Someone please explain the differences b/w RN, LPN, CNA, etc

Nurses General Nursing

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Hello all! I am a registered veterinary technician in Georgia. I have a degree in veterinary technology and have sat for a national examination. However, because the field of veterinary mediciane is not well regulated, there are still some states that allow anyone to use the same title as me. I am in the process of gathering as many people in our field to work towards a campaign of sorts to rectify/change the rules and regulations in regards to the support personnel in our field.

The main reason I have chose to use this board is to get information, supprot etc. form thos eof you who are more regulated, and have been through this same struggle.

So...can anyone please tell me the difference between all the different levels of being in the nursing profession and thelevel of education and examinations/CE required to maintain such titles?

Any help would be a great help to those of us in my field.

Thank you,

Melanie R. Parham, RVT :p

Specializes in Veterinary Technology.
The field is booming, has been for a while and it is getting very exciting, yet very complicated like the poster has stated! They really do need more definition to medics in this field! Good luck to you...that is an excellent and worthy goal!!!!!!!

Well I am not sure what state you are in, but I would check on the grandfathering in. The AVMA has formally stated that NOBODY will be allowed to do this after 2010. My state specifically states that someone muct have so many years experience working in veterinary medicine plus signed/notarized recommendations from their current DVM stating such. And some states will not allow it even now, regardless. Yet, there are other states that do not even care if you have any sort of education and they are allowing anybody to take this test, regardless of experience etc. All they need is some DVM willing to sign a paper stating they think they should take the test. Funny, it is easier to let a bunch of uneducated personnel take a national test than to pay for those of us who took the time to go to school to acheive the level of education to do so properly. I wish I had honestly gone into human medicine at times. However, for me I would have to start over pretty much.While I have learned all aspects of medicine, it is completely based in the field of veterinary medicine and while we may accept you with open arms, human medicine will NOT accept those of us trained in veterinary medicine. I should have taken the step into human medicine...I would be making close to 3 times my current salary with the same level of education. The DVMs refuse to pay graduates what they should because they can hire some kid after school or some person with only hands on experience to perform the same jobs for 7-8 dollars an hour. Then in order to even obtain a job in our field we often have to take a lower wage than we can afford to live off of. This is why I am so big on standardization and regulation! :o

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Specializes in Veterinary Technology.
Do you have a professional association for RVT's? Maybe you should become active in it?

Yes I am active on both the state and national level. I have been since I was attending school. I am currently trying to get more people involved so we can kind of form a united front with a strong powerful voice as a result of huge numbers of people. Again, I think using the comparison between the level of education required for the different levels of human nursing and veterinary medicine will help to formulate an approach we need so badly.

Melanie R. Parham, RVT

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Hi Melanie,

I work as a technician in Wyoming. 2004 was the first year that techs could be certified in the state through our association. Needless to say I have a low number (001) :coollook: . We are not written into the practice act so we are just considered staff. This means we are considered the same as the kennel/stall cleaner, janitor, etc. Granted those people are needed as a part of the veterinary team but they should not be monitoring and inducing anesthesia; performing dentals; giving injections; performing radiology; changing bandages; surgical assisting; performing laboratory tests; and any number of other duties that techs do :angryfire . This is very frustrating and goes along with the low pay and lack of benefits in this field.

I would like to ask you nurses to do me a favor. The next time you take your animal to the veterinarian, ask if there is a credentialed technician on staff. If not ask the doctor of practice manager "Why Not?". The public needs to be just as concerned with the quality of people who are nursing their animals, as patients are concerned about their own nursing care. Nursing is nursing be it human or animal and only qualified people should be doing those duties.

Fuzzy

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Specializes in Veterinary Technology.

Fuzzy, please get in touch with me!! I am working very hard to get as many techs involved as possible. I started a new group on yahoo on Nov 28 and so far I have 35 members. Some are true technicians and others are assts who want to see change also. Anyways, the group is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GA_Techs_Assts/

I would love to have you join and give input!! Or email me at [email protected] :p

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