On Friday, January 28, CVMA distributed a survey via email to its membership base to ask about their sentiments toward the concept of a veterinary professional associate (VPA). This document reports on the 440 survey responses received from CVMA’s survey distribution.
Click here to read CVMA’s position statement on the veterinary professional associate proposal.
Demographics
The following charts represent demographic information about the survey respondents.
Survey snapshot
The following represents the high-level responses to the four quantitative questions posed in the survey.
Survey verbatim responses
CVMA also provided an open-ended comment field for respondents to submit comments. Of the concerns reported in the survey by Colorado veterinarians, key concerns included:
- Surgery: Colorado veterinarians are concerned about a VPA’s ability to perform surgery with only 2.5 years of schooling. Veterinary technicians do not perform surgery and have a similar amount of schooling; veterinarians perform surgery only after a 4-year doctoral program.
- Liability: Colorado veterinarians report concerns about a VPA adding to the liability burden of a veterinarian. Many Colorado veterinarians indicated they are not willing to take on additional liability for more workers. VPAs would need to have their own liability coverage.
- Veterinary technicians: Many Colorado veterinarians identified veterinary technicians as an underutilized group of veterinary professionals, and would prefer to elevate existing technicians rather than create an entirely new level of veterinary professional.
Click here to read CVMA’s position statement on the veterinary professional associate proposal.
