gms | German Medical Science

The Faculty of Veterinary Science, Budapest is, the only veterinary school in Hungary. Current enrolment is about 100 and 120 students for the Hungarian and English programs, respectively. This means that we have a total of 800 students at the veterinary school from which, each year 400–450 students step into clinical practice, obligatory at the small animal clinic. Obligatory clinical shifts cross over the consecutive last four semesters, which are destined for the increase manual skills of students.

On the other hand, although the number of inhabitants of Hungary is narrowly more than 9.8 million, the percentage of dog and/or cat-keeping households is more than 40% in contrast with the 20–30 % European average. The estimated number of stray dogs is more than 200 thousands from the total of 2.5 million dogs and only 1.5 million are registered in the official database despite of rules. In spite of a high number of successful placement to new owners and euthanasia (unfortunately), the stray dog number does not decrease from year to year. The only explanation is their reproduction.

The faculty was looking for possibilities to provide practice for students, the shelters were looking for possibility of spaying stray dogs. The university offers spaying, and the shelters provide the dogs. And the government covers the half of the expenses.

Three to five students form a group and the shift lasts from Monday until Friday. Although until this time students had passed the collective practices in groups and they have become familiar with the theory of placing intravenous catheters, disinfection for operation, rules of sterility, and anatomy of reproductive organs, but this is the first direct contact with anaesthesia, opening of abdominal cavity of a breathing animal. From the start, there were 914 dogs operated by the students on 159 operation days. The four supervisors work in daily relay with each other and discuss the students’ progress daily with each other, controlling their development individually. This means statistically, that the activity of one supervisor increases the practical skills of 100–112 students, and results in 229 spayed animals.

According to experiences, it can be concluded that high level of theoretical education does not substitute practice. The adjustment of the operation mask, avoiding to touch non-sterile objects with sterile operation gloves, need some automatism of reflexes. The first contact with the feeling of responsibility for a living being effects students in different ways. Observed reactions vary from inspiration through depression to confusion. One of the most important role of the supervisor is to help to focus student’s attention on important points and teach how to make decisions and considerations.

The management of the student operations needs new skills from the supervisors, too. Reflect to the actions in pre- and post-operative rooms, and management of the operation, all these postulate the ability of shared attention from supervisor and well-trained technicians.

Although the risk of hidden diseases and sensitivities is high due to unknown anamneses, there were only two lost from the 914 patients.