Our veterinary technology courses will enhance your skills and help prepare graduates to qualify for employment beyond entry-level, often times with greater responsibility than candidates with an associate degree or less. You will need to send Penn Foster your official transcripts as proof that you have graduated from an AVMA-accredited associate degree program and have a minimum of 15 semester hours of transferable general education coursework.
To prepare students for additional career pathway opportunities above and beyond the entry level general practice opportunities afforded by an Associate Degree in Veterinary Technology. These would include both additional clinical opportunities as well as hospital management opportunities.
In this course, you'll learn the personal qualities that employers look for in their employees, such as integrity and dependability. You'll examine the interpersonal skills needed to ensure positive interactions with diverse populations through various channels of communication and gain strategies for overcoming communication barriers. You'll gain an understanding of critical workplace skills.
This course focuses on the bond that is created between animals and their owners. The primary emphasis will be on pets but also include bonds with many types of animals. Essential components of the bond will be discussed and will include information on how veterinary technicians can work with pet owners to enhance the bond and promote a better quality of life together. Information on pet death, euthanasia, and the grieving process will also be covered.
Improve your writing and researching skills.
This course gives the veterinary technician a greater understanding of the science behind the therapeutics used in veterinary medicine today. Understandable explanations will be discussed of the “how” and “why” behind drugs, their actions, their mechanisms, and their problems. Included in the discussions will be clinical case studies of both proper and improper uses of drugs.
This course is divided into five lessons that discuss foundations of principles of management, planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.
This course will prepare the student for finding accurate scientific data and will prepare them for writing their Capstone Project at the end of the program. Critical thinking and evidence-based research will be highlighted using current biological issues of importance to society as the vehicle through which learning will occur.
This course will introduce the student to biochemistry through the study of the essential elements found in living things. Students will examine the characteristics and properties of lipids, cell membranes, and carbohydrates. They’ll learn about the structure and functions of proteins, enzyme kinetics, and cell metabolism. Students will also examine metabolic systems and concepts related to DNA, RNA, and protein synthesis.
This course meets the needs of students who need to understand accounting language but aren’t planning on becoming accountants. Students will learn what accounting information is, what it means, and how it’s used. The course also covers financial statements, return on investment, the bookkeeping process, cost accounting, and report systems.
This course provides a sound understanding of proper preventative health care and rehabilitation for animals. Emphasis will be on the dog and the cat. Concepts to be covered will include current preventative healthcare standards such as proper nutrition, parasite control, and vaccine protocols. Lifelong wellness will be discussed for all life stages during an animal’s life. Current and future integrative medicine procedures for animals will also be covered.
In this course, you’ll learn the importance of understanding and implementing laws and requirements in a veterinary practice. You’ll also learn the benefits of developing a professional, efficient, and knowledgeable team that provides exceptional customer service to their clients. Additionally, the course will provide you with instructions and information on how to help your practice grow financially.
This course will take an in-depth look at many of the common diseases found in companion animal species. One of the major topics in this course is medical and surgical intervention when preventative health strategies didn't work to prevent an animal disease. Another major topic covered is the role of the veterinary technician in assisting the veterinarian in the medical and surgical management of disease. Discussion of diseases will focus on dogs and cats and be organized according to organ systems.
In this course students will learn about specific workplace safety and regulatory compliance topics applicable to veterinary technicians and related to the wider veterinary team. Topics include personal safety hazards, patient safety hazards, building or institutional safety hazards, and current Occupational and Safety Health Administration (OSHA) regulations.
This course will give you an understanding of relevant leadership issues, theories, and principles with real-life examples. This course will also provide you with the latest supervision and leadership research, in addition to illustrating the evolution and development of modern leadership principles.
In this course, students will take an in-depth look at emergency cases presented in both after-hours emergency practices as well as in daytime practices. Critical care fundamentals and techniques will be discussed. Specific types of animal emergencies will also be looked at in detail.
This course is designed to introduce you to the field. You’ll be introduced to basic concepts, theories, and perspectives related to effective human resource management.
This course covers the principles of marketing. Topics covered include assessing, analyzing, understanding, and targeting the marketplace, as well as the creation, capture, delivery, and communication of value. Students will learn how to develop a marketing plan, use social and mobile marketing effectively, integrate ethics into marketing strategies, influence the consumer decision process, perform market research, perform SWOT and STP analyses, make decisions concerning branding, packaging, and developing new products, price products and services fairly, set advertising objectives, and more.
This course integrates surgical anesthesia fundamentals and techniques that allow for humane surgery to be performed on all animal species. A major topic to be discussed is the role of veterinary anesthesia and surgical nursing in working closely with a veterinary surgeon. Other topics to be covered include effective anesthesia protocols for a variety of cases, use of advanced medical and surgical nursing skills preoperatively as well as peri- and post- operatively, and advanced monitoring techniques.
This course will introduce you to different schools of thought about how to determine the “right” course of action—philosophical approaches such as utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, and character-based philosophies. Second, in addition to these personal ethics perspectives, you’ll be introduced to various business-related approaches to ethical issues in a professional setting. Third, you’ll be introduced to a process for decision making to balance the personal, professional, and societal considerations to help you make good decisions in your business life. Finally, you’ll be given an overview of selected areas of business that may require particular attention to ethical and social responsibility issues.
This course gives the student the opportunity to explore a Veterinary Technician Specialist (VTS) career pathway or a Certified Veterinary Practice Manager career after graduation from the Program. Information learned throughout this program will assist the student in developing this Capstone Project.
