Veterinary Health Care Team Members

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Veterinary Health Care Team Members
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Introduction

• Veterinary practice can be a highly structured
  environment that provides an excellent career for
  all team members.
• Goal is to provide superb medical care to
  patients and outstanding customer service to
  clients.
• Workplace should be friendly, efficient and safe.
• All team members should take a part of
  responsibility of care and must take initiative
  to provide the best care, whatever the position
  is within the clinic.

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Veterinary Team

• Veterinarian
• Responsible for providing guidelines of medical
  care
• Assistants and technicians
• Responsible for following guidelines to provide
  excellent care.

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In Hospital Patients

• Receive care from all team members and all team
  members are responsible for ensuring patient
  safety and comfort.
• Patients may never be left in feces and urine
• Must always have access to water and food when
  allowed
• Be hospitalized in a warm, comfortable environment

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Outpatients

• Include those that visit for exams, lab work, or
  other services.
• Responsibility of team to provide services to
  clients and ensure that client receives the
  necessary services in a timely manner.
• Medications, client instructions, and handouts
  should be supplied to the client when needed.

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Other considerations

• Internet
• More and more clients find information on
  internet.
• Should be encouraged to seed out practice with
  questions to supplement any information found on
  the internet.
• Excellent customer service
• Clients have expectations for prompt call backs
  with results, etc.
• Veterinary clinics are ranked higher than
  physicians in value that people place on them

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Keys of Considerations

• Open communication
• Know that each role is important
• Roles and duties should be outlined in employee
  manual.
• Each team member should know place in hierarchy.

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Students

• Can function as observers or hold paid positions.
• Include veterinary students, technician students,
  high school, students, etc.

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Groomers

• May or may not be present in the clinic. Have
  unique technical skills and must be cautious due
  to many hazards that are present.
• Sometimes are a key link to noticing
  abnormalities on grooming cases.

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Kennel Assistants

• Critical to health care team.
• Should become familiar with cleaning protocols as
  well as any hazards.
• Should be trained to detect emergency situations
• Must be able to interpret charts for correct
  feeding protocols, etc.

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Veterinary Assistants

• Help technicians and veterinarians
• Should excel at physical restraint, laboratory
  skills, patient care, and client relations.
• Should have patience.

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Veterinary Technicians

• Critical to health care team
• Graduate from a 2 year veterinary technology
  program approved by the AVMA and must pass the
  VTNE and any state licensing examinations.
• Allowed to perform certain duties not allowed by
  a non-licensed individual.
• Generally assigned a patient by the veterinarian
  and follows protocols set forth by practice.
• Critical for client communication and patient
  care.

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Veterinary Technologists

• Graduate of a 4 year bachelor of science program
  in veterinary technology by the AVMA.

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Veterinary Technician Specialties

• May focus on particular area of patient care.
• Require specialized training in the area and take
  another exam in that area of specialty.
• Internal Medicine
• Emergency and Critical Care
• Dentistry
• Surgery and Anesthesia
• Equine
• Behavior

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Receptionists

• Face of the veterinary practice
• Greet clients, detail and clarify invoices and
  receive money.

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Office Managers

• Responsible for overseeing the staff and running
  of the office.

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Veterinarians

• Only members allowed to diagnose, prescribe and
  perform surgery on patients.
• Must be graduate of accredited school of
  veterinary medicine.
• Must be licensed in state where they work and
  pass both state and national examinations.

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Practice Managers

• May or may not be present in clinic.
• Helps to keep entire team working together .
• May review records for completeness,
  implementation of new business strategies.
• Educational requirements vary.

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Hospital Administrators

• May be veterinarian, technician, or a business
  manager.
• Usually has complete authority over the operation
  of the business and practice.
• Responsible for setting budgets, paying bills,
  creating organizational structure, and planning
  events.

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Programs to Enhance Staff Education

• Programs are available online and at community
  colleges across the U.S.
• VSPN offers a lot of online resources.
• Animal Care Training videos
• Local specialty and emergency centers sometimes
  provide continuing education
• Manufacturer and distributors also provide
  training
• Extent of training or continuing education varies
  from state to state