I have been practicing veterinary medicine in Danville, VA for 23 years and I have been searching to hire a licensed veterinary technician that entire time.  In the past 2 years I have been blessed to have a licensed tech on staff.  There are simply not enough licensed technicians to serve all practices in Virginia.  Placing IV catheters in peripheral veins is a simple technique that can be taught to unlicensed assistants under supervision of a Veterinarian or LVT.  Having unlicensed assistants place catheters frees up the veterinarians and LVT's to supervise and manage patient care.

 Imagine you live in a small town in southside Virginia and your dog is hit by a car and is going into shock and needs IV fluids rapidly.  Your veterinarian happens to be in surgery as your run into his office and he does not have a LVT on staff because there are none in your town.  Your dog could die while you wait for the veterinarian to finish surgery---------or a veterinary assistant could place the IV catheter saving your dog's life.

This is a very real problem we deal with in southside Virginia every day.  We need to give LVT's more authority and responsibility as an RN would have in a human hospital and we need to be able to train assistants to do work similar to that of LPN's and CNA's.