Workforce shortages and turnover among credentialed veterinary technicians impose substantial operational and financial costs on veterinary practices. Despite these consequences, onboarding often remains informal, reinforcing a "sink-or-swim" culture that may contribute to early-career distress and underutilization of skills. Although veterinary technician-specific transition-to-practice research remains limited, data from human nursing may offer relevant onboarding strategies. Human nursing literature describes predictable early-career challenges during the first year of practice and promotes structured onboarding anchored by mentorship, competency-based progression, and resilience-building support to improve satisfaction and retention.
Courtney L. Ziegler (Fri,) studied this question.