The Rural Voice, 1982-10, Page 8must be approved by the university's
animal care committee.
Chris, a committed animal lover,
admits one of the hardest parts of her job
is living with the knowledge the research
animals must eventually be sacrificed.
"You don't really get used to it," she says
firmly, "you cope with it."
To help cope, technicians must develop
a sense of humor, and, according to
Chris, must learn to detach themselves
from the animals. Even then, she admits
ruefully, "there are animals you get really
attached to."
"Then you wonder why such an animal
ended up in a pound, or was neglected
and poorly taken care of," she adds.
With the ethics of animal research
constantly debated in the press, Chris
does run into negative reactions when
asked what she does for a living.
"You don't get any real outspoken
criticism, but you can sense a negative
reaction to the fact I work in research."
She's learned unless someone really
challenges her on the subject, it's better to
let the issue pass.
The one thing Chris found she was
missing in her research work was the
involvement with people and their family
pets that she had in the veterinary
pract ice.
"While we nurse the animal, it's not the
same kind of nursing as involved in a vet
practice," she points out.
To keep in touch with that aspect of
animal health, Chris and three fellow
technicians at the hospital now work the
occasional weekend shift at London's
emergency veterinary clinic.
There she helps treat anything from
cats and dogs to baby birds, rescued after
falling out of someone's backyard tree. 1
Chris believes "it's important to keep
up your clinical experience," even for
AHTs involved in research -related work.
And the more clinical experience techni-
cians gain before going into medical
research, the more valuable they'll be to
employers, she says.
What keeps Chris in research? "I enjoy
the independence of my job. Also 1 enjoy
performing many procedures which in a
veterinary practice can only be performed
by a veterinarian, due to ethics." Or even
more importantly, "1 just enjoy the
combination of working in medicine and
working with animals."
A place for animal
health technicians
"I think animal health technicians are
the greatest thing since sliced bread," says
Seaforth vet Stan Alkemade.
Of course some might say Dr. Alke-
made is slightly biased. Not only did he
always employed animal health techni-
cians at the Seaforth Vet Clinic, now
owned by Dr. Brian Nuhn, but Stan
Alkemade is now a lecturer in veterinary
sciences at Centralia College of Agricul-
tural Technology. He just happens to
teach in the animal health technician
program.
This year, 37 students have started the
AHT program at the college - all women.
Dr. Alkemade says the problem is "that
technicians are still very poorly paid in
private animal practices - it's just not
enough for males with a family to
support." An average starting salary
currently for an AHT in a private animal
health practice is about $8,000. Happily,
graduates going into research jobs earn
much healthier salaries.
Since competition to enter the program,
offered at only four Ontario community
colleges, is stiff, Dr. Alkemade said most
students apply after finishing Grade 13,
and must have taken advanced science
and math courses.
Dr. Alkemade estimates at least half of
the AHT graduates still end up in private
practices, although more are working in
research work at hospitals like Sick
Children's Hospital in Toronto, the
London teaching hospitals and Missi-
ssauga General. Several work for private
drug companies, another Centralia AHT
grad does all the blood testing on Ontario
Stockyard animals.
Centralia's placement office not only
offers students extensive help in job
placement immediately after graduation
but has a continuous placement service if
they want assistance in switching jobs
later.
One reason Dr. Alkemade suggests
animal health technicians don't have the
same sort of professional status as
registered nurses, and higher salaries,
although they really are acting as veteri-
nary nurses, is that the technicians aren't
legally recognized as a profession in
Ontario. That means technicians must
always work under the licensed supervi-
sion of a veterinarian, and the veterina-
rian is technically responsible for his
technicians' work. Alberta is the only
Canadian province which has currently
legally recognized and licensed the techni-
cians.
It's this uncertainty - "it's nebulous
what a technician can or can't do" Dr.
Alkemade says - that has prevented them
achieving the professional status they
deserve. But the lecturer is optimistic this
will soon change, as technicians take more
visible roles both in animal health
practices and in research work, and since
younger veterinarians now graduating
from university are already accustomed to
having technicians working with them.
In a farm -oriented practice like the
Seaforth Vet Clinic, technicians can
perform a variety of procedures from
vaccinating livestock, to dehorning, cas-
tration, foot care techniques and blood
testing. Dr. Alkemade says while farmers
might not pay a veterinarian $40 per hour
to do these procedures, they are willing to
call in animal health technicians who
charge $12. to $20. per hour for the work.
In using animal health technicians in the
Seaforth practice, Dr. Alkemade said he
and the other vets found they actually
regained that kind of work from farm
clients.
Also, he said local farmers soon learned
which jobs could be handled by animal
health technicians and asked for them
specifically when requesting farm visits.
It annoys Stan Alkemade that many
veterinarians still don't use AHTs to their
full potential. And it's still more common
to find AHTs working in small animal
practices than large animal clinics. But
with the enthusiasm of veterinarians like
Stan Alkemade, more recognition of
AHTs and their valuable role in veteri-
nary medicine and in medical research,
official government recognition, and
better salaries hopefully lie just ahead for
the "veterinary nurses" now studying at
Centralia.
PG. 8 THE RURAL VOICE / OCTOBER 1982