Development of a veterinary surgical skills lab

Abstract

A surgical skills lab will be integrated in the educational master program of the Department of Small Animal Medicine of Utrecht University. This skills lab must provide a safe learning environment for veterinary students, so they can practice their surgical skills. The aim of this study is to develop training models that will participate in the surgical skills lab. Three veterinary students will develop these models in the field of general surgery, suturing techniques, otorhinolaryngology and urology. The training models contribute to reduction in the use of experimental animals and patients, with a beneficial effect on educational costs and animal welfare.

To gain inspiration there was a visit to the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Copenhagen and the Medical Faculty Utrecht. Furthermore medical surgery was attended at the University Clinic of Small Animals in Utrecht, to get insight in surgical operations. With this knowledge in mind, training models are developed for dog and cat orchiectomy and cystocentesis. With the aid of these models students can practice essential proceedings of surgery. The models are relatively inexpensive to produce, easily renewable and attractive to use. In this report an overview will be given on the development, production and use of all three training models.