• The word 'Learning' written in light green letters and the word 'Lounge' written in grey letters below.
  • FutureLearn logo

Health and Safety in Veterinary Services

Examine workplace safety in the context of veterinary services and ensure your facility remains compliant.

A veterinarian is wearing a protective face mask.

Explore the fundamentals of working safely in animal care facilities

Veterinary services have a duty of care to provide a safe environment for staff, clients, patients, and visitors.

On this course, you’ll be introduced to workplace safety management in veterinary practices. You’ll gain awareness of risks, hazards, and safety standards and ensure you have the correct policies and procedures in place.

Identify hazards specific to veterinary environments

Delving into universal hygiene precautions and health and safety guidance including fire evacuation and theft response, you’ll then take a closer look at procedures specific to animal care contexts.

From preventing animal-related injuries to taking precautions against zoonotic diseases, you’ll become familiar with the correct approaches to animal handling and care.

With this knowledge, you’ll have confidence in using the correct equipment and techniques to ensure the safety of both you and your patients.

Discover the correct handling and disposal of chemicals

Whether using cleaning products or laboratory chemicals, there are a broad array of hazardous substances that must be stored, handled, and disposed of correctly within veterinary facilities.

You’ll be guided through the chemical storage and waste management processes and learn how to respond if an accident or spillage occurs.

Ensure the health and wellbeing of your staff

With almost 10% of young veterinarians suffering from stress, it is vital that the wellbeing of staff is managed as part of your healthy and safety policy.

You’ll also examine the correct use of PPE, ensuring your staff remain protected when working.

You’ll finish this course understanding veterinary health and safety protocols. You’ll be able to use your knowledge to check, adapt, or update current practices and limit the risk of accident or injury in your workplace.

Skip to 0 minutes and 1 second SPEAKER: Like working with animals? Then you’ll love this course from Learning Lounge, structured in a way that gives you information you need in the best way to help you learn it. Interactive, engaging, inspiring. Whether it’s learning about animal first aid, working with clients, general safety, or learning what to do in an emergency situation, the Learning Lounge is where you need to be. Working with animals means you need a unique set of skills. This course can help you sharpen the skills you need for the career you want. Learn from anywhere you want. Get career savvy from your couch or wherever you are. It’s up to you. Enrol in a short course today.

Skip to 0 minutes and 41 seconds Level up with Learning Lounge, and learn your way to working with animals brought to you by FutureLearn.

Syllabus

  • Week 1

    Health and safety in the workplace

    • Introduction to the course

      Welcome to Safety in the Veterinary Service and the start of your learning journey.

    • Working safely in the veterinary

      In this activity, we will discuss safety training and working safely in the veterinary clinic.

    • General health and safety in the workplace

      In this activity, we will discuss the general health and safety in the workplace. This includes illness and diseases, biohazards and its mode of transmission, and stress in the veterinary service.

    • Universal hygiene precautions

      In this activity, we will discuss general hygiene. We will also look at reporting incidents, first aid, as well as drugs, smoking, and drinking policies.

    • Fire, theft and hazards

      In this activity, we will discuss fire training, evacuation procedures, theft and armed robbery, break-ins and petty theft, as well as global survey findings.

    • Wrap up

      You have reached the end of Week 1. In this activity, you'll reflect on what you have learned.

  • Week 2

    Chemicals, waste and PPE

    • Introduction to Week 2

      Welcome to Week 2. In this activity we'll highlight the main topics that will be covered this week.

    • Injury prevention and chemicals

      tbc

    • Waste management and diseases

      tbc

    • PPE - Personal Protective Equipment

      tbc

    • Wrap up

      You have reached the end of this course. In this activity, you will reflect on what you have learned.

When would you like to start?

Start straight away and join a global classroom of learners. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Discuss the various health and safety practices in the veterinary services.
  • Explain the modes of biohazard transmission.
  • Evaluate the stress factors in the veterinary service.
  • Compare the different PPE available.
  • Summarise how to manage waste efficiently.
  • Identify how to prevent injuries in the veterinary service.

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for all staff working across veterinary services who want to better understand health and safety protocols.

It’s especially suitable for practice managers and leaders who are responsible for safety training and health and safety management in their organisation.

Who developed the course?

Learning Lounge

Learning Lounge (LL) is Australia’s leading online course publisher. With over 100,000+ hours of highly produced, engaging, industry-led content across 20+ industries.

Learning Lounge believes fervently in the value of online learning: it is fundamental to their vision and always will be. They are constantly investing in improving a learner’s experience by creating engaging, interactive content.

FutureLearn

FutureLearn is a leading social learning platform and has been providing high quality online courses for learners around the world over the last ten years.

What's included?

This is a premium course. These courses are designed for professionals from specific industries looking to learn with a smaller group of like-minded individuals.

  • Learn best practices from experts
  • Learn from the experience of other health professionals
  • Fit learning around your schedule with unlimited access
  • Get evidence of learning outcomes and CPD hours
  • Certificate of Achievement to prove your success when you're eligible
  • Download and print your Certificate of Achievement anytime

Still want to know more? Check out our FAQs

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

Want to know more about learning on FutureLearn? Using FutureLearn

Do you know someone who'd love this course? Tell them about it...