Veterinary Nursing Symposium Hosts Record Crowd

March 29, 2019

Alicea Howell addresses attendees in a lecture room in Lynn Hall — Fear Free Handling was the focus of the Veterinary Nursing Symposium keynote lecture by Alicea Howell, , RVT, VTS (Behavior), KPA CTP, a Purdue Veterinary Medicine alumna who earned her AS and BS degrees in veterinary technology in 2002 and 2003, respectively.

The fifth annual Veterinary Nursing Symposium held at the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine last weekend attracted over 165 attendees, who came from as far away as Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, New Mexico, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The one-day program on Sunday, March 24, covered a broad range of topics that were appealing to veterinary nurses working with both large and small animals.

The annual symposium is designed to provide veterinary assistants, veterinary nursing students, and veterinary nurses with practical information they can use in clinical practice. Participants were eligible for up to 7.5 hours of continuing education (CE) units.

Heidi Lecsun presents to Veterinary Nursing Symposium attendees — Heidi Lescun, RVT, senior service technician and sales associate with Vetamac, presented a talk entitled, “Form and Function of the Anesthesia Machine” to a full auditorium in Lynn 1136 during the Veterinary Nursing Symposium.

After a welcome and opening remarks by Dr. Bianca Zenor, Purdue Veterinary Nursing Program director, the program gave participants the chance to choose between large and small animal tracks. Symposium speakers featured Purdue Veterinary Medicine faculty and staff, as well as veterinary nurses from outside practices. Small animal presentations included hospice, dentistry, emergency and critical care, anesthesiology, and cardiology. Large animal sessions covered theriogenology, anesthesiology, equine asthma, and internal medicine topics. Purdue Veterinary Medicine alumna Alicea Howell, RVT, VTS (Behavior), KPA CTP, presented the keynote lecture for symposium attendees entitled, “Fear Free Handling – Veterinary Care for Every Patient.” An afternoon communications workshop was also offered as an optional session for symposium attendees.

In addition, the event gave participants the opportunity to develop their professional networks while interacting with one another and the vendors attending the symposium. Special thanks go to symposium sponsors Vetamac, Elanco and Hill’s.

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

Recent Stories

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

This week, we are proud to recognize Lorraine Fox, who is a business assistant with the Veterinary Medicine Procurement Center.

PVM Interview Days Move College Closer to Admitting the DVM Class of 2030

After a total of three afternoons dedicated to conducting in-person interviews with 226 prospective veterinary students, the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine is close to completing the process of admitting 84 members of the incoming first-year DVM class – the Class of 2030. The students invited for the interview days were selected from a total pool of 1,930 applicants from across the country as well as countries abroad.

Experts to Gather at Purdue for Conference Addressing the Public Health Threat of Antimicrobial Resistance

The ongoing challenges posed by multi-drug resistant infections will be the focus of a multidisciplinary conference taking place in three weeks at Purdue University. The Fourth Annual Conference on Antimicrobial Resistance is set for February 25–26, 2026 at Purdue’s Stewart Center in West Lafayette. Registration is still open for the event, which will bring together scientists and scholars from human and veterinary medicine, public health, research, and industry to address the determinants, dynamics and deterrence of drug resistance.

PVM’s Upcoming Coppoc One Health Lecture to Focus on Dogs as Sentinels of Environmental Exposure

The Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine brings a leading One Health scholar to campus each year to address vital health issues from a One Health perspective as part of the Coppoc One Health Lecture series. This year’s presentation, scheduled for February 26 in Lynn Hall Room 2026, is on the engaging topic, “One Health at Home: Dogs as Sentinels of Environmental Exposure.” The speaker will be Audrey Ruple, DVM, MS, PhD, DACVPM, MRCVS, the Dorothy A. and Richard G. Metcalf Professor of Veterinary Medical Informatics at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech.

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

Today we are happy to acknowledge our Student Success Center Team.

One Health: A ‘digital twin’ model for predicting cancer outcomes

The striking similarities between invasive bladder cancer in dogs and humans have fueled research advances for more than three decades. Most of that work has looked at separate aspects of the disease — risk factors, early detection, symptoms, treatment and gene expression. But a new project at Purdue University that combines many types of available data in a “digital twin” model of bladder cancer may prove powerful enough to predict patient outcomes, starting with the probability of metastasis.

Purdue Professor Emeritus Bill Blevins Wins Lifetime Achievement Award at ACVR Annual Meeting

The American College of Veterinary Radiology (ACVR) gave its esteemed Lifetime Achievement Award for 2024 to Purdue Professor Emeritus Bill Blevins, who is well known to countless Purdue Veterinary Medicine alumni for the expertise he taught them about all things Diagnostic Imaging during his long Purdue career.