Advantages and disadvantages of being a veterinary technician

The advantages of becoming a Veterinarian Little Elm Tx technician include increasing demand and increasing wages, job security and fulfilling the ambition to work with animals without having to complete a doctorate. The disadvantages are the relatively low salaries in small cities and rural areas, rare working hours, including nights and weekends and stress.

Benefits

Two great advantages to becoming a veterinary technician are availability and job security. There is a great demand for veterinary technicians, most of whom are employed in private clinics. Pet owners continue to pay more each year for the health of their pets, creating more positions for veterinarians and also for veterinary technicians. Participation in preventive care, such as spaying and neutering and dental care, continues to increase. As of 2005, almost 3,000 veterinary technologists and technicians graduate every year, they do not come close to meeting the demand in 2006. Employment is stable during the economic downturn and layoffs are unlikely.

Meaning

Another advantage includes the possibility of working with animals without having to complete a doctorate. Veterinary schools are very competitive and difficult to gain admission, expensive and require rigorous courses, along with extensive knowledge of science and mathematics. Many people have a passion for working with animals and can do so through a two-year or four-year veterinary technician degree in a technical school.

Potential

A veterinary technician may have the opportunity to work in a unique place, such as a zoo, aquarium or wildlife facility, although the competition is intense. Other technicians are employed in biomedical facilities, research laboratories, diagnostics, and large animal shelters. There are opportunities to teach in technical programs or work in sales for pharmaceutical companies.

Warning

Many veterinarian technicians leave the field after seven or eight years, due to factors that include relatively low wages outside large metropolitan areas, in addition to rare working hours, physical work demands and stress. Some technicians conclude that there are easier ways to earn money. Full-time salaries for veterinary technicians in 2005 were estimated at an average of around US $ 26,000 a year, with higher salaries in large cities and in research laboratories, exceeding around the US $ 40,000. Sometimes only the part-time positions offered can pay a salary as low as the US $ 10 or the US $ 12 per hour and do not include benefits. Licenses must be renewed every two years for a fee and some states require continuing education.

Considerations

Working hours usually include evenings and weekends. The veterinary technicians employed in the emergency services will work in second and third shifts, in addition to the weekends. There may be guard duties with private practices.

Effects

The work can be stressful, which involves encounters with aggressive animals, emergency situations and distressed owners. Veterinary technicians will take care of animals that have been abandoned and mistreated. All veterinary personnel must have the personal strength to be able to work calmly in dealing with euthanasia and situations with domestic animals that do not survive accidents or surgeries.