TECHNICIAN UPDATE

You Can Fight City Hall: ‘Will Never Happen,’ Happened

By Marcia Cantrell, CVT

In 2021, Montana passed a law allowing the licensure of veterinary technicians. It was an accomplishment that took perseverance and patience, and I am very proud of the part I played in it.

I was told over and over again from veterinarians, lobbyists, and even veterinary technicians, that legislation to license veterinary technicians “will never happen” in Montana.

The Big Sky Veterinary Technician Association (BSVTA) was on the verge of collapse in 2014 due, I think, to burn out. Our association is small, and few volunteers were doing the work necessary to maintain certifications. I and some of my colleagues, both veterinary technicians and veterinarians, thought that being licensed under the Montana Veterinary Medical Board would standardize certifications and improve the process. In addition, we were hoping it would breathe some life into BSVTA and encourage technicians to seek certification, which in the end, would be better for our patients.

In addition to carrying out the duties that assistants already were doing, we hoped the bill could expand the ability of Montana veterinarians to tap into a resource that veterinarians in other states rely on—educated and experienced veterinary technicians.

A licensed veterinary technician requires less veterinarian supervision than an assistant, which can increase the veterinarian’s ability to care for more patients, while improving their care.

At one time, Montana did license veterinary technicians, but the regulation lapsed in the early 1980s, due to vague language. The responsibility for credentialing reverted to the BSVTA with oversight by the Montana Veterinary Medical Association (MVMA).

Many veterinary leaders wanted to reinstate licensure, but there were many obstacles, including the difficulty of bringing a vet tech program to the state that was approved by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA).

But really, change—an ugly word—was the primary obstacle.

So, how did I get involved? I was “volunteered” after opening my mouth. In 2014, my practice hired a certified veterinary technician from Colorado, who wanted to become certified in Montana after she started. But she found the process difficult. Even getting information about certification was challenging.

Her experience got me thinking. At a continuing education event/BSVTA general membership meeting, I was “volunteered” to research what would be needed to obtain licensure after I asked why we didn’t pursue it.

My efforts kept coming back to the same advice: “Will never happen.”

I was there (right) when the bill was signed into law.

Courtesy of Marcia Cantrell

From my first meeting with Rick Scherr, DVM, the chair of the MVMA Vet Tech Committee, to discussions with various state legislators, I was met with the same resistance.

I’m not a lobbyist, in fact, I have very little interest in politics, but I do care about my profession, and I was determined to see this through. In 2015, I met with the MVMA’s executive officer and lobbyist Stuart Doggett, who was very nice. He met with me and the BSVTA’s secretary at the capitol, where we toured the building and sat in on a house hearing. When I told him that we were working toward licensure for veterinary technicians, he said: “Will never happen.”

Our next move was to obtain the Veterinary Board of Governor’s support, which we were told was a necessary step for achieving our goal. Someone from BSVTA attended every meeting, even if we weren’t on the agenda. Our presence was met with suspicion and trepidation because we were new to the process and spoke openly about our goals. Eventually, however, we gained the veterinary board’s support.

But we still needed the community’s support, and that took a multipronged approach. We reached out to industry supporters to fund our efforts and started holding meetings throughout the major cities in the state—offering free continuing education and food.

We attended job fairs and agricultural youth meetings and reached out to veterinarians, shelters and even the Montana Nurses Association. Recognizing our organization’s role would change, we also reached out to the National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America (NAVTA) to grow our local/ state leadership. NAVTA and AVMA both gave us letters of support to present at the hearings.

There were several contentious meetings while we drafted the final bill. The opposition was concerned that assistants wouldn’t be able to do basic tasks anymore, that clinics would be required to hire LVTs, and that LVTs would need to be paid more.

But we stuck to our guns: the legislation would help our profession and the underserved rural areas of our state.

COVID-19 threw another obstacle in our path because we could not hold the usual regional meetings. We did meet with the State Sen. Brian Hoven, who tabled our bill in the Senate in 2019. Although we didn’t change his mind, we understood his reasoning that there should be less governmental restrictions in the workforce. We held virtual meetings to discuss the new proposed bill and made some concessions to help move it forward.

We finally had a workable bill and a strong sponsor in State Rep. Walt Sales to present to the Senate Agricultural Committee. After the first committee hearing, the bill was almost tabled again because animal shelters were worried that their employees would not be able to administer vaccinations and simple treatments. After much discussion, clarification and compromise, we gained their support.

All our efforts started to pay off when the bill was passed out of the committee, where it went to the House.

But it was still far from becoming a law.

The House committee hearing was our next obstacle. In the Senate hearing we had 2 opponents; the House hearing had 1. To pass out of the hearing, the committee requested an amendment to decrease the required hours and not give a time limit on the grandfather clause. Although we felt this was less than ideal, it was a concession we felt we could make.

Ultimately the bill passed the House floor 87-10, was returned to the Senate floor for a 50-0 approval of amendments, and history was written.

On April 29, 2021, Governor Gregg Gianforte signed SB106 into Montana state law, and we were there to witness the signing.

Originally published in The NAVTA Journal. https://www. navta.net Used with permission and edited for style.

Teaching Points

Change is hard for everyone, but being the instrument of that change is even more difficult.

But it is not impossible.

Working with others improves your odds, especially if you want to make an institutional change, such as getting legislation passed.

The long road from idea to law is just that: a journey. It takes the help of many people.

There were many people who were instrumental in getting this law passed, including Eli Olind, CVT; Steve Watters, DVM; Sarah Coffield; Leah Anderson, CVT; Shawni Hansen, CVT; Stuart

Doggatt; Rick Scherr, DVM; Jeanne Rankin, DVM; Tierney Olson, DVM; State Rep. Walt Sales, and BSVTA past and present leadership.

In addition, we needed financial support, and several companies helped us. We are grateful for the industry support we received from MWI, Elanco, Hill’s Pet Nutrition and Royal Canin.

About the Author

I was always interested in helping animals. After several years of experience, I took the VTNE in 1995 in Washington State under the grandfather clause. I mostly worked on the companion animal side until moving to Livingston, Mont., to help fulfill my husband's dream of building a ranch and raising horses. For more than 15 years, we have been having a lot of fun perfecting our breeding program and showing in the cutting pen. I am active in Montana’s BSVTA, as secretary in 2007, and now as certification coordinator, a post I have held since 2014. In August 2020, I became a regional contact for the AAEVT. I also work part time in both small and large animal practice as inventory manager and enjoy getting my hands dirty in the field doing cattle work during the busy seasons.