Factors affecting the duration of anesthesia and surgery of canine and feline gonadectomies performed by veterinary students in a year‐long preclinical surgery laboratory

Abstract

Objective: To determine factors affecting the duration of canine and feline gonadectomies performed by second-year veterinary students. Study design: Retrospective study of 1288 gonadectomies. Sample population: One hundred ninety-four second-year veterinary students in a 24-week veterinary surgical teaching laboratory. Methods: Surgical and anesthetic records were analyzed and arranged by primary surgeon in chronological order. Species, sex, weight, body condition score, occurrence of an intraoperative complication, and order of sequential cases in the year performed by the primary surgeon were assessed for their influence on anesthesia, surgery, and preparation times. Results: Each student performed an average of 6.6 (±1.08) gonadectomies over 24 weeks. Dogs, females, increasing weight, intraoperative complications, and earlier sequential cases were associated with longer duration of surgery and anesthesia. These factors accounted for 50% and 59% of anesthetic and surgical time variance, respectively. The rate of intraoperative complications did not change across time but was higher during canine ovariohysterectomies. Duration of anesthesia and surgery for canine orchiectomy decreased by 29 and 21 minutes, respectively, and for canine ovariohysterectomy decreased by 16 and 12 minutes, respectively, over 24 weeks without reaching a learning plateau. Conclusion: Species, sex, weight, complications, and earlier sequential cases influenced duration of anesthesia and surgery. Clinical significance: By establishing a baseline for duration of student-performed surgeries and describing the relative impact of factors influencing duration, students and educators may be able to set goals for student improvement during teaching laboratories.

Effects of Surgical Skills of Veterinary Medicine Students on Postoperative Stress, Oxidative Stress and Pain in Bitches Undergoing Ovariohysterectomy

“…It is known that the total surgery time of OVH performed by experienced veterinary surgeons is 17 minutes on average with 1.5 -2.5 cm width skin incision (Michelsen et al, 2012;Korkmaz et al, 2019). In contrast when students perform OVH, the duration of surgery time varies between 60 and 135 minutes, associated with the level of the students (Zeugschmidt et al, 2016) and the nature and type of teaching procedures such as how surgery is supervised (Bowlt et al, 2011;Harris et al, 2013;Freeman et al, 2014;Gates et al, 2018) and whether training includes tools such as virtual reality (Hunt et al, 2020), video recordings and plastic spay simulator models (Read et al, 2016;Shaver et al, 2019;Annandale et al, 2020). Similarly, the length of skin incision varies between 4 -9 cm (Freeman et al, 2014) and 9.6 ± 3.4 cm (Harris et al, 2013).…”

“…In contrast when students perform OVH, the duration of surgery time varies between 60 and 135 minutes, associated with the level of the students (Zeugschmidt et al, 2016) and the nature and type of teaching procedures such as how surgery is supervised (Bowlt et al, 2011;Harris et al, 2013;Freeman et al, 2014;Gates et al, 2018) and whether training includes tools such as virtual reality (Hunt et al, 2020), video recordings and plastic spay simulator models (Read et al, 2016;Shaver et al, 2019;Annandale et al, 2020).…”

What's the evidence? A review of current instruction and assessment in veterinary surgical education

“…In 2019 Shaver et al recorded second year students' surgical times while performing an average of 6.6 canine and feline desexing surgeries over a 6-month period and found that surgical times continued to decrease throughout the period and did not plateau. 32 In 2020 Gates et al surveyed 100 New Zealand employers of new graduates. 33 The employers reported that new graduates needed to perform an average of 8 canine OVHs, 3 canine castrations, 5 feline OVHs, and 2 feline castrations upon entrance into practice before employers would allow the new graduate to perform surgery unsupervised; these are in addition to surgeries the students had performed as veterinary students.…”

Evaluating validity evidence for 2 instruments developed to assess students' surgical skills in a simulated environment

“…1,2 The preclinical veterinary surgical skills curriculum is continuously evolving, with educators incorporating models and new methods of clinical skills training to ensure students attain competency in core skills. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] As clinical skills training programs evolve, so do the assessment instruments used to evaluate educational interventions and students' performance on models, cadavers, and live animals. While veterinary educators have made significant progress in developing clinical skills assessments, relatively few reports including validity evidence for instruments to assess veterinary students' basic surgical skills using models have been published.…”

“…Veterinary graduates are expected to be competent in basic surgical skills 1,2 . The preclinical veterinary surgical skills curriculum is continuously evolving, with educators incorporating models and new methods of clinical skills training to ensure students attain competency in core skills 3–18 . As clinical skills training programs evolve, so do the assessment instruments used to evaluate educational interventions and students' performance on models, cadavers, and live animals.…”