Advice on being nervous about animal surgery

[sambone]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

2 months ago I began a job as a research technician, and a lot of my work involves surgery on rats and mice. After having some surgeries where the response to anesthesia has been inconsistent (and it wears off way too soon) I've been getting more and more nervous before doing surgery. It REALLY freaks me out when the animal starts moving in response to the pain. I'm also really nervous about getting bitten (again) when trying to give injections.

After thinking about it for years, I had recently decided to finish the required courses and apply to vet school in a couple years, but Im worried that this anxiety is not normal. I plan on volunteering in more traditional veterinary settings, but I wonder if this research based work is really different than what people have experienced in clinics?

 

[MicheleVet]

I think the research experience is different. In a hospitial setting, safety of the animals as well as the staff is a top priority. In research, unfortunately, cost is sometimes a higher priority.

In a clinic, if an animal is feeling the surgery, you would give more anesthetic or more pain mediciations. Also if an animal was uncooperative for a procedure such as a blood draw or radiographs, you would consider giving light sedatives to protect yourself as well as the patient.

For dogs and cats, most of the medications we use regularly in a clinic have fairly predictable results...ie, we know how much to give based on the surgery we want to perform or the amount of cooperation we need. In research, limitations by IACUC, grant moneys, medication availablity and researcher's own comfort and experience with the technique or medications used all contribute to the inconsistency you experienced in the research setting.

Before you commit to veterinary school, and before you commit to NOT going, you should definitely experince the veterinary field in a clinical setting, especially one in which you want to eventually practice (ie, equine ambulatory, small animal general, specialty). The various subsets are so different, that sometimes I think they should be separate careers all together! But then again, that variety is what drew me to vetmed in the first place....

Hope that helped some...
Michele

 

[UKYWildcat]

I've been getting more and more nervous before doing surgery. It REALLY freaks me out when the animal starts moving in response to the pain. I'm also really nervous about getting bitten (again) when trying to give injections.


Sounds to me like you have a really poor anesthesia protocol...that needs to be rewritten or examined to make sure it's being carried out as intended. I don't agree with the "cost is the driving factor" since the truth is that research has been at the forefront of utilizing perioperative analgesia...a area that even now so many private practitioners lag in. With the PIs I have or do work with, we only allow RVTs to induce and maintain general anesthsia - they know the how and the WHY of the protocol and each individual drug, and our subjects benefit from that.