NAVC and MentorVet Partner to Provide Veterinary Nurses/Technicians Access to New Approach to Mentorship
The North American Veterinary Community (NAVC) announces its support of MentorVet Tech, a new program created by MentorVet that is redefining veterinary mentorship with a holistic approach to helping veterinary nurses/technicians thrive in every aspect of their career. MentorVet and the NAVC are partnering to offer an extension of the MentorVet Tech program to veterinary nurses and technicians with multiple flash mentorship sessions. These interactive 90-minute sessions will be provided for no additional cost during NAVC’s HiVE Vet Nurse + Tech event Oct. 16-18 in Austin, TX and facilitated by the MentorVet Team.
“The NAVC is pleased to partner with MentorVet to help reach, recruit and engage veterinary nurses and technicians to be part of this program,” said NAVC CEO Gene O’Neill. “It is a perfect complement and extension of the NAVC Veterinary Nurse Empowerment Initiative we launched in 2021 to help support and elevate veterinary nurses and technicians in their careers. As the first conference to focus exclusively on veterinary nurses and technicians, HiVE provides the perfect venue to make MentorVet Tech accessible to many veterinary nurses and technicians.”
MentorVet Tech was developed by Addie Reinhard, DVM, MS, mental health professionals and expert veterinary technicians including MentorVet Tech program director, Alyssa Mages, BS, CVT. The program was created with the mental health and wellbeing of veterinary nurses and technicians in mind and includes six months of online professional skills training, peer group mentoring, paired mentorship and mental health and financial coaching all designed to address the unique needs of veterinary technicians and nurses. The full MentorVet Tech program is set to run every six months with the next session commencing in Spring 2024.
“Veterinary technicians have long been overlooked and yet are vital for our profession. In fact, evidence shows that this career group may be at an even higher risk for mental health challenges than their veterinarian counterparts,” said Reinhard. “Very few wellbeing resources currently exist for this group of individuals, and we are excited to be able to offer evidence-based programming for veterinary technicians at any stage of their career to give them the education, resources and human support they need to have sustainable careers within veterinary medicine. We are thrilled that the NAVC is helping support this important initiative.”
MentorVet has three programs in operation including their flagship program MentorVet Leap, a mentorship and professional development program for early-career veterinarians that includes peer support, professional skills development, one-on-one coaching and much more. Reinhard and her team have conducted research based around MentorVet Leap and their early findings have shown significant decreases in mean burnout, stress and serious psychological distress, with a significant increase in mean well-being levels.
MentorVet’s programming, including MentorVet Tech, is fully virtual and available in all 50 states, reaching veterinary nurses/technicians across the nation. MentorVet Tech is sponsored by the NAVC, Merck Animal Health and The Blue Buffalo Co.
Learn more about the program and NAVC’s partnership at MentorVet.