What is the AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association)
The American Veterinary Medical Association was founded in 1863 and is the largest, as well as the oldest nonprofit associations are presenting veterinarians in the world today. It is headquartered in Schaumburg, IL. But does have a office in Washington, DC. The group represents more than 78,000 veterinarians that take advantage of professional training opportunities that the Association provides in topics that cover private practice, public health, agriculture, food safety and military issues.
How Does the AVMA Benefit People?
United States Department of Education has designated the AVMA as the accrediting authority to 28 veterinary medicine schools in the United States. This association sets the educational standards for excellence that are pretty much recognized throughout the world as the gold standard. Throughout the world, the AVMA is used as the model for school curricula. Additionally, the association produces quite a bit of medical information and other animal related scientific data that benefits veterinarians as well as regulatory agencies, government entities and the public at large. The information produced by the AVMA touches upon a wide variety of topics and everything with raising a pet to protecting the public from zoophytic diseases like rabies and toxoplasmosis. It also takes the lead developing protocols for the use of drugs. The AVMA partners with organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Academy of Sciences, and in all attempts to complete work protecting both animal and human health.
How Does the AVMA Affect Veterinary Technicians?
The AMA, as an accrediting authority, examines veterinary technician education programs across the country measuring these against their standards. The association offers accreditation through its Committee on Veterinary Technician Education and Activities (CVETA). In many instances, employment for veterinary technicians is contingent upon the prospective employee having gained an education through an accredited program which can be found on the association’s website.
Three Accredidation Classes for Vet Tech Education Programs
The association offers three different classes of accreditation for vet tech training programs:
• Full Accreditation is awarded to programs that meet all standards of accreditation.
• Provisional Accreditation is available to new programs which have shown considerable strides towards meeting all standards are accreditation. Programs can remain on a provisional status for the five years.
• Probationary Accreditation is money program that exhibits a significant number of deficiencies in one or more of the published Standards that either affects student education or safety.
Administrative Probation
Administrative probationary status can be assigned to a program by the CVTEA when it is deemed that institution or program is not in compliance with one of the following:
1) Paying accreditation related charges and fees within 60 days of being invoiced
2) Submitting required reports and other information
3) Agreement for an on-site evaluation
Close of Program or Withdrawal
Accreditation for any program voluntarily discontinuing will be terminated. Any students who have participated in and courses taken at a discontinued program will be considered graduates when finishing a similar program where their course load has been accepted. However, any graduates of the program that has had its accreditation withdrawn, will not be considered graduating from an accredited institution.
There are 160 accredited programs presently on the list provided by the AVMA. There are 20 programs offering a four year degree.
These following states do not offer an AVMA and accredited veterinary program: Rhode Island, Montana, Hawaii, the District of Columbia, Arkansas and Alaska.