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Veterinary Practice News Editorial Blog:
Friday, April 11, 2008
New York State Veterinary Board Sets Uneasy Precedent in the Name Game
By Somyr McLean Perry
Managing Editor of Vetpracticenews.com and Veterinary Practice News
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Don't you hate it when someone gets props for doing a job you consider yourself more qualified to do?
Apparently, New York State people nurses are feeling sensitive about veterinarians calling their veterinary technicians "nurses." I suspect that practitioners tend to use the word to describe their unlicensed technician staff.
Whoops--if they're unlicensed I can't call them "technicians" either.
The New York people nurses association complained to the state's Veterinary Medical Society's Executive Board about the issue and the board agreed that the word "nurse" is not interchangeable with veterinary technicians, licensed or not.
So now what?
Everyone who's not a licensed tech is called a veterinary assistant. I like the word "nurse" over "technician" anyway because that's what these people do all day, they nurse pet patients back to health. They take their blood, wipe their butts, clean their bedding, place their IVs, hand-feed them … they perform the act of nursing.
Where did the New York people nurses get the idea that only people can be nursed?
The word "teching" offers no context for what technicians do all day. And "assisting" conjures up visions of coffee runs, paper-pushing and dry cleaning pick-ups. "Assistant" isn't exactly what a non-licensed tech with 15 years’ experience wants to be called.
I get it that licensed techs are offended when other technical staff call themselves "technicians" and are allowed to perform medical procedures that licensed techs spent a lot of time and money to learn in school.
To a certain extent, I don't blame them. It always cracks me up when a writer asks to proofread my edits or approve layouts before they go to print. Um, who is the editor here?
Licensed techs may just say that if you want to be called a "technician" go to school and get credentialed. But not every state offers programs for certification. Perhaps that's an underlying problem--access to education and funds to pay for it. There are distance-learning programs that work for some people, but I'm not sure how effective they are.
There's still this naming problem, though, and the New York veterinary board has set an uneasy precedent of trade marking words that can only be used if you have a bunch of alphabet soup at the end of your name.
What if one day the Veterinary Hospital Managers Assn. says that the term "practice manager" can only be used if the person is certified by its organization?
On-the-job training and years of experience have to count for something.
In the meantime, just make my name badge out to say "the help."
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