If you are looking to pursue a career in Veterinary Care or starting up in the field, then you will want to enhance your Animal Care and Veterinary Nursing knowledge to be able care for ill animals. Sign up for this course and take your love for animals towards a rewarding and fulfilling career.

Why should I enrol onto this course?

16 informative, easy-to-digest modules of flexible learning will ensure to prepare you with all you need to know follow a career in a Veterinary practice as well as look after pets at home. The structure of this course means that you can fit study around your current commitments with ease.

Key Learning Points

This course will equip you with essential information, leading you to be able to play a vital role in the daily activities of a veterinary by helping them with every aspect of animal care.

• Identify the different roles in the veterinary field and recognise their importance within the practice.
• Understand the different types of training available for veterinary nurses and nursing assistants.
• Recognise and understand what is involved in a typical veterinary nurse’s day.
• Recognise and understand common veterinary, prefixes, suffixes, abbreviations and acronyms.
• Recognise and understand the words in the glossary of veterinary terms.
• Understand the term "Veterinary".
• Understand the organisation of cells, tissues, and skeletal system.
• Learn about the different types of tissue, bone and muscle.
• Understand structure and function of arteries, arterioles, capillaries, venues, and veins..
• Explore the gross anatomy and function and passage of food through the digestive system..
• Understand the organisation of the respiratory system.
• Explore the nervous system.
• Understand why it is important to approach and handle an animal safely.
• Identify the different restraints and handling equipment used and understand how they are used.
• Identify animals’ behaviour and body language.
• Understand how to handle dogs, cat and exotic pets for basic veterinary procedures.
• Differentiate the different types of diet available to dogs and cats, and understand the pros and cons of each type.
• Understand the importance of nutrition in maintaining healthy animals and how dietary requirements change through life.
• Gain an understanding of the different ways to provide nutritional support to animal patients.
• Understand different forms of cancer and its treatment.
• Understand and recognise the signs of different types of heart, liver and kidney disease.
• Look at the possible treatments for animals with heart, liver and kidney disease.
• Learn how to recognise and understand the different forms of skeletal diseases.
• Recognise the different types of skin disease and parasite.
• Identify other common diseases.
• Understand different assessment techniques.
• Discover how to give ABC and CPR.
• Understand how to handle first aid patients and explain how to identify the signs of shock.
• Understand the different types of fractures and their first aid treatment.
• Learn the procedure to follow for when an animal gets bitten or stung by an insect or adder.
• Learn to be able to stop haemorrhage and treat wounds and burns in a first aid situation.
• Look at how to treat diarrhoea and vomiting.
• Recognise the signs of hyperthermia and hypothermia and their treatment.
• Understand why it is important to have infection control protocols and the use of PPE.
• Understand the basics of cleaning, disinfection and sterilization.
• Learn when and how to isolate an infectious animal and the disposal of veterinary waste.
• Identify when radiography and ultrasound are used in veterinary practice.
• Understand why blood and urine tests are done.
• Understand what different blood and urine test results mean.
• Learn how to take a free catch urine sample from a dog and cat.
• Explain how to provide care and monitor a patient.
• Understand the normal values and how to take temperature, pulse and respiration.
• Identify the methods of medication administration.
• Understand the basic principles of fluid therapy, types of replacement fluid and methods of replacing them.
• Understand the basics of veterinary anaesthesia.
• Understand the limitations of the veterinary nurse in surgery.
• Understand how to maintain a sterile field and identify different common surgical instruments.
• Explain how to prepare for surgery.
• Understand the reason and process to euthanise an animal.
• Identify the signs of a dying and dead animal and options for burial and cremation.
• Learn how to care for the animals left behind.
• Understand the different laws and regulations that control the veterinary workplace.
• Understand what a risk assessment and a health and safety policy are.
• Study what a zoonosis is and have a basic understand of the common ones.

Advantages of this course

• No Pre-requisite
• Ideal for anyone assisting in a veterinary practice part-time or weekends
• You will gain an endorsed Diploma
• Be able to care for your own pets at home
• Readily available for you to access online from anywhere
• At the end of each unit there is a multiple choice question assessment, which is a great way to help you remember the main points of each lesson and confirmation that you have retained the essential knowledge.