A Deeper Plane of Anaesthesia

After completing this 6 week online course, the participants will have a greater knowledge and understanding of the basic principles behind anaesthesia and be able to apply this to their own working practices.

This course discusses more advanced anaesthesia / analgesia concepts and research, and therefore may be more suitable for those experienced in anaesthesia and those considering undertaking further qualifications in this area.

For nurses in general practice, looking for more routine anaesthesia CPD, these courses may be more suitable:

Multiparameter Monitoring

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 outcomes:

• 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 (plus other)

• Basic, hands on monitoring (neurological system)
• Respiratory monitoring
• Other

Learning outcomes:

• 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 outcomes:

• 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 Peri-operative Care including Anaesthetic Recovery

• Anaesthetic risk
• Airway management including tracheal intubation
• Patient positioning
• Eye care
• Temperature
• Fluid therapy
• Patient recovery

Learning outcomes:

• 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 outcomes:

• 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 Peri-operative 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 outcomes:

• 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.

The course will be fully tutored by Rebecca Robinson and will consist of 15 hours of CPD given in various formats, including tutorials, tasks, case scenarios, forum discussions and quizzes.

For some further information about our Online Tutored CPD courses - please open the guide below:

ONLINE TUTORED CPD COURSES - PDF GUIDE