Veterinary Technician Appreciation Week has officially come to a close, but our gratitude for our fantastical team of technicians is unchanged! I want to take one more opportunity to wish all of our veterinary technicians the very best and offer my sincere thanks for all of your continued hard work and dedication. Our patients, clients, students, house officers, and faculty owe each of you a debt of gratitude for all that you do. 

 

As we continue to navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic, unprecedented staff shortages, rising caseloads, and many competing needs for our time, it is important to acknowledge these struggles and work toward a healthier workplace. With these things in mind, I want to share some bullet points of just a few of the ways that our team is moving forward.

 

·        EQUITY –

For staff, we have started the process of salary review and adjustment to be equitable and account for career longevity. This is an ongoing process that we started with the services where staff are in high demand and require specialized training. Faculty equity processes have been in place the last several years, and over the last few months, we have reinvested in this process to provide critical equity for faculty teams across multiple services. While this process is time consuming and requires approvals from many different departments, we are hopeful that this positive change will be felt throughout the hospital.

 

·        EXPANSION – Despite a national shortage, we continue to expand our staff, house officer, and faculty groups to provide improved quality of care and promote wellness within our teams. We have added more than 15 FTE staff positions, successfully replaced many retirements, and have many positions in recruitment. These recruitments have enabled us to take on additional ward treatments to reduce student clinical hours, provide improved patient care, and continue serving the community. We have also expanded to recruit additional residents, clinical fellows, and faculty during this challenging time. We have restructured our staff and clinical leadership teams to provide improved access and attention to the needs of our VMTH community. Our success in recruitments speaks to the excellence of our team, and we should all be proud of this! To help us compete in times of unprecedented demand for technicians and staff veterinarians, we have a petition pending with the university that would provide signing bonuses for these title series. We are hopeful that we can institute this program to boost recruitment successes in 2022.

 

·        RETENTION –

We have amazing talent on our team. In recognition of this talent, we are working to formalize retention bonuses for technicians. We believe in the strength of the team and will do everything we can to ensure that we keep this team intact!

 

·        RECOGNITION –

It’s easy to lose sight of all the excellent things that are happening around us. We hope that things such as the tokens of recognition during veterinary technician week and the recent staff luncheon brightened your day. Our VPETT program is ongoing and provides recognition and prizes to recognize excellence within our teams. We recently launched our house officer wellness program which acknowledges some of the unique struggles that our trainees face and aims to promote wellness within this critical group of VMTH clinicians.

 

The work of creating a healthy workplace and supporting our team members is never done, and I acknowledge that we need to continue on this journey. I look forward to sharing new programs and progress with you in the coming months. As you see things that make you proud to be here, please help by recognizing your teammates. As you see areas for improvement, please don’t hesitate to reach out and let me know. We’re all in this together, and I am proud to work alongside each of you. 

 

Thanks for all that you do.