fatigue or ethical fatigue. I'm kind of depending on, you know, what what's going on. But we all go through it because of just the nature of the things that we see day in, day out.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Mm hmm. It's difficult. It's difficult knowing that, like, you want to help this pet, but you can't because people don't have money or the people have money and they don't want to help this pet. It's very, it can be challenging. And then, of course, you have the clients who are mad because you don't help their pet for free, but they don't. You know, it's very challenging. And I'm sure we'll probably have an episode just on mental health alone.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah. I think mental health and just taking care of ourselves would be a great episode.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Definitely. Things you can do to improve your mental well-being in and out of the hospital. Yes.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
It's the tip of the week: In our show notes. We'll definitely put some resources. So remember your AVMA, NAVTA, local associations, the mentors. We talked about that as well, Facebook groups. And then we'll have lists of Web sites and articles that we kind of mentioned in here. If you haven't checked out the Internal Medicine For Pet Parents blog there's some great articles we talk a little bit more in-depth about different levels within the hospital. So there is that.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
Yes. And great resources on that web site. And then, of course, ways to get just a little bit more information and other resources that we recommend using.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
And now for the Question of the Week.

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
So our Question of the Week this week is what's your position job title for what you do, where you work? Where do you want to go in your career? What are you willing to do to get there? Where are you and what made you decide to work in veterinary medicine? Just tell us about yourself. Leave a comment on our web site and just let us know a little bit about yourself.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Yeah, we want we want to know more about you and figure out what we can do to make things cooler for you. So definitely leave us a comment this week in our Question of the Week. All right. Well, thank you. Jordan, by the way. Thank you for joining me on this podcast. I think this is our first official episode. So hopefully, hopefully, you guys get stuff out of this and we'll continue with our podcast next week. Anything you want to share before we head out for the day?

Jordan Porter, RVT, LVT, VTS SAIM:
No, just thanks for listening. Continue to listen. We will be talking about diseases, patient care, and just everything kind of in between. So hopefully it can be a little bit educational for people to and from work or just in spare time. Great. Yeah. Thanks for listening. It was great.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
All right.

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS SAIM:
Thank you for listening to today's episode of the Internal Medicine for Vet Techs Podcast. If you'd like what you heard, we'd love for you to share with someone you think might enjoy the podcast. And make sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Want to give us a boost? Please leave a review on i-Tunes or your favorite podcatcher and we'll be sure to say thank you. Find out everything about us at www.InternalMedicineForVetTechs.com. Talk to you next week. Bye.

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Question of the Week:

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