No one wants to hear this about their veterinary hospital, but often times many clinics are short-staffed. Why is this?
- No good techs to be found is one reason. It is difficult to find a good employee in any field, but finding one that can click in with a tight-knit group and have the technical skills to boot is quite a task.
- No money in the till to pay more employees or no desire to pay more employees.
- The hours at any hospital can be a challenge to fill as in human medicine.
- No good techs to be found is one reason. It is difficult to find a good employee in any field, but finding one that can click in with a tight-knit group and have the technical skills to boot is quite a task.
- No money in the till to pay more employees or no desire to pay more employees.
- The hours at any hospital can be a challenge to fill as in human medicine.
- Technicians with children in school/daycare? A near impossibility to arrange a schedule for; and there in lies the question. Just because “he/she” has children why does he/she get a set schedule? Most staff, especially technicians are scheduled until the hospital is “closed”. Meaning all patients cleaned and fed, dogs walked, litter boxes scooped, charts written, up, evening meds given, fluids set to run overnight, surgical packs autoclaved, oh and re-attach the I.V. line that just popped out, clean up the blood bath it caused, bathe the dog that wouldn’t poop outside but just had a blow-out in his cage, and so-on. Are your single staff members subjected to these tasks every night, night after night? Do they want to be?
- I have been to many clinics where one whole technician is responsible for restraining big labs or aggressive cats by themselves for an ultrasound. Most of these technicians are 5′ or so and weighing in at a mere 135 lbs give or take. Some of their patients outweigh them! But they are left to muscle up as best they can, and they do. This is why I personally have a bad back haha, ouch. 🙁
- So what is the solution? Just because someone is available on the days, weekends and nights, does that mean that this individual has to pick up where others can’t? And are they being compensated for this availability? I think they should if they are the only ones that can and are willing to do it. I think if employers give a little more an hour for weekend and late night staffers as an incentive more people might suddenly be available for these hours or there will be less to complain about I would hope.
- What are your thoughts on this post? Does anyone have a good plan for scheduling a great tech with time constraints or are they not added to the team because of it? I know I am hopping around a little with my thoughts, sorry. 🙂
No one wants to hear this about their veterinary hospital, but often times many clinics are short-staffed. Why is this?
And just for point of reference I was a dawn to practically midnight tech every night for many, many years, weekends, you name it until I had my children. Personally I felt horrible coming in later in the morning after dropping off babies and whatnot at a daycare and then having to leave early feeling as if I was abandoning my co-workers to pick up my offspring. After all it was not their responsibility to pick up my slack because I decided to have kids. A touchy subject I know, but maybe someone has a good solution for these circumstances at their clinic?
Comments
Yes sonogirl I see this a
Yes sonogirl I see this a great deal in the field. What you are discussing is a series of issues largely in mismanaged hospitals. Duties need to be delegated to appropriate personnel. Rockstar techs should be doing the higher end medical (The extension of the Dr) and profitable tasks and when there is dead time moving down to the mechanical tasks. The mechanical tasks should be for tech assistants. A primary tech should not be holding a standard patient in an exam room or sterilizing a spay pack but can help out if there is dead time. The experienced tech should be a quasi Dr and talking to clients and monitoring anesthesia, performing procedures that are legal within the limits and even being trained and performing sonograms to a high level. When this occurs the higher paid techs are bringing in solid income and validate their worth and proportionate worth is distributed down the hierarchy. The hierarchy gives the lower less experienced techs something to learn and strive to which is as important to the longevity and growth of the tech as to the Dr and the practice and growth ion income. Everyone should be x-trained but the 70% core of the workload should match the ability and experience of the employee or associate. This is where thew issue truly lies and when this is respected then there is an understood equilibrium and many of the issue you mention go away. There is better margin in this scenario all around and more room to support scenarios like subsidized daycare and so forth.
Start with the tasks and define the roles and create targets for personal and clinic growth and then see what happens after they are implemented and tweak as you go along.
Yes sonogirl I see this a
Yes sonogirl I see this a great deal in the field. What you are discussing is a series of issues largely in mismanaged hospitals. Duties need to be delegated to appropriate personnel. Rockstar techs should be doing the higher end medical (The extension of the Dr) and profitable tasks and when there is dead time moving down to the mechanical tasks. The mechanical tasks should be for tech assistants. A primary tech should not be holding a standard patient in an exam room or sterilizing a spay pack but can help out if there is dead time. The experienced tech should be a quasi Dr and talking to clients and monitoring anesthesia, performing procedures that are legal within the limits and even being trained and performing sonograms to a high level. When this occurs the higher paid techs are bringing in solid income and validate their worth and proportionate worth is distributed down the hierarchy. The hierarchy gives the lower less experienced techs something to learn and strive to which is as important to the longevity and growth of the tech as to the Dr and the practice and growth ion income. Everyone should be x-trained but the 70% core of the workload should match the ability and experience of the employee or associate. This is where thew issue truly lies and when this is respected then there is an understood equilibrium and many of the issue you mention go away. There is better margin in this scenario all around and more room to support scenarios like subsidized daycare and so forth.
Start with the tasks and define the roles and create targets for personal and clinic growth and then see what happens after they are implemented and tweak as you go along.
– It seems that every time I
– It seems that every time I have hired or worked with any employee with children and therefore time constraints, it came back to haunt me because of the resentment of other employees and the unrest it caused. Thinking back though, most of those particular employees (with or without kids) were below average workers anyway or brought other negative issues to the table. hmmm…
– My solution was to hire staff with older children or no children, so all could be equal in their scheduling. The result – an older staff, health issues just around the corner or already here, and no young ones coming along.
– More recent hires reflect a balance – younger, skilled, vibrant personalities but they still must have their child care arranged so that we can schedule as the hospital needs require.
– As I write this I realize how old-fashioned this is and not reflective of the reality of current employee pools and not taking advantage of the potential “rockstar” hire.
– So no Sonogirl, I have no good experience to back up what you are looking for except I am learning that we must convince veterinary medicine that it really is OK to change!
– I can envision that a well managed practice in a modern world would hire the best (skills as well as personality in one package) employee with an eye toward working them into the practice even with their time constraints, and be able to create a workplace where all employees are reasonably content. I think this is possible because I have learned that not all employees value the same thing, therefore all can still be treated fairly but not necessarily have to be treated equally.
-Other types of businesses are following this model very successfully. However, in traditional old-fashioned veterinary medicine this is likely to require a complete culture change directed by management. Unfortunately there are still too many practices that insist on run-me-ragged, dead-on-my-feet hours as the only way to go, and “veterinary medicine has always been this way so take it or leave it” gets harder and harder to swallow.
– I really like the idea of considering the shift differential for weekend and later night hours, which again takes advantage of the idea of employees valuing different things.
– Any you know what Sonogirl? You should not ever have had to work dawn to midnight, children or no children. And the culture that encourages us to feel guilty when we make family choices that society encourages (ie having children) and thus necessitates certain changes, just proves that the culture of veterinary medicine is long overdue for an overhaul.
– It seems that every time I
– It seems that every time I have hired or worked with any employee with children and therefore time constraints, it came back to haunt me because of the resentment of other employees and the unrest it caused. Thinking back though, most of those particular employees (with or without kids) were below average workers anyway or brought other negative issues to the table. hmmm…
– My solution was to hire staff with older children or no children, so all could be equal in their scheduling. The result – an older staff, health issues just around the corner or already here, and no young ones coming along.
– More recent hires reflect a balance – younger, skilled, vibrant personalities but they still must have their child care arranged so that we can schedule as the hospital needs require.
– As I write this I realize how old-fashioned this is and not reflective of the reality of current employee pools and not taking advantage of the potential “rockstar” hire.
– So no Sonogirl, I have no good experience to back up what you are looking for except I am learning that we must convince veterinary medicine that it really is OK to change!
– I can envision that a well managed practice in a modern world would hire the best (skills as well as personality in one package) employee with an eye toward working them into the practice even with their time constraints, and be able to create a workplace where all employees are reasonably content. I think this is possible because I have learned that not all employees value the same thing, therefore all can still be treated fairly but not necessarily have to be treated equally.
-Other types of businesses are following this model very successfully. However, in traditional old-fashioned veterinary medicine this is likely to require a complete culture change directed by management. Unfortunately there are still too many practices that insist on run-me-ragged, dead-on-my-feet hours as the only way to go, and “veterinary medicine has always been this way so take it or leave it” gets harder and harder to swallow.
– I really like the idea of considering the shift differential for weekend and later night hours, which again takes advantage of the idea of employees valuing different things.
– Any you know what Sonogirl? You should not ever have had to work dawn to midnight, children or no children. And the culture that encourages us to feel guilty when we make family choices that society encourages (ie having children) and thus necessitates certain changes, just proves that the culture of veterinary medicine is long overdue for an overhaul.
Yes! What is it with the
Yes! What is it with the “work your technicians into the ground” concept. Sometimes we never even ate lunch! This included the doctors too to be quite honest, but was not a healthy schedule for anyone. We used to have techs dizzy and light-headed etc, from low blood sugar or not having the time to just sit. I have been to other practices that have a scheduled lunch break, like a “real” doctors office. A nice surprise for sure, I thought all hospitals ran fingers to the bone. Thank you for your response catlady. With the field having so many women in it, I hope someone, somewhere has a solution. For some techs the joy of pregnancy gets turned into the kiss of death. A scarlet letter “P” might as well be chiseled into your forehead.
Yes! What is it with the
Yes! What is it with the “work your technicians into the ground” concept. Sometimes we never even ate lunch! This included the doctors too to be quite honest, but was not a healthy schedule for anyone. We used to have techs dizzy and light-headed etc, from low blood sugar or not having the time to just sit. I have been to other practices that have a scheduled lunch break, like a “real” doctors office. A nice surprise for sure, I thought all hospitals ran fingers to the bone. Thank you for your response catlady. With the field having so many women in it, I hope someone, somewhere has a solution. For some techs the joy of pregnancy gets turned into the kiss of death. A scarlet letter “P” might as well be chiseled into your forehead.