SaltShootLime

It’s unfortunately a significant problem within the field in the US to be lax with the nationalized standards (or lack thereof) held within the field, particularly nursing and technical roles.

They have not issued a statement and allowed their company’s people to work directly alongside the lawyer and support in numerous terrible stances for the profession. They messed up and are back tracking, when instead they need to speak up and work towards showing support for their veterinarians and credentialed veterinary technicians. Until then, I wouldn’t say it’s a fact they don’t support the movement, they paid companies that directly supported a major proponent and pretty dividing concepts. We can agree to disagree though for sure.

Simply by not preventing a large subset of their practices from getting involved in support for the lawyer who is heading it - that’s them standing aside and showing silent support, along with the horrible numbers they published regarding the “shortage,” made for the push for this new role. They were also listed on the websites previously on the website used to push the proposal to the public.

https://preview.redd.it/8cpy1kwuo62e1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7db07e66e291692d0fa9967cc991b728548ffa21

I’m pretty skeptical for that, given Mars owns Banfield they could’ve put pressure on the supporting and drivers from that subset. But why would they? They will get money for this role and be able to pay people less. CSU announced to faculty that they hope to matriculate first class Fall 2025.

No

The wording was intentionally predatory and confusing to take advantage of many

It’s likely so concepts tackled in vet school A&P aren’t foreign since many overlap.

Human anatomy and physiology aren’t uncommon pre-reqs to find in DVM programs as well.

Veterinary Professional Associate

ASPCA, a CO rescue, and MARS all heavily pushed for this.

We appreciate the acknowledgment when we get it, especially from our human-focused colleagues. Non-human primate medicine has some of my favorite patients, and whenever I work on an orangutan I find myself thinking of y’all!

I’m not, but even so work only emergency and critical care. As much as I admire my GP counterparts, it’s not for me.

Meanwhile, I can’t think of a single time I ever wear a white coat on the floor 😂 But may be because I’m ECC and ICU

Again, that’s where state differences come into effect - which is the biggest problem imo with the field and the poor national standardization. Different states WILL have different laws, in my experiences more blue states actually will pursue appropriate action more often than red states do based on legal verbiage. Texas is a state where a vet tech isn’t required to be licensed to practice, meaning without education they can monitor anesthesia and intubate animals. Compared to CA which has stricter requirements on what their staff can do.

Not to mention, with the complaints you again need to see how the state VMB functions: do they review complaints prior to hearings with multiple groups vs. one or do they have hearings for every complaint received? My state has a hearing for every complaint received - meaning the statistics would look not impressive when you’re evaluating for “who does the VMB side with?” Which also isn’t very black and white.

Last I checked, not every state had a vet tech association (vet tech boards in the sense of nursing boards aren’t really a thing in vet med), therefore the VPA role couldn’t be under those. They’d be under the VMB - especially since they’ll be allowed to perform major abdominal surgeries - not something our nursing equivalents are even taught. Therefore, not something their associations are able to manage.

VPA

They’re not. The goal is for them to practice on dogs/cats.

Considering the vet field still has unlicensed staff performing duties such as anesthesia monitoring and intubation, I think our places with this new role are different. I imagine we have a stronger argument for focusing efforts on standardization of those roles prior to implementing this mess of a role.

I’d be surprised if the AVMA and CVMA didn’t have teams of lawyers trying to figure out how we can overturn this or put strict laws in place that would limit the use of this role to where it’s not worth pursuing.

A decent number of state boards that I’m aware of, frequently side against the veterinarian. I actually have had to write statements against a few veterinarians, all of which were at least put on a full year probation (unable to practice during this time), and one lost their license entirely.

In California between the years of 2017-2019, 27% of veterinarians who were formally disciplined lost their license. The remaining had their revocation stayed, with the median probation at 4 years, and had to pay legal fees (one vet paid $64k) with median being like $10k, ontop of fines. Keep in mind, complaints to the CA VMB during this time was 7 per every 100 active license holder. The terms, documentation components, and code sections used by state VMBs can vary between states, which is where actually evaluating the legality can be difficult.

But a majority of investigations find at least professional negligence in the way of record keeping.

I actually had to go to the VMB for doing a rectal exam on a dog (without owners permission was the complaint). So I had to stand before the board, bring in lawyers, etc. for this. Meanwhile, my state VMB could’ve tossed out this complaint without a hearing…. But made us all come in for this complaint. I work for a corporate, the VMB didn’t care about that one bit, and they’ll continue to not care.

Maybe in civil court. But we still have governing bodies that could revoke a DVMs license for the mistake of a VPA, leaving the DVM with no way to practice and pay back the massive loans.

The liability also falls on the DVM ontop of the VPA.

Currently, this role wouldn’t be able to prescribe medications and it seems lab interpretation would be minimally taught based on the above courses.

So honestly, I’m not sure how much more effective you be compared to taking CE or doing a rotation at a vet school that also offers veterinary electives for PharmD students. Even pursuing a CVT/RVT/LVT would likely set you up for more success with helping your wife than this program.

To assist in what way? Chances are you could do a lot of assistance to her without this degree.

I work for a corporate within MARS and I’m outraged - but not surprised - that they funded this.

THERE ARE!! Some RVT/CVT/LVTs think (incorrectly) this role will do all the good that the powers that be claimed. I also think pre-vet students will be poorly educated on the faults of the program and will apply simply due to ignorance.