American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care (ACVECC): How to Become Board-Certified

A veterinary criticalist is a veterinarian board-certified in emergency and critical care — a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care (DACVECC), the title the college's pages give veterinarians who achieve board certification.

VeterinaryHires' emergency-veterinarian guide uses criticalist for this board-certified specialist, and the roles are veterinarian jobs: on this site they sit in the veterinarian job search rather than a separate criticalist category.

ACVECC certifies the whole field as one discipline — AVMA's list attaches no named sub-specialties to it, so there is no sub-specialty split to choose between.

AVMA counted 1,092 active ACVECC diplomates as of December 31, 2025, and AVMA's figures carry no sub-specialty breakdown for it, so the number describes the field as a single population.

A criticalist is not the same job as an emergency veterinarian who has not board-certified; VeterinaryHires' How do you become an emergency veterinarian? guide lays out the routes into emergency practice step by step, including the ones that skip board certification entirely.

A veterinary emergency and critical care residency is the approved residency training program (RTP) at the center of the ACVECC path.

Before it, candidates typically complete a one-year rotating internship, and possibly a specialty internship.

The residency itself is typically at least three years in duration, in the college's wording — and the repeated “typically” is worth reading closely, because the college is describing the usual shape of the path rather than a fixed rule, so confirm the exact structure with any program you consider.

Training inside the residency is not confined to the emergency room either: residents receive immersive training in non-ECC specialties such as cardiology, internal medicine, and surgery, which the college frames as broadening clinical expertise so residents can integrate knowledge from various disciplines.

Planned end to end, the typical run is an internship year plus at least three residency years before the examination stage — and the possible specialty internship would add more time on the front end.

ACVECC's Constitution defines a Board Certified Diplomate as a veterinarian of high ethical and moral character, who has covered the Certification Fees and is certified as a specialist in the discipline of Emergency and Critical Care as set forth in the college's Bylaws — including Maintenance of Credentials.

That last clause matters: the definition treats maintaining the credential as part of certification itself, and the college's public pages name Maintenance of Credentials without publishing a cycle length or credit count, so the mechanics are worth confirming directly with ACVECC.

The college's FAQ describes the exam only as the endpoint: board certification requires several years of specialized residency training in emergency and critical care followed by a rigorous examination process.

Any major change within an ACVECC-approved residency training facility must be reported to the college on a Major Change form within 15 days of the event.

For a candidate weighing programs, the rule is less a task than a signal: the college tracks material changes inside its approved facilities on a short, hard clock, and the form goes to the ACVECC office rather than being worked out locally.

The FAQ doesn't say who files the form and points to the college's Residency Training Standards for details, so it is a reasonable thing to ask a prospective program about before you commit.