Pulse - August 2024 - 8

SCVMA PROFILE
Four Platt College Campuses
But Just One RVT Curriculum
P
latt College has four campuses in
Southern California that offer training
in veterinary technician skills.
" We're training our students for entry jobs, " Jaime Wallin,
program director at the Platt campus in Riverside, said in an
interview. " We're giving them skills that can be built upon.
But they're definitely going to get additional training [in their
first jobs]. We're interested in giving them entry-level base
knowledge. "
The other three Platt campuses are in Alhambra, Ontario
and Anaheim.
" The curriculum is the same at all of the campuses, " Jaime
said. " We have three start dates every year for students. The
only difference is how we go about obtaining the AVMA's
required skills. Our programs use different off-campus lab
sites.
" We don't house live animals on campus, " she said. " We
have different contracts - MOUs or memoranda of understanding
- with different sites where we meet for what we call
wet labs. The Riverside campus goes to a municipal animal
shelter where our students might learn how to do physical
exams. Or they'll learn how to cut toenails, how to properly
do an eye exam or anesthesia for surgery or how to do
radiographs.
" We break our classes into smaller groups and we have set
times that they come to the shelter and we work with them
on each of these skills. "
She said that the Platt schools' RVT program is 19 months
long and there are no breaks. Graduates receive associate
degrees in veterinary technology. " That makes them eligible
to sit for the national exam. Once they pass that exam, they
can apply for the RVT license.
" We typically have a maximum of 24 students per start at
our campus but sometimes we have fewer students. It varies
but the class sizes are small and learning is very personable. "
Part of the classes are didactic, Jaime said. " Students have
about 20 weeks of class time and then they start handling
animals in Clinical Techniques, Class One. That's when they
start learning to restrain, how you place an e-collar, how to do
a physical exam. And it really doesn't stop until they're done.
Each module will have a lab component or classes where they
are handling animals.
" There are required and recommended skills, " she said.
" We go above and beyond to make sure we're doing the minimum
and more. Our students handle sheep, cattle, goats and
horses - not just dogs and cats. There's also a class on exotics
animal medicine. "
Platt students do externship rounds, Jaime said. " We pair
8
them with veterinary hospitals where we have agreements
and they do three different rotations of 120 hours in a clinical
setting with a five-week module. They get a lot of hands-on
experience and they get to move around. We also encourage
them to do a full-service practice or specialty hospitals if
they're interested. It's like a five-week interview. A lot of our
students get hired off externships. "
The program at Riverside has a full-time clinical director
who is a DVM. " There are four full-time veterinary
technology instructors and they are all graduates of AVMAaccredited
schools and have either an associate's degree
equivalent or bachelor's degrees, " she said. " As program director,
I still get to teach and I enjoy that connection of being
in the classroom and going out to labs with the students.
You have those aha! moments with the students when you're
working hands-on with animals or in the laboratory.
" Or you have students who are so nervous when doing a
venipuncture for the first time that you need to remind them
to breathe. But you see the students grow from their first
experiences to when they are near the end of the program and
they come back and tell us stories about what they are getting
AUGUST 2024
PULSE
Pulse - August 2024

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