An alternative model for teaching emergency procedures.

Emergency/critical care is a new veterinary specialty that poses special challenges in veterinary education. Traditional methods of teaching emergency procedures in the teaching hospital place novices in a high-stress, high-stakes environment not conducive to learning or to optimum patient care. Our innovative emergency-procedures laboratory enables students to acquire a high degree of proficiency, in a realistic setting, with focused, controlled instruction and practice, replicable in schools with or without emergency/critical care facilities.