The HCC veterinary technology program opened a student-run Animal Wellness Clinic (AWC) during the spring 2022 semester.
"Our vet tech program is tailor-made for a student-run enterprise,” said Dr. Vincent Centonze, college program director. “We get several calls per week from pet owners asking if we'll see animals in need of veterinary attention, so it's great that we're finally providing this service."
The clinic began with a small-scale trial run on February 11, followed by the first full-fledged clinic on February 25. Students provided vaccinations, diagnostic tests and parasite prevention to dogs and cats belonging to members of the College community. Currently, the AWC is only available to HCC faculty and staff, but the program hopes to expand its availability to students and animal rescue groups.
"Students get to do more in our clinic than they do in many private practice externships, where owners are often hesitant to allow students to work on client-owned animals," said program instructor Anthony Spatola, who coordinates the work experience externship classes.
The vet tech program developed the AWC with the goal of providing students with hands-on experience in all aspects of clinic administration and operation, including:
- Intaking clients.
- Recording pet histories.
- Conducting exams.
- Preparing vaccinations.
- Evaluating diagnostic tests.
- Creating invoices.
- Checking clients out.
In addition, students worked in a state-of-the-art environment with paperless recordkeeping. The students generated and maintained all records, files, invoices and even appointments on a practice management system obtained by program instructor Cindy Robinson free of charge from Digitail Practice Management Software.
"It was a major undertaking,” Robinson said. “We had to procure permits, obtain funds, arrange a merchant services account and order supplies, among many other things.”
The AWC will augment externships that students perform at community veterinary facilities. However, the clinic provides more hands-on training than they are likely to get during many of those experiences.
"I've gotten to do much more in our clinic than I did in any of my externships," said vet tech student Tamara Hills.
The vet tech faculty hope that the clinic will generate funds to offset costs of program supplies in the future and believe that it is on the way to becoming self-sufficient.
Due to the high demand for appointments during the first clinic, two to three more are scheduled to be facilitated over the summer semester, after which the program plans to conduct three clinics per term. The next clinic for HCC faculty and staff is currently slated for late June.
To learn more about our veterinary technology program, please visit hccfl.edu/academics/subjects/health-and-medical/veterinary-technology.