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While shining a light on the many different areas of the field of veterinary technology, we aim to have thought provoking discussions about the issues facing veterinary technicians and nurses with the leaders in our field.
Episodes
Monday Jun 08, 2020
Monday Jun 08, 2020
In our final episode for #mentalhealthawarenessmonth, we recap our May episodes dealing with mental health issues. Jeff shares some personal stories about his recent struggles and his path towards fixing them. This is the audio from our Instagram Live broadcast that we recorded on 6/6.
We want to thank our guests from May, Joe Defulio, Beth Armstrong, and Kim Spelts for sharing their stories and helping us to #beatthestigma.
Sunday May 31, 2020
Sunday May 31, 2020
This episode is our final installment of our series for #mentalhealthawarenessmonth and we take a dive into living with depression with Kim Spelts, BS, CVT, VTS(Anesthesia/Analgesia). She walks us through her battle and talks about the personal and professional effects depression has had on her. We talk about how she began to recognize it, face it, and overcome it. From music to meditation and apps to therapy, she talks about many of the different things that have helped along the way. She gave us some really great analogies of mental health in comparison to other conditions people live with, to hopefully #beatthestigma Another idea Kim wanted to pass along that we didn't talk about is journaling. She says it helps her build her self-awareness, foster her creativity, and give her some clarity. If you find yourself battling depression, compassion fatigue, or burnout, #makethecall You are worth it.
Links:
https://brenebrown.com/books-audio/
https://www.netflix.com/title/81010166
https://markmanson.net/books/subtle-art
https://www.headspace.com/
Ani DeFranco - "Allergic to Water" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLQI0xUzfZQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hjikOI2BkQ
https://www.inspiringleadershipnow.com/how-to-set-boundaries-at-work/
Sunday May 17, 2020
Sunday May 17, 2020
In this installment of the Vet Tech Cafe, we interview Beth Armstrong, CVT, RVT, CFE, CCFP, CTP, who is now a Practice Consultant for AAHA. Our paths first crossed with Beth in 2013 when we were all in the same study group for the AVECCTN exam (best study group of all time, IMO). It was great to catch up and hear what she's been doing, as her career has taken a very different path from ours since that time. As May is #mentalhealthawarenessmonth we continue our discussions with those that are helping to decrease the stigma that surrounds the issue. We'd also like to wish Beth a happy birthday, as this episode is being released on her birthday-so make sure to say Happy Birthday in the comments and show her some support by downloading her episode! Lastly, we want to thank AAHA for their generous support of this episode-when they heard Beth was going to be coming by the Vet Tech Cafe for a cup of coffee, they stepped up to sponsor this episode so you'll hear a roughly 20-second ad near the middle. We'll be talking about AAHA's culture initiative as well, which aims to promote a healthy workplace culture in their hospitals.
https://www.aaha.org/practice-resources/healthy-workplace-culture/
https://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/extrasensory-perceptions/hypnosis.htm
https://www.headspace.com/meditation-101/what-is-meditation
Thursday May 14, 2020
Thursday May 14, 2020
Dave and Jeff try their hand at Instagram Live, so you will hear us saying hi to various people that have joined the broadcast. We discuss an article about how to spot and treat team burnout from Covid 19 (link to the article below). In our episode with Joe Defulio, he tells us about the ProQol assessment which we have both taken and go over our results. We recommend you try this out and see where you fall on the spectrum of compassion fatigue and burnout. This episode is essentially the raw Instagram feed with limited editing. We hope you enjoy!
Links:
https://www.proqol.org/uploads/ProQOL_5_English_Self-Score.pdf
Sunday May 03, 2020
Sunday May 03, 2020
We kick off our May series of Mental Health Awareness episodes with Joe Defulio, CVT, LVT, CFE, CCFP. Joe is the vice president of clinical services for MedVet and is also the cofounder of East Coast Veterinary Education with past guest Liza Rudolph. We had a great discussion about compassion fatigue, how to recognize it, and steps to take to get out of it. Joe also taught us about the differences between compassion fatigue and burnout as well as giving us tools to help recognize if we're going through it.
Links:
Link to the self test: https://www.proqol.org/uploads/ProQOL_5_English_Self-Score.pdf
https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ 800-273-TALK (8255)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/NOMVSupportStaff/
https://www.mhanational.org/mental-health-month
Sunday Apr 26, 2020
Sunday Apr 26, 2020
In this episode we talked with Amy Newfield, CVT, VTS (ECC). She is a highly decorated speaker, has been published in numerous publications, and has been involved with the AVECCTN board for a number of years. Her current role is the Project Manager for Training and Health and Wellness for BluePearl Hosptials. We have a great discussion about the pros and cons of working for a large cooperation vs a smaller private practice. Amy taught us about working with a social worker that BluePearl has on staff and all the benefits that come with that. Finally, we all shared a few stories about a dear friend that we lost almost a year ago. We hope you enjoy this episode!
Links:
https://www.vetfolio.com/learn/article/the-spleen-anatomy-and-common-complications
https://eveccs.org/2020/01/03/the-eveccs-veterinary-nurse-technician-scholarship/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amynewfield
Sunday Apr 12, 2020
Sunday Apr 12, 2020
In this episode, we interview Noah Jones BSRT, RRT-ACCS, RCP, RVT, VTS (Research Anesthetist). Noah is a respiratory therapist working in North Carolina as well as an RVT. We have a really clinical and medical discussion about COVID-19. Noah discusses it's effects, what the respiratory therapists and doctors are doing for these patients, and some strategies they are employing to protect themselves.
Links:
http://www.ardsnet.org/files/ventilator_protocol_2008-07.pdf
https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1164/rccm.2020C1
https://www.facebook.com/foundationveterinarysolutions/
Sunday Apr 05, 2020
Sunday Apr 05, 2020
In this episode, we chat with Tiffany Baleigh, RN AND RVT!!! She is now a CN IV, charge nurse for the Cardiovascular and Thoracic unit at UCI Medical Center in Southern California, where she lives with her wife, Jess, and son Rowan, and two dogs. She still works as a relief technician at Animal Urgent Care and maintains her RVT license, after 10+ years out of the field in a full time capacity. She brings a unique perspective to VNI (let's just say she suggested we change our podcast title to Vet Nurse Cafe!) and offers a lot of insight into the similarities and differences between the two fields. We talk about education and career options in each field, and struggles that BOTH professions face. We also talk a lot about COVID-19 and what that looks like at her hospital, and the real-life struggle with PPE. As always, we'll end with the @vettechcafe #wouldyourather so please keep sending in your ideas for that-we'd love to give you a shout out if we use your suggestion in a future episode!
donatemasksucisom@gmail.com (for PPE donations)
www.redcross.org (for blood and plasma [if fully recovered] donations)
www.ucihealth.org/medical-services/blood-donations
https://www.livescience.com/cat-infected-covid-19-from-owner.html
Wednesday Mar 25, 2020
Wednesday Mar 25, 2020
This episode of the Vet Tech Café is a bit different. This episode is the collaborative effort of 5 different veterinary podcasts: The Vet Tech Café, Veterinary Anesthesia Nerds, Radio Vet Nurse, Two Vets Talk Pets, and this was all coordinated and edited by the Internal Medicine for Vet Techs Podcast. In this episode, the 8 individuals that make up these 5 podcasts discuss what exactly what COVID-19 is, how it works, and our own individual experiences with dealing with this virus, in terms of how our hospitals are operating. We also discuss how to find reliable information and some strategies to combat the mental health related side effects of being on the front lines. It is our hope that nobody listening to this podcast is or becomes directly affected by this virus, but we hope to provide useful information and a bit of a respite from this difficult time.
Links:
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/animal-health-and-welfare/covid-19
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/internal-medicine-for-vet-techs-podcast/id1483584801?ls=1
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/radio-vet-nurse/id1419394156
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/two-vets-talk-pets/id1360813259
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/veterinary-anesthesia-nerds/id1493232245
Sunday Mar 22, 2020
Sunday Mar 22, 2020
For this episode we interviewed Amber LaRock. She runs the instagram page Vet Tech and Travel which we have talked about before on our podcasts. (link below) We talked about her career path from working in an ER to traveling abroad and also her work as a writer. She also gives us a look into her adventures in Cambodia and Thailand working with rescue groups and also with some amazing wildlife. We would like to note that Amber has told us that the US embassy is asking all US citizens to go back to the US before they end flights in the coming week. All the countries around where Amber is have closed their borders so she's heading back to the US to ride out the storm!
Links: