CVTEA-accredited programs total 169

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The AVMA Committee on Veterinary Technician Education and Activities accredited four new veterinary technology programs at its April 16-18 meeting in Schaumburg, Ill.

The four programs granted provisional accreditation were Globe University, Eau Claire, Wis.; Brown Mackie College, Findlay, Ohio; Minnesota School of Business, Moorhead, Minn.; and Globe University, Sioux Falls, S.D.

In addition, five programs were moved from provisional to full accreditation, and two programs were placed on probationary accreditation, which is a status assigned to a program that has specific deficiencies in one or more standards that affect student outcomes or safety.

The CVTEA has now accredited 169 programs in total. Twenty of those offer a four-year degree, and nine offer distance-learning opportunities. Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, and Rhode Island are the only states, along with the District of Columbia, that do not have AVMA-accredited veterinary technology programs.

The CVTEA has 37 site visits scheduled this year and 52 tentatively scheduled for 2011.

The committee's newly elected chair for 2010-2011 is Rachel A. Valentine, RVT. She is a veterinary technology instructor at Tulsa Community College in Oklahoma who served as CVTEA's vice chair for the previous two years.

She said the increasing influx of veterinary technology programs vying for accreditation has been a topic of discussion in recent years by the committee.

"I think one thing we've strived to do is to streamline the review process, so, as committee members spend more time in preparing for meeting to evaluate reports, they can come to the meeting and we don't have to go over every detail of a site visit," Valentine said. "The meeting process where we review programs has come a long way in five years. We're a lot more efficient with our time."

The CVTEA will continue to focus on educating and marketing the veterinary technology profession to the public, she said, which also includes talking to veterinarians about what veterinary technicians can contribute to a practice.

"Really, it's an objective for all of us. Even though it's not in our criteria, it's still important to market (the profession)," Valentine said.