Real Life Anesthesia and Analgesia

Real Life Anesthesia and Analgesia

02-28-16
VETE 4325 Anesthesia and Surgical Nursing
Rachel Rae Romo

Real Life Anesthesia and Analgesia

Only seven weeks of study for the course Anesthesia and

Surgical Nursing have passed and yet has provided each student with
an abundance of skills to utilize for a career as a veterinary technician.
From the vital tools of anesthesia including patient and equipment
preparation with important and efficient monitoring, all the way to the
most important understanding of asepsis for surgical nursing.
For a veterinary technician in the emergency room within the
teaching hospital setting, this course has been tremendously valuable.
Each technician must be proficient in anesthesia and asepsis to guide
veterinary students and hesitant veterinary interns with efficiency.
Time is of the essence in triage and the caseload can be so
overwhelming that speed changes happen where delegation of the
room needs to occur accordingly. However, regardless of the speed
increase of accomplishing tasks, your aseptic techniques should never
be compromised.
Having a patient need to be under general anesthesia does not
happen too often in our hospital, because we are so large that our
anesthesia department often takes that task over. However, the
subjects that cover anesthetic equipment is especially important for
emergency technicians to know and understand because the start of
each of our shift includes a consistent list of tasks that encompass
equipment checks. We need to understand when to recognize that our
equipment is faulty or not hooked in correctly. The triage area is filled

Real Life Anesthesia and Analgesia

with exhausted and sometimes very lost fourth-year veterinary

students and tunnel-vision focused, exhausted interns which leaves the
technicians to ensure that all equipment is ready for any type of
patient, coding or not, walks in the front door at any moment.
Aseptic technique is something I am considered specialized in
having over five years of experience in the Operating Room in the
veterinary teaching hospital setting. Since transferring to the
emergency room, I have noticed that I have made quite an impression
on the more senior technicians to up their standards from what they
have learned to be acceptable in a triage setting. They now understand
and see how aseptic technique does not ever have to be compromised,
even in the most complicated situations without an operating room
table, closed doors or other typical operating room equipment.
This course will further my current career in that I was not always
the most comfortable in anesthesia and learning all of the details in
how I can trouble shoot equipment, has made a significant confidence
boost. It is not always easy to build a great relationship with fourth
year veterinary students when you are not confident in your own skills.
However, if you can teach them how to trouble shoot their own
anesthesia, it seems that trust is built fast and stronger that way.
Gaining their respect and trust as a technician will set the standards as
to how they will treat other technicians once they are graduated and
over confident in the real world in private practice.

Real Life Anesthesia and Analgesia

References
Thomas, John A., Lerche, Phillip (2011). Anesthesia and Analgesia for
Veterinary Technicians, 4th Edition. Mosby, Inc.
Tear, Marianne (2012). Small Animal Surgical Nursing Skills and
Concepts, 2nd

Edition. Mosby.