Veterinary anesthesia curricula beliefs and practices

To document the anesthesia curricula in colleges of veterinary medicine and compare it with student clinical supervision and expectations of new graduates by anesthesia staff.

Cross-sectional open survey study.

American Veterinary Medical Association-accredited colleges of veterinary medicine (41 out of 49) and members of the American College of Veterinary Anesthesia-L (ACVA-L) listserv (88 of 128 responses).

We created two separate surveys: one distributed to colleges and one distributed to individuals. Anesthesia faculty members of each college were encouraged to complete the survey together; only one survey was submitted for each accredited veterinary college. The college survey asked about current practices of teaching veterinary anesthesia. The individual survey was distributed to the ACVA-L listserv and asked members about tasks they permit students to perform on clinic rotations, knowledge, and skills they believe are Day One Competencies.

Communicating with clients about anesthesia was a Day One Competency for 95% of respondents, but not taught in almost 50% of colleges. Students are not allowed to perform this duty on their clinical rotation by almost 60% of instructors. Cardiac arrest and resuscitation, euthanasia, patient safety/systems thinking, and professionalism were cited as Day One Competencies by 97% of participants but were not taught in the anesthesia core course in at least 25% of colleges. Use of simulations for education was mentioned as important but was rare as an instructional tool.

Veterinary anesthesia curricula generally agree with each other and the content generally aligns with what are expected Day One Competencies, as judged by anesthetists. Some topics are taught in the core anesthesia course although they were rarely considered Day One Competencies. Removal of these topics may allow room in the curriculum for the content cited more commonly as Day One Competencies.