Why team members leave the veterinary profession

Caitlin Rivers, a former Firstline Editorial Advisory Board member who left veterinary medicine to pursue a degree in occupational therapy, says she’s seen technicians try their hand at a couple of practices before they give up. She’s known colleagues who ended up volunteering at rescue groups and doing other jobs for a living and still others who chose jobs as administrative assistants in human medical offices. Rivers says she was lucky to work for a doctor at a practice where she was paid at the highest end of the spectrum for a veterinary technician, but the profession as a whole still struggles with being able to keep up with the pay and benefits some of the other medical professions can offer.

Mandy Stevenson, RVT, a Firstline board member, says she’s also seen team members leave because they’re burned out, sick of dealing with the cliques that form in some veterinary practices or they aren’t utilized effectively at their practices.