VETERINARY NURSING: FLUID THERAPY AND TRANSFUSION MEDICINE
| RACE Approved Interactive For Veterinary Technicians/Nurses |
Course meets the requirements for 12 RACE hours of continuing education credit for veterinary technicians in jurisdictions which recognize AAVSB's RACE approval. However, participants should be aware that some boards have limitations on the number of hours accepted in certain categories and/or restrictions on certain methods of delivery.
RACE Subject Category: Medical; Delivery Method: Interactive Distance; Program Number 744711.
This course does not require employment nor prior experience.
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| Course Focus - Learning Objectives - Completion Requirements |
Veterinary Nursing: Fluid Therapy and Transfusion Medicine covers the topics of electrolytes, intravenous catheters, fluid therapy, and transfusion medicine in relation to the treatment of dogs and cats. Participants will discover the importance of each electrolyte contained in various therapeutic fluids, what these electrolytes are, and how they work to balance electrolyte deficiencies in compromised patients.
Once the student develops a good familiarity with electrolytes, they will proceed into learning about various venous access points in dogs and cats as well as the types of intravenous catheters, insertion techniques, and maintenance of the catheter site. Types of fluids will also be discussed including their usage for shock therapy and specific patient ailments. An introduction to transfusion medicine is included in this course and provides the student with the knowledge of blood products, transfusion reactions, and transfusion patient management.
Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to:
- distinguish the advantages and disadvantages of various types of IV catheters
- differentiate the advantages and disadvantages of IV catheter insertion sites
- identify IV catheter related problems, their causes, and solutions
- recall different fluid types and their usages
- recognize electrolyte abnormalities, their consequences, and treatment
- distinguish various blood products including their advantages and disadvantages
- manage a patient receiving a blood transfusion
- identify and respond to a transfusion reaction
Completion requirements:
Instructor Graded Interactive Critical Thinking and Case Study Assignments: Designed to help the participant apply the newly learned skills and knowledge via implementation focused and patient based scenarios
Comprehension Quizzes: Must be submitted with a score of 80% or better, multiple attempts
Course Survey
A certificate of completion is provided.
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| How Does the Enrollment Process Work? |
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This course is designed to be as schedule friendly as possible as we understand it can be hard to fit interactive CE into an already busy life. Open enrollment allows students to enroll in this course at any time.
Once the course payment transaction has been submitted, we will receive a notification of enrollment. In addition, the student will be sent a couple of "heads up" emails. The payment receipt will be sent to the email address
designated
in the payment page of the shopping cart, by the person who paid.
There is a post-payment manual process we must complete in order to add the new student to the course.
Completing enrollments as quickly as
possible is a priority but it can take a full 24 hours, especially on weekends and holidays. Once fully enrolled. the student will be sent a course welcome email containing important information, including how to access and log into the course.
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| Activity Requirements |
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Students are not expected to be online in the course at any specific times as there are no real time lectures.
In order to remain active in the course, a student must post assignments on a regular basis. Module or final exams, reading or viewing training materials, or just logging into the course, does not meet this requirement. Assignments are course activites that require submission to the instructor for review, grading (pass/fail) and feedback. As long as the participant continues to make regular progress, course access time is not set to a specific deadline.
If 30 days elapses without submitted assignment activity, the student will be removed from the course and graded out as incomplete, as the lack of activity will indicate the student wishes to drop the course.
But What If Something Comes Up?:
There are times that students will have situations that interfere with their ability to work the course on a regular basis. In that case an email to VetMedTeam, as soon as such a situation arises, will allow us to work with the student to adjust the time frame. It all comes down to communication.
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| Technology Requirements |
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Reading content within the course is provided via PDF therefore the ability to download files and open PDFs is required.
It is recommended that participants utilize a program such as MS Word to create, and save, their assignment submission to their computer. Then the information can be pasted into the assignment submission area.
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| Participant Feedback |
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When asked what aspects of the course liked best some responses were:
...I had been looking for a course on fluids as a good refresher for a while - this was good!
...Having to physically do assignments for the course helped the course material stick. Also, having to discuss things at how my clinic operates was useful to think through.
...I love the text book and the case studies
...I liked the transfusion module
...I liked how challenging it was, I really had to work to find the answers. The information on electrolytes has been very useful to me.
...sections on fluid therapy and transfusion were most interesting and beneficial and I most enjoyed the calculation assignments.
...I am the blood donor coordinator at my place of employment; all of this course was extremely beneficial.
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| Course Instructor |
 Brandy Tabor, BS, CVT, VTS (ECC)
A native of Colorado, Brandy graduated from Colorado State University in the spring of 2003 with a BS in Equine Sciences. While attending CSU, she worked as a nurse's assistant in the Critical Care Unit at the Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital. Here, she learned just how far you can go with a career as a veterinary technician. She enrolled in Front Range Community College in Loveland, CO, graduating in 2005. Brandy then moved to Parker, CO where she currently works as a senior emergency and critical care technician. She had the honor of becoming a member of the Academy of Veterinary Emergency & Critical Care Technicians in 2008.
Brandy has a passion for writing and has written several papers for Today's Veterinary Practice, Veterinary Nursing Journal, Today's Veterinary Technician, and Veterinary Technician. She is also a contributor in the 5th edition of Review Questions and Answers for Veterinary Technicians. In addition she is the current chair of the AVECCT Credentials Committee.
Brandy currently lives with two birds, two cats, and two dogs.
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| Pricing |
Price: $169.00 USD
Practices may enroll individual team members. To learn how to assign a specific team member to a course, please visit the Assigning Students page.
Please use this link to view the Withdrawal Policy for this course.
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