Caffeinators, we hope you're having a wonderful holiday season! For our last episode of 2024, we have another incredible guest for you, from Scotland! Sam Fontaine, RVN, MSc, PGCAP, BSc, DipAVN(Med), FHEA, SFRET, recently came by the Vet Tech Cafe. She launched a Master's in Advanced Practice in Veterinary Nursing program in the UK, that is completely online and takes students from around the globe. It was fascinating to hear about the creation of the program and how adaptable it is to different career paths. We also spent some time talking about life as an RVN in Scotland and what that looks like-SPOILER ALERT-they face many of the same challenges we do in the United States, just as all of the other countries from which we've had previous guests face. It's really interesting to see where the future of post-graduate education for veterinary technicians may go!

Show Links:

https://www.gla.ac.uk/postgraduate/taught/vet-nurse/

Videos on the Uni’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W6g8Bq69zs (PG cert course leaders discussing the first year of the program)

https://youtu.be/Hip9GrN6T9I (a short interview with Kat Carman, one of the recent US MSc graduates)

Our Links:

Check out our sponsor https://betterhelp.com/vettechcafe for 10% off your first month of therapy

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If you would like to help us cover our podcast expenses, we'd appreciate any support you give through Patreon. We do this podcast and our YouTube channel content to support the veterinary technicians out there and do not expect anything in return! We thank you for all you do. 🐾

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/vettechcafe

Caffeinators, we've often said that while we want to be an autonomous profession, we are going to need the help of veterinarians to get us there. Colleen Gallagher, CVT, is going to be one of those veterinarians. This is a unique episode in that Colleen is a CVT in Massachusetts, but she's also a second year veterinary student at Tufts University. So we talked a lot about veterinary technician issues and the landscape of our profession with a future veterinarian! It was a fascinating discussion to see the profession from a couple different angles and Colleen is very passionate about title protection, scope of practice, and many other facets of the veterinary technician profession that will undoubtedly be to our benefit as she moves on in her career. It was really refreshing to hear a future veterinarian have these thoughts and ideas-definitely give it a listen!

Show Links:

AAHA Technician Utilization Guidelines: https://www.aaha.org/resources/2023-aaha-technician-utilization-guidelines/

AAHA "Stay, Please" Survey: https://www.aaha.org/resources/white-paper-factors-that-support-retentionand-drive-attrition-in-the-veterinary-profession/

NAVTA 2022 Demographic Survey: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11pmYzIouybfL55YsduRbaZ1TtMD1i2DB/view

NAVTA VNI 2022 Working Group Report: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o2g1-WckMsfpaigazgnz7YpKe1YP8k-y/view

The 3 Rs Collaborative (United States, formerly the North American 3 Rs Collaborative): https://3rc.org/

National Center for the 3 Rs (UK): https://nc3rs.org.uk/

ALAVTN, responsible for awarding VTS-LAM: https://www.alavtn.org/index.html

AALAS, responsible for awarding ALAT/LAT/LATG designations: https://www.aalas.org/

ACLAM, specialty college for lab animal veterinarians: https://www.aclam.org/

Our Links:

Check out our sponsor https://betterhelp.com/vettechcafe for 10% off your first month of therapy

Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vettechcafe

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vettechcafepodcast

Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vet-tech-cafe

Like and Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMDTKdfOaqSW0Mv3Uoi33qg

Our website: https://www.vettechcafe.com/

Vet Tech Cafe Merch: https://www.vettechcafe.com/merch

If you would like to help us cover our podcast expenses, we'd appreciate any support you give through Patreon. We do this podcast and our YouTube channel content to support the veterinary technicians out there and do not expect anything in return! We thank you for all you do. 🐾

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/vettechcafe

Dog Days Consulting Social Media Management - https://dogdaysconsulting.com/

Dave and Jeff wrap up their first HiVE event from Anaheim CA and discuss some past and future episodes. Lots of great contacts and future guests at this event!

Caffeinators, by now you've heard or read more than you want to about Proposition 129 in Colorado. For this episode, we spoke with Erin Henninger, BA, RVT, VTS(ECC), who is the Executive Director for the Colorado Association of RVT's (CACVT). While we talked about 129 and how it came to be and the money trail, we tried to not make it the focus of this discussion. Rather, we talked at length about CACVT and the amazing work they're doing to support veterinary technicians and VTS's in Colorado. Erin talked about scope of practice for veterinary technicians and VTS's and how that landscape is changing within the law to make this a more sustainable career in Colorado, and elevate VT's and VTS's. We covered a lot of ground in this episode, but I think most of us would agree the work CACVT is doing and the change they are making is what we want to see on a national level.

Show Links:

HB24-1047 Veterinary Technician Scope of Practice information

CACVT’s VPA position statement and plan for future

Our Links:

Check out our sponsor https://betterhelp.com/vettechcafe for 10% off your first month of therapy

Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vettechcafe

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vettechcafepodcast

Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vet-tech-cafe

Like and Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMDTKdfOaqSW0Mv3Uoi33qg

Our website: https://www.vettechcafe.com/

Vet Tech Cafe Merch: https://www.vettechcafe.com/merch

If you would like to help us cover our podcast expenses, we'd appreciate any support you give through Patreon. We do this podcast and our YouTube channel content to support the veterinary technicians out there and do not expect anything in return! We thank you for all you do. 🐾

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/vettechcafe

Dog Days Consulting Social Media Management - https://dogdaysconsulting.com/

Caffeinators, we're going back to Canada for this one, so pack your bags! Or, you can stay remote like Leilani's employees and listen to her talk about Animal HealthLink! Leilani Mustillo has been an RVT for over 15 years, but as many of us have, experienced burnout and due to life circumstances needed to reimagine her career. She had a love of triage, and created Animal HealthLink in 2020, a tele triage company based in Canada. We talked about starting that type of business, logistics, and how it's grown to have helped over 300,000 pets so far. This was a fascinating discussion, and a great reminder that as veterinary technicians, all we need is an idea and we can create something really incredible!

Show Links:

https://www.animalhealthlink.ca/

Our Links:

Check out our sponsor https://betterhelp.com/vettechcafe for 10% off your first month of therapy

Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vettechcafe

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vettechcafepodcast

Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vet-tech-cafe

Like and Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMDTKdfOaqSW0Mv3Uoi33qg

Our website: https://www.vettechcafe.com/

Vet Tech Cafe Merch: https://www.vettechcafe.com/merch

If you would like to help us cover our podcast expenses, we'd appreciate any support you give through Patreon. We do this podcast and our YouTube channel content to support the veterinary technicians out there and do not expect anything in return! We thank you for all you do. 🐾

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/vettechcafe

Dog Days Consulting Social Media Management - https://dogdaysconsulting.com/

Caffeinators, you probably know Dave works at Action Vet Tech Services, a veterinary technician relief service company based in North Carolina. For this episode, we'd like to introduce you to Jacklyn Phillips, founder of AVTS! This is a great story many of us can relate to-being in this field for a long time, getting burned out, leaving, and trying to find your way back through a better way. She talks about the idea behind AVTS, how she got it started and then grew the business, all the way up to where it is today. She also provided some really valuable pointers that helped her on perhaps the most difficult aspect of it-the business part of it. Take a listen-this is an idea that truly could be far more utilized than it is.

Show Links:

https://actionvettechs.com/

https://www.sba.gov/

Our Links:

Check out our sponsor https://betterhelp.com/vettechcafe for 10% off your first month of therapy

Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vettechcafe

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vettechcafepodcast

Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vet-tech-cafe

Like and Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMDTKdfOaqSW0Mv3Uoi33qg

Our website: https://www.vettechcafe.com/

Vet Tech Cafe Merch: https://www.vettechcafe.com/merch

If you would like to help us cover our podcast expenses, we'd appreciate any support you give through Patreon. We do this podcast and our YouTube channel content to support the veterinary technicians out there and do not expect anything in return! We thank you for all you do. 🐾

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/vettechcafe

Dog Days Consulting Social Media Management - https://dogdaysconsulting.com/

Happy National Veterinary Technician Week!

We wanted to share this article we found on LinkedIn (via Liz Hughston) about Vet Tech Week. It's an interesting stance on the subject. Give it a read and let us know what you think!

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/i-stand-against-vet-tech-week-meagan-parks-sjcwe/?trackingId=AlLEd73mSeKS4O8Y1fSdQQ%3D%3D

Caffeinators, can you believe the Vet Tech Cafe has been open for FIVE years? As we embark on year 6, we're still going strong and we plan to bring you great episodes every other week. As always, we're starting year 6 with our good friend Liz Hughston. She's been a huge supporter of ours since we hatched this crazy scheme of a podcast, and we've been so fortunate to kick off each year with her on our show. It's always great to check in with her as she has pretty dang good pulse on what's happening in the profession. We cover a lot of ground in this one; you won't want to miss it. Thank you all for your support for the last 5 years-here comes Year 6!

Show Links:

https://www.natvpu.org/

Our Links:

Check out our sponsor https://betterhelp.com/vettechcafe for 10% off your first month of therapy

Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vettechcafe

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vettechcafepodcast

Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vet-tech-cafe

Like and Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMDTKdfOaqSW0Mv3Uoi33qg

Our website: https://www.vettechcafe.com/

Vet Tech Cafe Merch: https://www.vettechcafe.com/merch

If you would like to help us cover our podcast expenses, we'd appreciate any support you give through Patreon. We do this podcast and our YouTube channel content to support the veterinary technicians out there and do not expect anything in return! We thank you for all you do. 🐾

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/vettechcafe

Dog Days Consulting Social Media Management - https://dogdaysconsulting.com/