Program Objectives: Provide advanced training in veterinary anesthesiology, with special emphasis in the management of large, small and exotic animals rendered unconscious or insensible to pain during surgical, diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. This involves evaluation and treatment of these animals and includes specialized care in pain management, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and support and management of both critically ill and/or injured animals in special care units.
Development of sufficient clinical anesthesia skills to allow one to successfully manage both routine and complex anesthetic cases, and become adept at coping with a wide variety of complications that may be encountered while providing anesthetic care.
Provide basic experience in conducting research, interpreting data, and presenting and publishing the results.
Satisfy the credentials of the American College of Veterinary Anesthesiologists and the VCS residency program to prepare for board certification. The ACVA defines a Diplomate of the ACVA as a veterinarian who:
- Possesses knowledge, judgment, adaptability, clinical skills, technical facility and personal characteristics sufficient to carry out the entire scope of veterinary anesthesiology practice.
- Logically organizes and effectively presents rational diagnoses and appropriate treatment protocols.
- Can serve as an expert in matters related to anesthesiology and pain management (in animals), deliberate with others and provide advice and defend opinions in all aspects of the specialty of veterinary anesthesiology.
- Is able to function as the leader of a clinical anesthesiology service.
- Applies scientific method to furthering veterinary anesthesiology.
Program Overview: The residency is a three year program that conforms to the guidelines of the American College of Veterinary Anesthesiologists. Upon successful completion of the residency (including the ACVA publication requirement), a residency certificate will be awarded.
Employment is on an annual basis with continuation in the program being dependent upon satisfactory performance. Concurrent completion of a Master of Science degree or a Clinical Investigator Program (PhD) structured to support the resident’s career goals is required.
Expectations of the Resident: The resident will participate in both large and small animal anesthesia. The time commitment to clinical training will be 70-80 %, depending on the needs of the section. The remaining time will be spent in rotations in cardio
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a human hospital, etc. The resident will participate in didactic teaching, seminar presentations, journal club, and rounds presentations. Responsibilities will include night, holiday and weekend emergency duties on a rotational basis. The first year of the residency will focus on personal case management of the common companion and livestock species, as dictated by the ACVA residency guidelines. The second and subsequent years will focus more heavily on supervision of cases and clinical research. The resident will be expected to maintain a case log in order to fulfill ACVA certification requirements. The resident will receive semi-annual written evaluations and a quarterly evaluation meeting will be conducted. The resident is expected to demonstrate a consistently high level of care for his/her patients. The resident is expected to independently read and increase his/her knowledge base on matters pertaining to anesthesiology, physiology, pharmacology and related basic science. The resident will participate in teaching of the veterinary students, interns, and technicians. The resident will participate in teaching of anesthesia in undergraduate labs. The resident is expected to attend all seminars in the departmental seminar series and to participate at the level required of all residents in the department. He or she is expected to attend all classes for which they are registered and to plan ahead with the attending anesthesiologist so that service responsibilities are covered. The resident is expected to participate in all general section meetings and should be punctual to meetings, rounds and class assignments like junior surgery.
The resident will work under the supervision of the attending anesthesiology faculty. The level of faculty interaction will vary from person to person, depending on the faculty member and the resident’s growth in the program. In general, the resident will initially focus on individual patient care under the supervision of the anesthesiologist on duty, and as your skills and clinical judgment develop, resident will gradually move towards supervising multiple cases simultaneously. Most r
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n the anesthesia service independently with the faculty member taking a “backup” role. Throughout this process, you should strive to learn as much as possible from all cases presented to the anesthesia service during the resident’s clinical rotations. This will involve actively participating in morning rounds with fourth year students, reviewing case records, evaluating clinical pathology, electrocardiographic and diagnostic imaging results as often as possible, and interacting with other faculty and house officers involved in the cases. The resident will be teaching while he/she is learning.
Faculty Responsibility: Faculty anesthesiologists have the final responsibility for patient care. As mentioned above, with increasing competency and freedom comes increased responsibility. Ideally, this should steadily increase over the three years to the point that at least part of your last year will be spent running your own service.
Running your own service is an earned privilege, not a right. Faculty members are responsible for providing guidance in all aspects of clinical case management. The resident should make it a habit to consult with available faculty (primarily the faculty anesthesiologist on the clinic floor but also with surgeons, internists, radiologists, etc… as needed and appropriate), even when running your own service. If the resident does not believe you are getting adequate guidance at any time during your residency, please let your residency advisor, residency committee, hospital director and/or department head know.
Duty Hours: Regular duty hours are 7:45 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Rarely will a workday remain within these limits. A normal day, without call duty or non-clinical "projects" will often run from 7:00-7:30 a.m. to 6:30-7:00 p.m. Attendance at anesthesia rounds and house officer seminars is mandatory unless specifically released from the same by your faculty supervisor. If a conflict in scheduling arises, please consult with the attending anesthesiologist.
Program Guidance:
- Dr. Ann Weil is the residency program advisor. It is her responsibility to see that the candidate’s program meets the guidelines for a residency program as defined by the ACVA and VTH-VCS. The anesthesiology residency committee consists of all three anesthesiology faculty members (Drs. Weil, Ionue and Ko) who will oversee the residency program and meet with the resident for periodic evaluations at quarterly intervals.
- Drs. Ko or Inoue will also serve as the resident advisors. Dr. Ko will supervise and guide the resident’s research projects and publications. Both Drs. Ko and Inoue will be responsible for assuring that the resident have active guidance and assistance throughout your program.
- Further information related to anesthesia residency is available at the ACVA’s web site (www.acva.org).
- The resident is expected to follow all approved policies of the Purdue Veterinary Teaching Hospital, the department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, and the School of Veterinary Medicine at Purdue.
Program Components:
On clinic vs. Off clinic time:
ACVA requires at least 94 weeks of the program under the direction of two ACVA diplomats.
Off clinic time should be used for:
- Research or clinical investigation
- Preparation of scientific manuscripts
- Graduate degree studies
- National or international level continuing education courses
- Special clinical rotations: cardiology, critical care, radiology, zoo, etc.
Off clinic time will be divided over three years. No more than 2 weeks of sick leave may be used per year without making up clinical time (ACVA guideline). All vacation time should be used during off-clinic time (22 days per year). Vacation days not taken are forfeited at the end of each year. The resident must complete a vacation form (Form 33A) prior to taking any vacation. The completed form must be approved by the section head and turned into the business office prior to the days off.
Evaluation Process: You will be evaluated by the faculty with whom you have worked every 3-6 months. Those evaluations will be collated and forwarded to you by the faculty. Serious problems will be addressed immediately. Continuation in the program will be decided based on evaluation. Failure to adequately perform can result in dismissal from the program.
Although the performance evaluation is primarily subjective, the following specific criteria will be evaluated when considering continuation in the program. These criteria will be evaluated based upon what we consider appropriate and necessary to the function of a resident in anesthesiology in this program.
- Satisfactory amount of didactic knowledge
- Satisfactory clinical competency and technical skills
- Professional conduct, including the ability to interact amiably with faculty, house officers, technical staff, and students
- Openness to instruction
- Ability to make timely and correct decisions
- Ability to organize yourself. Satisfactory patient care
- High level of motivation and work ethics
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