Skip to main content

Practice Management and Communication Topics to be Featured at PVM’s Annual Conference

A smiling person in a blue uniform sits beside a brown and white dog against a tree.

Purdue Veterinary Medicine’s own Small Animal Hospital Veterinary Nursing Manager Megan Brashear, CVT, VTS (ECC) will speak during the 2019 Purdue Veterinary Conference September 19, sharing insights gained from 18 years of experience in emergency and critical care and technician/team management.  Recognized as a leader in furthering veterinary continuing education, Megan will provide exceptional instruction related to management and communication.  She speaks nationally and was named as one of the 2019 WVC Continuing Educators of the Year. 

While most veterinary professionals didn’t pursue a career in the field in order to work with people, getting along with others is a necessary part of the job.  Megan’s lectures aim to teach participants to shift their thinking in order to improve communication, and will provide tips on how to become a more effective leader within the practice.  Megan will discuss communication styles and use case studies to illustrate the benefits of being a direct and compassionate communicator.  She will also share examples of how to communicate in challenging situations, and how improved communication can help you keep your sanity.  By implementing Megan’s tips, attendees will be able to communicate better with employees, peers, and clients.

Proper hospital policies, procedures, and staff training programs also are vital in successful, well-run veterinary practices.  Megan will provide lectures on how to develop and implement these tools within a practice.  As a technician and manager, she understands the challenges that come with training staff.  Megan’s lectures will help attendees understand what policies and procedures need to be in place, how to organize staff training needs, create skill lists, and roll-out a training plan that helps the entire veterinary team.  She also will provide tips for communicating change to create buy-in and compliance with the hospital training standards and protocols.  

The annual Purdue Veterinary Conference is designed to provide continuing education (CE) opportunities for the entire veterinary team.  Attendees can earn up to 26 CE hours at the 2019 Purdue Veterinary Conference.  Content includes Small Animal, Food Animal, Equine, Exotics, Practice Management, Behavior, and topics of interest for Veterinary Technicians.  All conference sessions and special events will be held on Purdue’s campus in West Lafayette, Ind.

Writer(s): Andrea Brown | pvmnews@purdue.edu

Recent Stories

“Paws Up” for Jennifer Danaher – brought to you by the PVM Wellness Committee

This week we express our gratitude to Jennifer Danaher, who is department secretary for Veterinary Clinical Sciences.

‘Purdue Pursuits’: A PVM angle on Purdue’s teaching and learning reading groups

Crafting meaningful and engaging course experiences has been at the top of Dielson Vieira’s mind ever since he joined the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine’s faculty in 2024. As a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Vieira is already adept at applying innovative teaching practices to classroom environments, but that doesn’t stop him from seeking out new ideas, approaches and perspectives — insights he gains through outlets like Purdue’s teaching and learning reading groups.

Top tier biology journal publishes PVM study that unlocks secrets of a drug-resistant fungal pathogen, which causes serious infections in humans

Though the name “Candida auris” is far from a household term, public health experts know it well because the multi-drug-resistant fungal pathogen, which causes serious human infections, has been classified as an urgent threat by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Antibiotic Threats Report (2019). Dr. Shankar Thangamani, Associate Professor of Microbiology and University Faculty Scholar in the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine’s Department of Comparative Pathobiology, is researching C. auris, aided by a 2.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). New research findings, just published in Nature Microbiology, show how C. auris adapts and evades the immune system.

In Print: ‘Translational Research Methods for Tauopathies’

A just-published 300-page volume edited by Jessica Fortin, Purdue assistant professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Department of Basic Medical Sciences, provides a significant new resource for researchers studying a group of neurodegenerative diseases known as tauopathies. “Translational Research Methods for Tauopathies” provides detailed protocols intentionally selected to serve as a basis for research laboratories seeking to further treatments for such debilitating neurodegenerative diseases as Alzheimer’s and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

It’s Almost Here!

Though the annual Purdue Veterinary Conference is almost upon us, there’s still time to register and take advantage of this time-honored College of Veterinary Medicine fall tradition that combines excellent continuing education with fun opportunities for reconnecting with colleagues and classmates, networking, and learning about the latest veterinary trends and products. The 2026 Purdue Veterinary Conference takes place September 23–26 on the Purdue University campus. The annual event has something for everyone, from veterinarians to veterinary technicians, faculty, staff and students.