Caffeinators, you may remember our episode from a couple years ago with Sam Geiling, where we talked about her work starting a vet tech program in Hawaii, helping form a Hawaiian vet tech association, and much more. Well, she's back! We had a great conversation about her current work with the Government Relations Committee for NAVTA, moving back to the mainland to Minnesota, and her new work with Animal Policy Group and some of the controversy surrounding that. When we think about laws that are ...
Aug 19, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 179
Caffeinators, if you've been with us since the beginning, you may remember Liza Wysong as our guest for our 4th episode. We did things very differently back then (almost 5 years ago!) and a lot of has changed at the Vet Tech Cafe, and a lot has changed for Liza too! We checked in with her recently as she is now the program director for the brand-spanking-new veterinary technician program at Rowan College of South Jersey. This program is an extension of the new DVM program at Rowan University set...
Aug 05, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 178
Caffeinators, buckle up! This is another good one! We had self-described disrupter Becky Taylor by the Vet Tech Cafe! She is doing some amazing things up in Canada, and has been for a very long time-she's a vintage vet tech, like us! She's a communication nerd with a Master's Degree in Professional Communication, and has gone so far as so start her own business, BS Communication Strategies (wait till you hear the story about that name!). She teaches people to communicate better through an eviden...
Jul 22, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 177
Welcome to the latest Vet Tech Taproom! Grab a beer and chat with us about the bill in Florida that removes the requirement for continuing education for a lot of licenses in the state including veterinarians and veterinary technicians. Let us know your thoughts Here's a link to the Bill: https://www.flsenate.gov/Committees/BillSummaries/2024/html/3428
Jul 15, 2024•28 min•Ep. 181
Caffeinators, you know we've talked about veterinary technician education from several viewpoints, and we will continue to do so. This is another one of those episodes. Carrie Fellows in an RVT who was one of the first to graduate from LMU's recently started Master's program with a Master's Degree in Veterinary Clinical Care. We explored the program at length and it made for a fascinating discussion about where it could lead and what we do with it. As Carrie laid out, with the path her career ha...
Jul 08, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 176
Caffeinators, are your people cat people? If so, then you probably know of Ellen Carozza. You may know her from her educational page on IG, @thecatlvt, as well. She has a VTS in feline medicine, one of the first to achieve it, and does incredible work with our feline friends. We chatted about the path the feline VTS, her amazing work with The Chris Griffey Memorial Feline Foundation, and SO MUCH MORE. This episode is not to be missed, especially if you love cats! Show Links https://criticalkitte...
Jun 24, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 175
Caffeinators, you'll want to tune in for this one! We first started talking with Erica Emmett over two years ago about being a guest on our show, and as always, life happens. We finally got to record this episode, and it was fascinating to hear the professional path she's taken in the two years since! She's started Fyr Consulting which focuses on individuals and team coaching for veterinary professionals. She's been in vet med over 25 years and she draws on her experience to make the teams she c...
Jun 10, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 174
Welcome back to the Taproom. We recap our mental health series and look forward to our upcoming episodes. 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...
Jun 03, 2024•24 min•Ep. 173
Caffeinators, welcome back to Mental Health Awareness Month! We're continuing this mini-series with Julie Morse-Elliott, RVT, VTS(ECC). She's had a long career as an RVT and is now pursuing registration as a professional counselor to aid those working in veterinary medicine. She is also in the midst of starting a foundation with a goal to provide free counseling to those that need support after experiencing workplace related trauma, and will be heading up the veterinary division of the foundatio...
May 27, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 170
Caffeinators, it's already May and if you've followed us for a while, you know May is Mental Health Awareness Month and we dedicate our May episodes to mental health issues in our profession. This year, we have two awesome episodes for you-each featuring an RVT, both from Canada, that are pivoting in their careers from clinical medicine to supporting veterinary workers in the area of Mental Health. First up is Kathleen Dunbar, RVT, VTS(Clinical Practice-C/F). She has a Masters Degree in Social W...
May 13, 2024•32 min•Ep. 169
Caffeinators, pack your bags and fasten your seatbelts. We're going to where the water spins backwards. We're headed back to the Southern Hemisphere, specifically New Zealand! We met a wonderful Kiwi at IVECCS last year, Ashleigh Walsh, at the AVECCTN pinning ceremony. When we learned she was there from New Zealand we knew we had to have her on as a guest. It took until THIS WEEK to figure out the logistics as she's 19 hours and 16 hours ahead of Jeff and Dave, respectively. What an awesome conv...
Apr 29, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 172
We got lots to talk about in this Taproom Episode! We've got outside sources criticizing our profession and we think you know who we're talking about. We also dive into the concept of CPR/DNR policies What is your hospital's CPR policy? When do you bring that up with the client? Do you have a flat fee for CPR? Who has that discussion with the owner? Let us know in the comments!
Apr 22, 2024•39 min•Ep. 171
Caffeinators, are you ready to have your mind blown? We've long thought it's time to rethink veterinary technician education, and many out there agree. Thankfully, Jennifer Gunther is someone that is out there doing it. She's been an educator at Denver Community College's vet tech program for 20+ years, and they have recently started an apprenticeship program that exists separately and in addition to their standard, 2 year AVMA accredited program. But here's the deal: It's not an alternate route...
Apr 15, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 167
Caffeinators, have you ever thought about what it would be like to be a traveling veterinary technician? Maybe have a home base, but otherwise constantly on the road traveling to all corners of the US and working relief? Then have we got an episode for you! Our friend Simon Chavez recently stopped by one of our locations-it may have been Chicago, Boston, or Anchorage, we're not sure-but we had a very interesting conversation on what life and a career look like as a locum technician! We talked ab...
Apr 01, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 164
Hello from Phoenix! Our second "staff meeting" trip to Phoenix. We recap our trip and have a discussion about "Things we don't do anymore".
Mar 25, 2024•22 min•Ep. 168
Caffeinators, if you've been listening in a while, you've heard several guests recommend Doc Jim when we ask who they think we should talk to. And guess what?! We got him! We don't often have veterinarians on our podcast, but there are those who are integral to our development as a profession and Doc Jim is certainly one of them! Holy cow was this episode fun! He is such a huge supporter "of our amazing profession" and we talk extensively about how he gave up practicing as a small animal veterin...
Mar 18, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 163
Caffeinators, anchors aweigh, it's time to set sail! Have you heard of Vet Tech Life? Have you heard of CE on the Sea? If so, then you know Kelly Cronin. We know her from our VTS(ECC) study group days over 10 years ago, and she came by the Vet Tech Cafe recently to talk about this amazing CE event, which recently sailed, along with so many other topics! She talked a lot about management and transitioning to that role, we talked a lot about financial fitness and how we can achieve that in our fie...
Mar 04, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 162
Caffeinators, it's time for our monthly checkin from the Vet Tech Taproom. Have you checked in with yourself lately? We got together to discuss a couple things for this episode, mostly what happens when an owner has a bad experience or negative outcome at the hospital and threatens to go "public"-meaning social media or the news? How do you or your hospital respond? We give our analysis of what we see happen most frequently, and then openly discuss what we think should happen. What do you think?...
Feb 26, 2024•45 min•Ep. 166
Caffeinators, fasten your safety belt because this episode is taking from the US to British Columbia, to Ontario, Canada, to India. Yah. Recently, Marina John, Vice President of the British Columbia Veterinary Technologists Association reached out to us and we had a discussion about soooo many important topics ranging from title protection, association work, charity work, involvement, and boundaries, and acupuncture, and just so much more! She also talks about this importance of representation i...
Feb 19, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 160
Caffeinators, we need more personality in our field. We need young minds and fresh faces with big goals to grow into the roles many of us currently occupy, and Ralia Cortinas may just be one of those people that checks those boxes. Ralia is currently a student in the Distance Learning program through Purdue University, but the credentialing process is clearly very important to her. We talk a lot about her being an OJT assistant in Texas and some of her DVM colleagues views of that, while also lo...
Feb 05, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 159
Happy New Year from the Vet Tech Taproom! We briefly discuss our "resolutions" for 2024 and encourage you to post yours in the comments! We review a couple of our recent episode and preview a couple forthcoming ones as several of them revolve around veterinary technician education. We also look at NAVTA's list of nominee's for Veterinary Technician of the Year, a couple of whom we've been fortunate enough to have as previous guests on the Vet Tech Cafe! We also look at "3 must reads" from VMX co...
Jan 29, 2024•36 min•Ep. 161
Caffeinators, we talk about veterinary technician education all the time, but we don't often get to talk to the stakeholders-the students. Our next two episodes focus on that. First up is Sydney Hoevet, a student in the vet tech program at Portland Community College. It's always refreshing to look at our profession through fresh, less jaded eyes than our own. It's also really nice to hear the profession seems to be in good hands going forward. In this episode, we talk about a common link between...
Jan 22, 2024•58 min•Ep. 158
Caffeinators, are you a Veterinary Anesthesia Nerd? If so, you'll love this episode with the final part of the trifecta that is the Veterinary Anesthesia Nerds, Darci Palmer. We ran into Darci at IVECCS and pitched the idea of her being a guest and thankfully she obliged because this is an awesome episode. Darci currently works in Anesthesia at Tuskegee University College of Veterinary Medicine, and that's where much of our discussion lies-veterinary education. But it doesn't stop there. She run...
Jan 08, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 156
Caffeinators, Happy New Year! In this episode, we discuss the recent AAVSB changes for the VTNE administration as well as a study published in the November JAVMA issue for which our good friend, Dr. Andy Roark, was a contributing author. We also look ahead to 2024. This is bit of a longer taproom, but these two topics we were quite passionate about. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. For a live video recording of this episode, head over to our YouTube channel-just search for Vet Te...
Jan 01, 2024•51 min•Ep. 157
Caffeinators. We know you love the Vet Tech Without Scrubs pages and the content that Adrienne Kruzer puts out. We do too. Adrienne was suggested to us by several previous guests as someone we should talk to. We ran into her at IVECCS and we barely had to ask and she was in to come join us for a discussion. This is a wide-ranging discussion chronicling her career, Vet Tech Without Scrubs, the South Carolina Association of Veterinary Technicians and Association work, Veterinary Emergency Group wh...
Dec 25, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 155
Caffeinators, grab your passports because we're going back across the pond! For this episode, we sit down with Sieske Valk. Sieske reached out to us to talk about her business venture Autumn Animals, which specializes in at home applicative and hospice care. We discuss what hospice and palliative care look like both in the UK and the US, and how as a profession we aren't meeting these needs. Sieske has been an entrepreneur throughout her career in veterinary medicine and we talk about her path f...
Dec 11, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 154
Hey Caffeinators! We're back to our regularly scheduled programming! We had some scheduling issues getting this episode recorded as it was supposed to be released on Veteran's Day here in the US. Why Veteran's Day, you ask? Because that's really the focus of this episode. Bill Wade started in the US Air Force in the 1970's, transferred to the US Army in the 1980's and worked as a veterinary technician all those years! He also was in organizational leadership as well, and at two separate times wa...
Nov 27, 2023•57 min•Ep. 153
Hey Caffeinators, welcome back to another episode of ... the Veterinary Viewfinder?! That's right! If you've been listening to us the last few months, and the Veterinary Viewfinder podcast as well, we've both been dropping nuggets back and forth about how we handle all their complaints and they record in our basement and pick up your tab in the Taproom. It's all in good fun as they have been so kind and helpful to us over the years with advice and honestly just a good model to follow on how to d...
Nov 20, 2023•48 min•Ep. 152
Welcome to another episode of the Vet Tech Taproom! We unintentionally spent a lot of time talking about vet tech associations. Here's your friendly reminder to get involved! We can only make change in numbers. We also recapped our most recent episodes with Dani and Liz while chatting about the conference experience and previewing some future episodes.
Nov 13, 2023•39 min•Ep. 151
Caffeinators, this is a bit of a heavy topic. By and large, our field has been immune to layoffs. That's not to say they haven't happened in the past, but certainly not by the hundreds or thousands we've seen major companies go through. This episode is focused on layoffs. Dani was a trainer for a corporation, a role that was created specifically for her that she thrived in, and was recently told her position had been eliminated. WHAT?! Could you imagine your path to processing such a thing? That...
Oct 30, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 149
