The Palouse is full of warmth and light, long days. There is also that haze from fires that has become a new summer norm. A constant reminder of how our environment—its forests and snowpack, far and wide—impacts the Palouse. I generally appreciate being reminded of connectedness. This time, I am not so sure.
The college connectedness is strong and in no small part because of our staff members who work both behind the scenes and front and center to navigate student programs, clinical operations, animal care, human resources, payroll (that is an important one), grants, research operations, graduate education, facilities—you name it, they do it, and do it very, very well.
However, there is one “staff fact” that makes me unhappy: how very hard it is to recruit and retain licensed veterinary technicians (LVTs). The LVTs we have are excellent, committed to clinical care and teaching, but there simply aren’t enough of them. Think of LVTs as veterinary nurses. In human medicine, an efficient primary care clinic would have two to three nurses per physician, while in a busy hospital, there may be nine nurses per physician. At our hospital, our veterinarians would be thrilled to have one LVT per doctor. Often, we have one LVT for an entire service with multiple doctors, residents, and students. We also have veterinary assistants, but not enough. Challenges with access to care and the shortage of veterinarians are compounded by severe veterinary staff shortages across the state and nationally. As with any long-term challenge, there are many reasons, including compassion fatigue (burnout), poor pay (state pay ranges that are inadequate), and complicated team dynamics where LVTs aren’t able to work at the top of their license (skill level). And there are many potential solutions; our current work is to try to embed an LVT training program in the college, more on that as it comes to fruition.
Full circle, to where I wanted to end, and to what had me thinking about staff to begin with. I just finished reviewing the nominations for our annual staff awards. There were 20 individual nominations. Many nominations come with multiple letters of support. Words are glowing (“one in a million,” “perfect balance of teamwork and leadership,” “awesome to work with”), and anecdotes are compelling. All in all, a great read and an important reminder of all that staff and their teams bring to our community. Go Cougs.
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Be safe, healthy, happy, and stay hopeful. As I said on my first day on the job, the future is bright.
Take care and Go Cougs!