The main focus of veterinary education is on developing and mastery of clinical veterinary skills. This means students studying for their veterinary medicine should achieve basic professional competences required to practice their profession.
As part of WTS-Vet Programme, Lilongwe Society for the Protection and Care of Animals (LSPCA) recently trained 12 university students from Bunda college on one of the important topics in veterinary medicine; Anaesthesiology.
Anaesthesiology is the procedure of minimizing pain and keeping the patient in a stable condition both during and after surgical procedures.
WTS-Vet Programme developed by WTS-Germany is a practical training platform which offers weekly veterinary training sessions to budding veterinarians. During this week’s practical training session, 12 students were introduced to different anaesthetic agents available in veterinary medicine.
The students only knew about these agents from their books, but on this day they had the chance to experience and see with their eyes.
Importantly these students also learnt how to use anaesthetic medicine for the purpose of inducing and maintaining anaesthesia. For the first time, under the supervision of LSPCA’s vet, all the 12 students were able to practically intubate a dog. Intubation is the placement of a flexible plastic tube into the windpipe to maintain an open airway when treating an animal.
LSPCA with support from the WTS-Germany is a focal point in Malawi for veterinary training and animal welfare education. LSPCA together with WTS-Germany is helping the government to build the veterinary sector in Malawi.