Assessing Pain: Vet Techs

Mary Ellen Goldberg, BS, LVT, CVT, SRA, CCRA, certified veterinary pain practitioner with VetMedTeam, LLC., explains the very large role of veterinary technicians in assessing pain.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“Veterinary technicians play a large role in pain assessment, simply because they are the ones that are interacting with the patients the most. In pain assessment, you’re looking at behavioral signs, body language, facial expressions, and taking in the overall posture. You’re also doing things like palpating, if there’s an incision or a painful area, vet technicians are the ones that advocate for the painful animal and they’re the ones that are going to the veterinarian, who is probably seeing clients or in surgery, and is saying this animal needs more pain medication—it’s hurting. So, they have a very large role in assessing pain and that’s probably one of their primary roles.”