02 Feb Invest In Your Staff With The Certified Veterinary Assistant Program
The Certified Veterinary Assistant Program encourages continuing education for veterinary medical personnel, enabling them to become more informed, skilled, and trusted members of the veterinary medical team. This program is offered as a discount to GVMA Members and their staff.
CVA Program Features:
- Education Manual – A comprehensive training manual is available for individuals or an entire practice. The manual, consisting of educational text, exercises, and other learning experiences arranged in workbook style, includes 10 courses dealing with a wide variety of skills and competencies required for certification.
- Skills Development – A CVA must demonstrate competency in dozens of foundational skills.
- Work Experience – On-the-job training is an important element in this educational model. The CVA is required to accumulate 500 hours of practical, supervised work experience.
- Testing – An comprehensive certification exam insures that CVAs possess a sound knowledge base.
“With veterinarians and RVTs in very high demand and most not moving out into rural areas… These programs allow us to be able to credential our staff for what we already know they are capable of but also set a bar that our clients can understand that the staff we have are properly trained
and educated.” – Dr. Clint Hall, Owner, Wolfe Animal Hospital
Benefits to Veterinary Hospitals
- Motivate current personnel to pursue veterinary medicine as a career, resulting in less turnover and investment in replacement and re-training efforts.
- The CVA as part of your medical team demonstrates your practice’s commitment to training and education.
- Use the comprehensive training manual as the foundation for your staff training program.
- The CVA program offers real-time progress tracking and results.
Benefits to the CVA Applicant
- Gain a sound knowledge base to be a more effective and valuable member of any veterinary medical team.
- • Hands-on experiences to demonstrate competency in dozens of foundational skills.
- • Work experience under the supervising DVM or RVT to utilize the materials being learned.
- • Solid foundation to explore further career opportunities in the veterinary medical field.
In order to receive CVA certification, certain standard requirements must be met. These include:
• 90 days of work experience under the supervision of a DVM or RVT
• Mastering all required material for level of desired certification, as well as previous levels.
• Gaining and demonstrating the hands-on skills listed on the Skills Validation Checklist
• Exam Application and Skills Validation Checklist completed and approved by the DVM or RVT
• Successful completion of the certification examination (70%)