Assessment of Continuing Education Activities

Continuing education is an essential verification that a member has made efforts to enhance their skills and knowledge and remain up to date with the best practices in their field. To remain a member in good standing of the BCVTA, members must acquire a minimum of fifteen (15) credits per year unless otherwise determined by registration status (see BCVTA Bylaw Article 2: Membership).
Members are expected to maintain records of all submitted continuing education documents for a minimum of 3 collection periods for audit purposes. Random audits of continuing education records will be conducted by the BCVTA CE Committee annually. Failure to maintain appropriate CE credits may affect registration status.

Continuing Education courses/programming should optimally:

• Address regional and contemporary needs of RVTs;
• Be educational and relevant to the member’s area of professional activity;
• Include activities that stimulate the development of non-technical professional skills such as practice management, self-care, emotional regulation, professionalism and ethics, critical thinking, communication, and mindfulness;
• Identify specific learning outcomes; and
• Provide documentation of satisfactory completion.

RACE approved CE sessions are automatically eligible for CE credits at the amount provided on the certificate of completion, as do any sessions provided by a Canadian Veterinary Technologist Association, and the veterinary college governing bodies.

Generally, programs with the following content may be considered appropriate:

• Relevant to animal health or welfare;
• Relevant to practice management, communications or leadership;
• Relevant to professional ethics;
• Relevant to safety on the job, or any skill required to work as an RVT (examples here WHMIS, boat safety, chainsaw safety, radiation safety, first-aid, etc.);
• Mental health and wellness to address and prevent challenges that are prevalent in veterinary medicine;
• Complementary and integrative medicine topics where topics are applicable to veterinary medicine;

BCVTA accepts continuing education credits from a variety of activities that can be divided into one of two categories: education activities or outreach and volunteer activities. Education activities are things such as conferences, webinars, or lunch and learn events, whereas outreach and volunteer activities may include participation at a community health care clinic, serving on an executive board, or serving on a BCVTA committee. Learning opportunities that do not specify the number of credits will be calculated at 1 credit/hour.

Some activities qualify for a specific amount of credits, including the following: