Analysis of teaching methods in anaesthesia in the undergraduate curriculum of four veterinary universities. (September 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: D'Anselme, Olivia; Pelligand, Ludovic; Veres-Nyeki, Kata; Zaccagnini, Andrea; Zilberstein, Luca
• Is Part Of: Veterinary anaesthesia and analgesia. Volume 47:Number 5(2020)
• Page Start: 657
• Page End: 666
• Publication Date: 2020-09
• Subjects: andragogy -- anaesthesiology -- competences -- questionnaire -- skills -- SWOT; Veterinary anesthesia -- Periodicals; 636.089
• DOI: 10.1016/j.vaa.2020.02.011
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1467-2987

Abstract

Abstract: Objective: To design a holistic audit tool to assess the effectiveness of anaesthesia teaching strategies, and thereby to study veterinary undergraduate teaching methods in different geographical areas. Study design: Qualitative study using interviews of university staff and students to identify common themes and differences in teaching veterinary anaesthesia. Methods: An audit was performed using an audit tool in four veterinary universities (École Nationale Vétérinaire d'Alfort, France; Royal Veterinary College, UK; University of Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Alma mater studiorum - Università di Bologna, Italy). First, an open-question interview of anaesthesia head of service (60–90 minutes) identified the pedagogical strategies in order to conceive a subsequent semi-directive interview formulated as a SWOT analysis (Strength/Weaknesses/Opportunity/Threats). Second, the SWOT reflection was conducted by a second staff member and focussed on: 1) general organization; 2) topics for pre-rotation teaching; 3) teaching methods for clinical rotation; and 4) assessment methods. Qualitative analysis of the interview responses was performed with semi-structured interviews. Finally, the students evaluated their teaching through a students' questionnaire generated from the output of both interviews. Results: A group of nine lecturers and 106 students participated in the study at four different sites. Preclinical teaching ranged from 13 to 24 hours (median 15 hours). Clinical teaching ranged from 4 to 80 hours (median 60 hours). Overall, all faculties perceived time as a limitation and attempted to design strategies to achieve the curriculum expectations and optimize teaching using more time-efficient exercises. Large animal anaesthesia teaching was found to be a common area of weakness. Internal feedback was delivered to each university, whereas generalized results were shared globally. Conclusions: This preliminary study proved the generalizability of the protocol used. Recruiting a larger pool of universities would help to identify and promote efficient teaching strategies and innovations for training competent new graduates in an ever-expanding curriculum.