I am against the proposed changes to put further limitations on veterinary assistants.    I have had 4 licensed vet tech employed in my 18 years at this clinic.  They are difficult to recruit to Southwest Virginia and they don't want to stay.  The last Vet Tech I employed started as an assistant. I paid for her to do online Vet tech training.  As soon as her contract to pay back her education expired, she moved on. (She is now an RN).  My current two assistants have a combined experience of 37 years in this hospital. Neither want to move forward with their education and go to an on-line or brick and mortar tech program. These two assistants have been trained and worked under 4 vet techs.  They have been trained to work the mechanical ventilator and  the Surgivet monitoring equipment by the respective manufacturers.  They are well versed with the workings of the anesthetic equipment. They have attended CE classes sporadically throughout their tenure here.  They are competent and always under supervision.

Our day consists of one doctor doing surgery and the other doctor doing appointments.  There is never an incident where our assistants are unsupervised monitoring anesthesia.  There is always a doctor present.  On days when there is only one doctor working,  we do not do surgery. 

We are located in Galax, VA.  The southwestern tip of the state.  We have a poor rural demographic.  The financial hardship of paying for vet care is a never ending challenge in this area.  Forcing my clinic to recruit a veterinary technician to my area will be impossible and expensive. There are not enough vet technician's in the state of Virginia to recruit one to SW VA.   

I am willing to invest in my assistants. I can send my assistants to a certification class on anesthesia, if the board of Vet medicine and VMRCVM wants to create one.  I encourage my assistants to attend continuing education classes yearly to further their knowledge. They periodically take advantage of the benefit.   I can change my policy and make it a requirement of their employment.  I would be happy to forward their continuing education opportunities to the board.  Logistically for us in South west Va finding and keeping a LVT will be difficult. To comply with the new ruling, we  will be unable to offer surgery or increase the cost substantially since two doctors will have to be involved in the surgery.  This ruling puts an unnecessary financial burden on my clients with no compensatory gain.

Please consider not implementing this new ruling.  Thank you for your consideration.

Heather Jenkins, DVM, CVA