I love my job

Currently, I work as a full time veterinary surgical technician. I'm not licensed, I didn't go to a special school or go through a special program. I didn't even have a lot of experience or training in the field when I was hired. I was trained solely at the clinic I work at. I have put in a lot of hours, including unpaid hours at home, learning skills to make me a good technician, and let me tell you, I am a DAMN good veterinary technician.

Recently, I've had people tell me I don't deserve to be called a technician, or that I don't deserve to get paid what they get paid as a certified technician. I've had people say that I can't possibly know enough to be a technician, or that it is deceiving to my clients to call myself a technician.

I was hired as a technician. My hospital owner and practice manager knew I did not have any technician certification, and they knew I would primarily need to be trained on the job. And guess what? They hired me anyways, called me a technician, and started my training AS A TECHNICIAN.

As a technician, I have many responsibilities. I monitor patients during surgery, I run anesthesia during surgery, and I recover patients after surgery. I give subcutaneous, intramuscular, and intravenous injections on a regular basis. I intubate patients before surgery, and I help prepare them for surgery. I help restrain animals in exam rooms, I do treatments for hospitalized patients, and I alert the doctors if anything seems unusual and I think they should take an extra close look at it. I'm learning how to place IV catheters and draw blood from the jugular, and I'm getting pretty good at them.

I've recently become aware of a movement to make sure that only those who went to school and got certified as a tech are allowed to call themselves technicians and hold special responsibilities as technicians; many responsibilities that I currently have as a non-certified technician. That would mean that I would lose a lot of my responsibilities that make me love my job as much as I do. I love monitoring anesthesia. I love recovering a patient from surgery, and I love being there during the surgery. I learn so much watching my doctors during surgery, especially considering I want to be a veterinarian one day. I would lose so many learning opportunities if I were to lose my title as a technician. I wouldn't get better at drawing blood from a jugular, and I wouldn't get better at placing IV catheters. I wouldn't get better at learning what to look for in blood work, or in X-rays. Working closely with the doctors, as their technician, has only showed me more and more that helping animals is what I want to spend my life doing.

Don't get me wrong, part of me gets it. The licensed techs went to school and took an exam and got certified. I will be the first to acknowledge that takes a lot of time, dedication, and work. And hell, they did it, and I didn't. Instead, I worked from the ground up to prove myself as a technician. I wasn't able to show a certificate to get my employers to give me a chance. I was only able to show me and my desire to learn. I recognize the work that the certified techs put in, but it's only fair that they recognize the work that I have also put in, certified or not. Many things I didn't learn about in school or have practice doing; I just had to figure it out when an emergency came in.

Now, I suppose I could just go back to school and go through a technician program to take an exam to get my license. But see, the thing is, I've already gone to school for 5 years, and I plan on going back to become a veterinarian. I got a Bachelor's in animal science, and I'll be damned if that doesn't mean something in terms of being a veterinary technician. Honestly, if I was able to take an exam tomorrow to get certified as a technician, I'm pretty sure I would pass it. But I can't. I would have to dedicate two more years of school, pass an exam, get certified, and then not use that certification once I got through vet school. In a sense, that extra schooling would be a waste of my time, because I don't want to be a tech for the rest of my life. But that doesn't mean I don't want to be a tech right now.

Unfortunately, I don't think the battle to take my job title away is going to go anywhere just because of this article. There are still going to be people who say I don't deserve my title, or that I'm not allowed to call myself a technician. But I know what I am, my coworkers know what I am, and my doctors know what I am. I know that I have put so much work into this profession, and I don't think any of my clients would view me as less of a technician if they knew I didn't have an official license.

I am a veterinary technician, and at the end of the day, no one can take that away from me.