A message for veterinary technicians from a veterinary technician

Tabitha Kucera, RVT, VTS (Behavior), CCBC, KPA-CTP, FFCP, owner of Chirrups and Chatter Cat and Dog Behavior Consulting and Training in Cleveland, Ohio, shares advice she hopes veterinary technicians will carry with them following a lecture she presented at the Fetch dvm360 conference in Nashville, Tennessee this past spring. In the video, Kucera speaks about the importance of self-advocacy and encourages technicians to 'find their happy.'

Below is a partial transcript, which has been lightly edited for improved clarity:

Tabitha Kucera, RVT, VTS (Behavior), CCBC, KPA-CTP, FFCP: I understand it can be challenging out here for vet techs. I know sometimes we don't have title protection, we're working towards a lot of things as far as us being respected and just treated well. Again, title protection is a whole separate thing, but I need you to understand how amazing you are. Veterinary technicians are wonderful, amazing patient advocates, and I think we sometimes—a lot of the time—limit ourselves, and that is not something I do anymore.

I have so many gigs, and I am helping animals and people in so many ways and that's going to look different for all of you but please don't limit yourself. Many of you may feel stuck. I work with a lot of, and kind of talk to a lot of vet techs who are like, "I'm stuck here, it's like this everywhere," and they're not happy due to numerous reasons. The good news is it can feel like that but it's not like that everywhere.

And the more of us advocating for ourselves...yes, you're going to take a lunch. Yes, my scrub allowance will be part of this. Yes, CE allowance is part of our just normal, right? The amount of interviews I went on and I just had routine open-ended questions, and although I wasn't a good fit with that clinic, they then started offering CE allowance for all their technicians.

So these are things that you can do to not only advocate for yourself but also advocate for your colleagues and then also find your happy. Your thing might be behavior or it may be nutrition or end-of-life care. And that's where going to conferences like dvm360 is really helpful because I know we're like, “oh, we're so tired.” The idea of going to a conference is exhausting, but actually it kind of lifts you up. You get to talk to others who understand and recognize what you're going through. And you kind of get to get excited about vet med...