VSPN Review by Lisa Kernaghan, CVT, VTS (ECC) (Click on stars for an explanation)

You may purchase this book on Amazon.com.

This excellent textbook and workbook are designed to cover all major areas studied in a veterinary technology program. In addition to the listed author there are many veterinary technician educators that have contributed to this text. The textbook is broken into four main sections: Foundations of Veterinary Practice, Veterinary Diagnostics, Veterinary Therapeutics, and Animal Care and Husbandry. Each of these subjects is then further broken down into chapters. All of the chapters are outlined at the start and objectives are given for the student to reach after studying the information. I found this book to be well formatted and the chapters had excellent illustrations and photographs to help with the understanding of the topics covered. Often in textbooks there are few visual aids to help the reader have a better understanding of concepts being taught; this is not an issue with this volume.

There are highlighted “technicians notes” throughout each chapter that point out pertinent information for the technician to take special notice of. This is a useful addition and will help those studying to retain key facts. There are many procedures tables that take the reader step-by-step through common tasks they will perform as a technician. There is also a section on physical therapy, rehabilitation and complementary medicine which is a nice addition as these are quite common place now and not always included in technician reference literature. The workbook has a section for each chapter so the reader can test their knowledge after studying each section.

I would highly recommend this book to any veterinary technology student, or any technician for that matter. It is a wonderful review of all the main areas of veterinary technology and would be a text that would be reached for again and again in a technician’s daily practice as well as veterinarians striving to provide training resources for their staff.

Publisher: Elsevier-Mosby (2010)

Textbook: ISBN 978-0-323-07386-8

Workbook: ISBN 978-0-323-07790-3

Both are available in the VIN Store