Tennessee Veterinary Medical Association's 2023 Outstanding Technician of the Year

Outstanding Technician of the Year: Laura Fischer, LVMT
Laura is one of those people that is not afraid to learn something new but she's also the person that is the first one to teach somebody else something and she usually finds some clever and creative way to do it so she makes learning fun for our students she's also incredible about patient care and she oftentimes will send clients photos or videos just reassuring them that their animal is in good hands she's just the person that kind of keeps things moving and we're so thankful to have her here and to have her part of our of all family so congratulations Laura you are so deserving of this award from the first day that I stepped into the large animal hospital and met Laura and she just took me right under her wing and from then it's been now I come into the vet school and everybody's friendly and everyone's a friendly face and the connections that she's helped me build just for me and my career moving forward it's been so much more than just the late nights with her at the job it's been an opportunity that can't be matched she not only is an amazing vet tech where she's the calming agent she's always one step ahead of everybody but she also is somebody that I would not hesitate to go to for anything whether that's vet related whether that's you know School related or just life in general she gives amazing advice and she's always there just to listen if I need it so she's definitely deserving we have worked very extensively with the University of Tennessee and with Laura in taking care of our animals in the last two years that we have lived here we have 186 pigs currently on our property and many of them have been patients at the University of Tennessee and Laura has been just invaluable as a member of the team when we take them in for care she is gentle she's patient she's great with the animals and pigs are notoriously difficult patients to care for but she has been absolutely exceptional Laura is really great about looking at you and asking do you want me to be right here telling you what to do do you want me to be standing in the corner ready to jump in when you need help or do you want me to go away because you've got this you can handle it she is an amazing person to learn from because she gives me so many opportunities for new experiences while also being able to laugh together and cry together and just being a comforting person to be around because I know I could call her when things get rough and she'd be right there for me we're able to really have like a family environment because it's the same people over and over for the most part obviously our clinical students change but the core group is there and we're just able to create this atmosphere of like this is family this is fun we all have each other's backs we're just able to have a good time even in the stressful situations so I've seen her really grow the ECC team when I first got on it it was just a team of some students mostly second year students while I was a first year that would come in and work on call shifts or help emergencies that came in but she's really grown it into more of like an ECC family so we all work together we all know one another we work with some really hard cases but we have such a good time doing it and she really makes it a welcoming environment especially if you know let's say you know we're students so things get hard if we're signed up for a shift but we're like hey Laura like we have a test coming up she'll be like you you know take time to study we'll call you in if you know we desperately need you or if there's a cool learning opportunity that comes in she's inclusive and like hey guys you want to learn about this case or let me tell you how we would do something like this so working with her and seeing her grow the program has really it's been something special I'm glad I'm a part of it she is invaluable to our emergency and critical care team she is extremely conscientious personally trust her explicitly for making decisions patient care since we're a teaching or an academic Institute her ability to interact with students and instruct them to me it just covers it covered everything that the the award was designed for