An RVT, a Physician Assistant and a Lawyer Walk Into a Bar…

2022 CVMA Summit: Time for a Veterinary Workforce Paradigm Shift

Hosted by: Dr. Chris Bell, CVMA Incoming President

2022, CVMA Annual Convention, Halifax, NS

Speakers: RVT: Becky Taylor, Physician Assistant: Dr. Kristen Burrows, Lawyer: Mark Cushing

A reflection of a most innovative Summit.

While each of us spoke from a differing perspective, the theme was common to us all; generation of new ideas to shift away from the dark narrative circling the veterinary profession today. Dr. Burrows gave compelling examples of how the Physician Assistant (PA) model has grown from being hardly recognized to the highly evolved role that it is today and shared examples of the struggles and successes felt within the human health industry. Mark spoke about the human animal bond, the need for excellent veterinary care and gave each of us food for thought regarding the legal implications of veterinary medicine. No stranger to litigation and debate, he compelled us all to challenge our thinking, to endeavour to understand legislation and take some thoughtful risks.

Just having the three of us in the same room, sharing different perspectives speaks to the innovative thinking that incoming CVMA President, Dr. Chris Bell has shown by organizing this year's Summit Topic. 

As a person who loves great dialogue, this event checked all the boxes!

For my part, It was an honor and privilege to be part of such an important summit and discussion around the workforce shortage in vet med today. Over 100 attendees representing veterinary professionals from across Canada and from all different fields: practice, academia, regulation, industry and association leaders. I was humbled and a bit scared to lead the discussion so I began with involving the audience with an interactive task - asking all attendees to use their phones and find a headline in the media about the workforce shortage in veterinary medicine. There were many examples provided! All of the headlines and articles clearly showed the dark narrative that we find ourselves in. I went on to remind us all that we have the ability to embrace and lead change, we do it everyday in practice. Medicine itself is the definition of change. We modify, we alter, we learn from mistakes, we evaluate cases and adapt protocols and treatments as needed. So you see, we are already change agents. We can apply this thinking to our current situation, we can act, we can adapt, we can progress. 

I outlined the immersive, 5 day program,  Mobilizing RVTs and described our objectives which are to equip RVT's with dialogue skills to engage with clients in a skills based way. The goal is educating RVTs who complete this program to go back into their practices and participate in appointments and support the DVMs, provide exceptional care to patients and great service to clients. I had to really emphasize this was not without thoughtful collaboration and conversation with the regulators in your jurisdiction! WE are all on the same team! This is a solution, a path, a skill development, and elevation of the RVT role and is an innovation in thinking. 

 There were the usual questions that I hear: What will clients think if an RVT does their appointment? What if something goes wrong? What if we get in trouble from our association? What if clients complain? What if it doesn't work? 

I propose a whole DIFFERENT set of what ifs....

What if, the DVM could go home on time?

What if, RVT's felt joy and pride at being able to interact with clients and care for patients this way?

What if, veterinary staff could stop telling clients "we can't see you today, or tomorrow, or the next day....."?

What if, DVM's had more time to see sick patients, do surgery, provide consults or complete their medical records?

What if, the veterinary team could be excited about a vomitting/diarrhea dog coming in at 5:00pm on Friday...because they had time to see it?

What if, ER hospitals had less backlog because primary care clinics were no longer backed up.

WHAT IF, this is a SOLUTION that works? It does and it already is.

Please, contact us to ask your questions, hear these answers (and more) and engage in a great conversation with us, we’d love to hear from you.

Becky