Veterinary Assistant distance education program

I promised I’d write about this the other day, so here I am.  I enrolled in the Veterinary Assistant program offered by Thomson Education Direct a few weeks ago, and I wanted to give prospective students an idea of what the program is like, and whether I feel I’m actually learning anything via “home study”.  There are no schools here in Las Vegas offering AVMA-approved training for veterinary technicians, so I decided I’d start small and see what I could learn via a vet assistant program.  I know that most vet assistant training is on-the-job training—when I volunteered at the San Francisco SPCA, I acted as an assistant by doing things like feeding the animals, restraining animals during procedures, socializing kittens, etc.  I even got to help out one of the vets who was doing surgery on an ear hematoma—man, that was a really bloody horror-fest.  I also did things like move deceased animals to the refrigerated area, I cleaned out kennels, etc.  While I know an online learning course can’t teach me how to do those things, it’s helpful in teaching me the basics of animal anatomy and physiology, veterinary terminology, first aid procedures, etc.  As I wrote in an earlier entry, so far I seem to know 50% or more of the information presented to me in each module, so the learning has been quick.  I have many, many courses in biology, microbiology, and human a & p from university, so a lot of this is a refresher.  Some elements of the refresher course, like the math parts, are especially welcome.  I’m able to take my exams online and to get my results instantly, so it’s gratifying in that sense—I truly can work when I want to, and when the time is available to me.  There’s an optional work-study component at the end of the program.  You can see a complete course outline by clicking the hyperlink earlier in this entry, and then selecting, “Program Outline” from the left-hand menu.

The only real negative thing I’ve found so far is that the course moves slower than I do.  They say that they’ll mail out new lessons as soon as I finish a certain number of exams in a module, but so far they aren’t keeping up to how fast I’m working.  That’s frustrating for me.  I’ve written to them to ask if there’s a way I could expedite the shipments, as the problem is partially caused by their use of “media mail” for shipping.  I order used books from Amazon.com all the time and they’re sent media mail, and they can honestly take 4 to 6 weeks to arrive.  I’ve asked if I could just pay a fee to have materials sent via Priority Mail, but I’m still waiting for a response.  Other than that, I’m pleased.  I do feel like I’m learning new things, the “instructors” are accredited and work in the field they’re teaching (manuals are written by vets or vet techs), and I hope taking this course will get me bonus points at my green card interview.  In theory I can’t really have been “working” during my time in the United States, so it’s tough for me to say that I’ll be able to support myself via website work without revealing that I already do that.  However, I hope I might now be able to point to my certificate to say that I’m educated as a veterinary assistant and qualified to work in that field.  I know my vet’s office is willing to hire me right now, with no formal training, but every bit of knowledge helps.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/23 at 08:00 AM

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