Advancing Veterinary Nursing Utilization: Insights from IDEXX Medicine in Motion
October 27, 2026
When Chrissy Giovannielli, MBA, CVT, VTS (SAIM), Sr. Director, Nursing & Strategy Operations, collected and reviewed data about what keeps veterinary nurses/technicians and assistants from working at the top of their skills, the most common answer wasn’t staffing. It was training.
This matters because training is something we can change.
At the recent IDEXX Medicine in Motion Leadership Summit, Chrissy and Jared Katz, Sr. Manager, Clinical Learning & Development, shared how research, competency-based education, and innovative learning approaches can help veterinary professionals develop and apply their skills more effectively.
Understanding the Barriers to Nursing Utilization
Chrissy explored the impact of effective nursing utilization, how hospitals can better align responsibilities with team members’ skills, and the factors contributing to underutilization. Her research highlighted two key findings:
- Training, not staffing, is the biggest barrier. Among the hospital leaders surveyed, training was the most frequently cited barrier to utilization. Staffing was the least.
- Veterinary assistants are the biggest untapped opportunity. Of all roles, assistants showed the largest gap between the tasks appropriate to their role and the tasks they actually perform.
These findings highlight opportunities for hospitals to better support their existing team members through targeted training and more effective alignment of skills and responsibilities.
Connecting Learning and Development to Clinical Practice
Building on Chrissy’s findings, Jared introduced Ethos’s connected learning engine, an approach designed to address training gaps and support professional development through three interconnected components:
- Competency-based frameworks that define the knowledge and skills veterinary professionals should demonstrate at different stages of their careers.
- Verified digital credentials that recognize demonstrated competencies and make those skills visible and portable.
- AI-supported mentorship that provides personalized guidance to help team members develop their capabilities more efficiently.
Central to this approach is ASCEND, Ethos’s competency-based framework that establishes clear expectations for essential veterinary nursing capabilities, supporting structured training, skill assessment, and career growth.
Published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA), ASCEND is publicly available for any veterinary practice or organization to adopt, extending the impact of this work beyond Ethos hospitals.
By sharing these findings and making resources like ASCEND publicly available, we aim to help veterinary organizations address training gaps and better utilize their teams while supporting professional growth. The conversations at IDEXX Medicine in Motion reinforced the importance of sharing knowledge and practical solutions that can strengthen veterinary teams and advance patient care across the industry.