TY - JOUR
T1 - Training veterinary care technicians and husbandry staff improves animal care
AU - Lockworth, Cynthia R.
AU - Craig, Suzanne L.
AU - Liu, Jun
AU - Tinkey, Peggy T.
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2011 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2011/1
Y1 - 2011/1
N2 - Our animal care facility has always relied on an animal health team consisting of veterinarians, veterinary care technicians, and husbandry staff to provide a high level of animal care. As our rodent population increased, it became necessary to modify the roles and responsibilities of these staff members to accommodate the program's expansion. To accomplish that modification, we developed a training program that focused primarily on technicians by using a case-management algorithm. To support our technicians, we provided additional training to animal husbandry staff as they assumed the primary role in the initial assessment of the animals' health. After completing the training, technicians made the transition from simply identifying health issues to actually making decisions for treating and euthanizing rodents. This training program empowered all team members and resulted in a staff that could provide consistent, high-quality veterinary care more efficiently.
AB - Our animal care facility has always relied on an animal health team consisting of veterinarians, veterinary care technicians, and husbandry staff to provide a high level of animal care. As our rodent population increased, it became necessary to modify the roles and responsibilities of these staff members to accommodate the program's expansion. To accomplish that modification, we developed a training program that focused primarily on technicians by using a case-management algorithm. To support our technicians, we provided additional training to animal husbandry staff as they assumed the primary role in the initial assessment of the animals' health. After completing the training, technicians made the transition from simply identifying health issues to actually making decisions for treating and euthanizing rodents. This training program empowered all team members and resulted in a staff that could provide consistent, high-quality veterinary care more efficiently.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79952680046&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=79952680046&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Article
C2 - 21333169
AN - SCOPUS:79952680046
SN - 1559-6109
VL - 50
SP - 84
EP - 93
JO - Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science
JF - Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science
IS - 1
ER -