Emergency Preparedness in General Practice

 

This class has been presented at several veterinary clinics in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

 

Environment Description: This course is presented within the veterinary clinic, normally in a break room or other meeting area. In general, the participants are all employees of the clinic hosting the training but one training was done on a larger scale and employees from several clinics from a corporate group were in attendance. Groups are either exclusively Veterinary Technicians or, more commonly, a mix of all members of the veterinary team.

 

Original Presentation:  The initial training consisted of a presentation discussing Basic Life Support techniques such as chest compressions, manual ventilation, and venous access, as well as, being prepared for an emergency and  the roles team members may play.  This presentation was presented as either a 1 or 2 hour lecture. As the presentation has been updated over time, the initial slides are not available but are similar (and in some cases the same) as the slides in the current training. The main difference is how they were presented.

 

Current Training: In 2012, the Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society (VECCS) published the findings from their RECOVER initiative, a first step in setting standards of care for veterianry CPR. This landmark publication led to a review of this course's materials to make sure everything was in line with current reccommendations. In addition to this change, it was at roughly the same time that CPR mannequins were made available for these trainings, allowing for a hands-on component.  Since 2012, the training has been run as a 2-hour class with the first hour being the presentation and the second hour being used for primarily chest compression practice (technique and timing). Participants are able to work with the facilitator in small groups to review proper technique. Music with the appropriate beat for chest compressions is used to develop a sense of proper timing.

 

Future Training: Currently, the design of this training is going through another transformation as it is to become the initial offering from Brown Dog Veterinary Training and Consulting Services. The presentation will continue to be part of the training as this foundational information is crucial to successful CPR. With many veterinary clinics seeing only 1-2 cases requiring CPR in a year, many veterinary professionals are not up to speed on these important basics. The presentation, however, will take on a new feel as it moves toward the idea of honoring the participants' previous knowledge.

In such areas as clinic preparedness, there will be time built into the presentation to ask the team members about their clinic set up, how they have handled emergencies in the past, and how they might change things in the future based on the information they are learning. In discussion of the team dynamic, there will be an exercise built in to the presentation to allow the team to discuss and come up with individual roles and overall team dynamics. Not only will these new aspects break up the monotony of a lecture-based class but will also allow for a more active learning environment.

Finally, future trainings will incorporate an enhanced practice session with the CPR mannequins. While practicing chest compression techniques will still be part of this section, there will also be time to put into practice the team dynamics designed in the first part of the training. Table-top exercises will be run to enhance the flow of a CPR event and what each team members role is within the emergency. The facilitator will start a scenario and allow the team time to devise their response. As the scenario unfolds, the facilitator will give additional information, based on the team's response to previous information, to lead the group to a representative CPR event. Following this exercise, the team will debrief on the experience. The final exercise will take the theoretical tabl-top exercise and put it into practice with the team actually running through a CPR event in the clinic. Again, the facilitator will act to keep the exercise moving with additional information necessary for the team to react and respond to. By using this scaffolding technique, even in a short period of time, the hope is to enhance learning transfer for each participant and the team as a whole.