Our Veterinary Assistant training program will help you gain the knowledge, skills, and hands-on experience that can help you take steps toward a job as a certified Veterinary Assistant. Aligned with NAVTA standards, your program will cover caring for animals after surgery, helping provide emergency first aid and medication to sick or injured animals, maintaining and sterilizing surgical instruments and equipment, obtaining animal health histories, and more.
In our veterinary assistant courses, you’ll learn the skills and get the hands-on veterinary assistant training you need to tend to the needs of animals. You may be able to secure your externship site at a veterinary practice near you, or through our partnership with the goodcat Veterinary Hospital.
The program goal for St. Gertrude’s Veterinary Assistant program is to prepare students to work as veterinary assistants under the supervision of veterinarians and veterinary technicians in small or large animal hospitals or clinics. The program also prepares the students to take the national test to become an Approved Veterinary Assistant.
Office Procedures and Client Relations
- Front Office Procedures
- The Office Visit
- Pet Health Insurance
- Medical Records
- Standard Operating Procedures
- Inventory Management
- Computer and Software Management
- Client Relations
- The Human-Animal Bond
- ASSIGNMENT: Office Procedures and Client Relations
- SKILL: Medical Record Assembly
- SKILL: Color Coding Medical Records
- SKILL: Filing
- SKILL: Appointment Scheduling
- SKILL: Updating Client Information
- SKILL: Intake Procedures
- SKILL: The Signalment
- SKILL: Release of Patient Information
- SKILL: Rabies Certificate
- SKILL: Health Certificates
- SKILL: Consent Forms
- SKILL: Client Communications
- SKILL: Patient Discharge
- SKILL: Telephone Techniques
- SKILL: Handling Difficult Clients
- SKILL: Hospital Closing Procedures
- SKILLS SHEET: Office Procedures and Client Relations
Pharmacology and Pharmacy
- Drug Names
- Dosage Forms
- Prescriptions and Dispensing Medication
- Components of a Prescription
- Containers for Dispensing Medication
- The Metric System
- Calculating Drug Doses
- Storing and Handling Drugs in the Pharmacy
- Storing and Prescribing Controlled Substances
- Therapeutic Range
- Dosage Regimen
- Routes of Administration
- How Drugs Exert Their Effects
- Drugs Affecting the Gastrointestinal Tract
- Drugs Affecting the Cardiovascular System
- Drugs Affecting the Respiratory System
- Drugs Affecting the Endocrine System
- Drugs Affecting Reproduction
- Drugs Affecting the Nervous System
- Antimicrobials
- Antifungals
- Antiparasitics
- Anti-Inflammatories
- Disinfectants and Antiseptics
Anesthesia and Surgical Assisting
- Surgery Suite
- Principles of Asepsis
- Surgical Instruments
- Sutures and Other Materials Used in Wound Closure
- Care and Maintenance of Surgical Instruments and Supplies
- Basic Surgical Terminology
- Preoperative and Postoperative Considerations
- Preparation of the Operative Site
- Preparation of the Surgical Team
- Anesthetic Equipment and Supplies
- Anesthesia
- Surgical Assisting
- Recovery
- Suture Removal
- ASSIGNMENT: Anesthesia and Surgical Assisting
Diagnostic Imaging
- X-Ray Generation
- Radiographic Image Quality
- Radiographic Film
- X-Ray Equipment
- Digital X-Ray Imaging
- Radiation Safety
- Darkroom Techniques
- Radiographic Artifacts
- Radiographic Positioning and Terminology
- Contrast Studies
- Diagnostic Ultrasound
- Endoscopy
- Computed Tomography
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging
- Nuclear Medicine