Week 1

Pre-anaesthetic Assessment and Patient Preparation for Anaesthesia

Patient preparation

ASA status and patient assessment

Use of checklists

Breathing systems and checks

What are the aims of anaesthetic premedication

Practical considerations

What agents are available

Learning objectives
After completion of this week, participants should be able to:

Correctly identify an appropriate breathing system and safe fresh gas flow rates for individual patients

Confidently check an anaesthesia machine and breathing system to ensure they are safe to use

Have an understanding of the ASA grading system and be able to designate and apply which status is appropriate for their individual patients

Identify the benefits of using a peri-anaesthetic checklist and decide whether this can be advocated for their working environment

List the reasons for patient premedication and be able to identify practical aspects and factors within the clinic which may affect the efficacy of premedication

Identify the most common pharmacological agents used for sedation and anaesthesia

Week 2

Anaesthetic Monitoring – Neurological and Respiratory System

Basic, hands on monitoring (neurological system)

Respiratory monitoring

Other

Learning objectives
After completion of this week, participants should be able to:

Recognise what are normal physiological parameters with regards to the neurological and respiratory systems for individual patients undergoing anaesthesia

Name the most common pieces of monitoring equipment for the respiratory system and be able to recognise what is a normal value/trace for each of these pieces

Start to develop the skills to apply this knowledge to individual cases within the clinic with use of the available equipment

Week 3

Anaesthetic Monitoring – Cardiovascular System

Cardiovascular monitoring

Basic, hands on

Blood pressure

Pulse oximetry

ECG

Learning objectives
After completion of this week, participants should be able to:

Recognise what are normal physiological parameters with regards to the cardiovascular system for individual patients undergoing anaesthesia

Name the most common pieces of monitoring equipment for the cardiovascular system and be able to recognise what is a normal value/trace for each of these pieces

Start to develop the skills to apply this knowledge to individual cases within the clinic with use of the available equipment

Week 4

Principles of Perioperative Care including Anaesthetic Recovery

Anaesthetic risk

Airway management including tracheal intubation

Patient positioning

Eye care

Temperature

Fluid therapy

Patient recovery

Learning objectives
After completion of this week, participants should be able to:

Identify important factors which require attention and care during a patient’s anaesthetic in order to optimise the patient’s peri-anaesthetic experience

Accurately calculate fluid rates for individual patients and apply this to their clinical setting, whether this be with use of fluid pumps/syringe drivers or via gravity (calculating a drop rate)

List available methods for patient warming, with recognition of the need to counteract patient hypothermia and the potential risks associated with warming device use

Recognise the critical importance of patient monitoring during anaesthetic recovery.

Describe the potential difficulties that may be encountered during the anaesthetic recovery period

Week 5

Pain Assessment

Importance of pain assessment and management

Challenges of pain assessment in veterinary species

Pain assessment tools

Learning objectives
After completion of this week, participants should be able to:

Recognise the potential difficulties in performing pain assessment in veterinary species.

Name a number of pain assessment tools

Advocate a pain assessment tool that would be suitable for their working environment

Recognise when patients (cats and dogs) are deemed to be painful

Week 6

Analgesia for Acute Perioperative Pain

A brief overview on the pain pathway with introduction to the concepts of multimodal and pre-emptive analgesia

Analgesic options, including:

 A brief overview of the pharmacological means

Non-pharmacological methods

Learning objectives
After completion of this week, participants should be able to:

Explain why provision of analgesia is important for patient welfare

Describe the concepts of multimodal and pre-emptive analgesia, with emphasis on why these are important for patient analgesia

Explain why provision of analgesia is important

List potential analgesic options and apply this knowledge to consider appropriate therapeutic plans for individual patients

Have an appreciation of the important role that a veterinary nurse can play in providing non-pharmacological methods of analgesia and improving the patient experience