Like animals? Want to learn how to help them stay healthy without having to relocate or stop working? Currently there are no internet-based veterinarian degrees, but you can pursue an online degree leading to a rewarding career as a veterinary technician or veterinary technologist.
How Online Veterinary Programs Work
Paige Jones, Instructional Technologist for Purdue University’s Veterinary Technologist Distance-Learning (VTDL) program, says it has “the same academic requirements as campus-based programs.” “You take 35 ‘didactic’ courses over the Internet,” she explains, “and 17 clinical mentorships for hands-on skills. All 17 of the mentorships have different requirements; students mail in their logbook” when the mentorships are complete. David L. Wright, D.V.M., professor at Texas’s Cedar Valley College, reports that their online vet tech A.A.S. degree also has the same requirements as the on-campus degree, but students “must be working at least ten hours a week at a veterinary practice.”
Purdue mails out a CD to online students “with handout info and any videos,” according to Jones, including those showing procedures such as “how to put a halter on a cow, draw blood from a vein, or give an injection.” They do this because “.60% of our students are still using dialup, and downloading videos is excruciating.” Wright recommends students get a broadband connection for similar reasons. Cedar Valley, he says, gives “hands-on assignments as well as reading and video assignments, then tests online.” Students will need to purchase textbooks and any videos that can’t be delivered over the Internet.
Jones cautions that even though “many students are small-animal-oriented,” accredited programs like these require that they “be able to work with all species,” - not just dogs and cats and other relatively small pets. This includes “large-animal surgery, anesthesia, etc.,” as well as lab-animal procedures. While Jones and Wright agree that this can be problematic for some online students, Jones asserts that “the veterinary community is small” and that, to complete this kind of training, most students “can find a large-animal practice by networking.” If not, Wright and Jones recommend the on-campus seminars that both their institutions offer (annual workshops at Purdue, fast-track labs three times a year at Cedar Valley).
Online Schools and Programs Offered for Veterinary Students
If you choose to study vet tech over the Internet, you’ll want to do so through an accredited program. Although most colleges and universities are accredited through regional associations of higher learning, you can only be credentialed by a U.S. state as a veterinary technician or technologist if you graduate from an educational program accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). Of the distance-learning programs they recognized for 2006, the only ones that were active as of June 2006 and available through the Net rather than at satellite learning centers are those provided by the following schools:
Paying for an Online Education
Unlike many other types of undergraduate programs, it typically isn’t cheaper, in terms of tuition and fees, to study veterinary technology over the Internet than to study it on a college campus. Jones reports that it currently can cost students of the Internet-based Purdue program $17,000 to get their degree, not including textbooks, etc. But Wright says this disparity can be misleading: “Yes, it’s [nominally] more expensive, but students don’t have to leave work to go to classes.” When you factor in your ability to continue to earn a full-time income while pursuing a degree, he insists that it’s “as cheap or cheaper to be online than on campus.”
Jones points out that getting financial aid can be “very difficult for distance-learning programs” because normally students are only taking classes part-time. Wright explains that aid is only available for 36 of the 72 hours in Cedar Valley’s program because “half of the curriculum is non-credit modules.” But assistance is available if you look. For instance, students involved with the National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America (NAVTA) can apply for scholarships offered jointly by the American Kennel Club (AKC) and The Hartz Corporation. Numerous regional vet-tech associations also grant scholarships.
Employment
Once you have your degree and credentials, you’re almost guaranteed to land a job; both Jones and Wright report multiple openings awaiting each graduate of their programs. In the course of the decade from 2004 to 2014, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects employment for veterinary technicians and technologists to rise by an amazing 35.3%, making it one of the top fifteen occupations in America in terms of job-growth percentage.
Summary
Wright lists three compelling reasons to learn veterinary technology online:
- “A lot of students learn better this way.”
- Is there an accredited on-campus program near you? If not, an online program might be your only feasible option.
- “Students completing clinical assignments at a practice have a better feel for what’s going on medically. They also have more chances to perform procedures. On campus, you might be able to do four to six catheters on patients per month; at a practice, you might be able to do four to six catheters a day.”
Might it someday be possible to train to become a full veterinarian over the Internet? “There’s been some talk about it, but no progress,” says Jones. “But then, ten years ago, I wouldn’t have thought veterinary technology could be done online.” So stay tuned; technology marches (and paces, crawls, stalks, flies, and swims) ever onward.
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