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Veterinary Practice News Editorial Blog:
Wednesday, July 21, 2009
Lost in Back: The Elusive Kennel Assistant
By Katherine Dobbs, RVT, CVPM, PHR
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 Our next stop on the Staff Safari is the prairie dog mounds; let’s see if we can catch a glimpse of these crafty critters.
The kennel assistants in your practice may be the lowest paid and perhaps the youngest persons on the team, but their work is essential to the care and comfort of your patients. Given the laborious task of feeding, cleaning, bathing and maintaining the patients in the practice’s care, they stay very busy indeed.
They may pop out from time to time to gauge the safety of their surroundings, like prairie dogs peeking out to spot trouble, but often they stay underground because they are frequently taken to task if there is anything amiss with the patients or their surroundings.
Perhaps it’s time to recognize their potential, rather than assuming their avoidance demonstrates a lack of motivation.
There are kennel assistants who intend to stay in this “back” or underground position indefinitely on your team, but it is more likely that these people are on their way … either up or out. This job is either a stop on a lower rung of the career ladder in your practice, or a pause on their way to another career elsewhere in the future.
The astute manager or supervisor will know what the kennel assistant has in mind, simply by asking. This way the practice can help this person grow during their time together, either by grooming him for a more technical position on the medical staff, or supporting her outside interests to encourage her to grow toward their chosen career. The important thing is to maintain a positive relationship during the time they are working in the kennel, so they will feel pride in the vital work they do maintaining and interacting with your patients.
The best way to instill pride in this lower-rung position is to consciously involve them in decisions and changes that affect the practice.
Ask their opinion and accept their input, and provide continuing education opportunities for them as well as other positions in your practice.
If there are multiple people working shifts in the kennel, then it’s likely one of them is the silent or can be the chosen leader of the pack.
This person can help develop and disperse protocols and procedures to ensure a well-oiled operation in the kennel. He or she can also enable direct communication with the team, so that three technicians aren’t giving two different kennel assistants completely different instructions.
It’s important for everyone to hear the same thing, through a central person.
Most important, respect these people and the hard work they do every day. They perform some of the least glamorous and most toilsome work in the practice, and without them the clinic would be chaos.
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Lost in Back: The Elusive Kennel Assistant
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