Amazing new resource joins the other animals in the clinical skills laboratory.
Murdoch University’s School of Veterinary Medicine has a clinical skills laboratory that plays a vital part in student training. It’s a unique facility that allows students to develop the hands-on skills they will need for their future careers, preparing them for live animal interaction.
The latest star to join the laboratory’s collection is a replica cow named Henryetta Moorni-Moorni McCowFace. Named through a student referendum, she is an incredible teaching asset that has been customised to enable a diverse range of skills to be practised.
Henryetta is the brainchild of Murdoch’s Lecturer in Clinical Skills Development, Dr Annett Annandale. Thanks to the generous donors who had contributed to the Vet Fund, Annett was able to buy the fibreglass animal from Victoria, and then purchase electrical, plumbing and general hardware components to tailor parts of the animal for clinical skills training.
Henryetta has lots of features that enable students to practice and master competencies they need to have for their career. For example, vets need to be able to insert needles into a cow and take blood samples. Sticking needles into the body is obviously an invasive procedure with only limited live animal practice opportunities.
Henryetta has two jugular veins which are a common place for vets to take blood samples from cows. On one side of the cow, it is covered, and students must palpate for the vein, finding it by touch alone. On the other side of Henryetta, the vein is uncovered, so students can see exactly what they are doing and focus purely on mastering the correct angles for insertion. This way, students can progress from entry-level difficulty to a higher competence level when practising.
Another area for blood collection is the tail vein which Henryetta has had fitted too. Students must find the vein placed exactly in the centre of the tail. The tail vein in Henryetta is made from exercise tubing bought in a physiotherapist shop which mirrors the feel and dimensions of an actual cow vein.
A lot of veterinary procedures with cows need to be done standing alongside. This includes the administration of local nerve blocks. This might be for de-horning for example, or perhaps eyelid surgery. Henryetta has had electrical circuits embedded in the key places so that students can be taught how to pinpoint the exact location for needle placement to administer local anaesthetics. With lights and a buzzing sound, they are given direct feedback when they have hit the right spot. One of the simulated nerve blocks that students can practice is the paravertebral nerve block which is commonly used for veterinary surgical procedures such as Caesarean sections.
The simulation involves a real lumbar spine to ensure correct anatomical landmarks that vets need to be able to locate. Previously, students were shown how to do it, but rarely had the chance to have a go themselves on a real animal. Henryetta can even be padded around the lumbar spine area as to increase the ‘body condition’ and make the palpation as tricky as it may be out in the field. Students also need to learn how to find the correct areas of a cow’s rear and neck suitable for intramuscular injections.
Many medical issues can occur with a cow’s rumen – the stomach which serves as a fermentation chamber in which bacteria digest the cellulose in grasses and feeds. To access the rumen, vets need to place a tube in the cow’s stomach via the mouth. Henryetta has a simulated rumen fitted and students can practice inserting the stomach tube and checking that it has reached the rumen, rather than deviated into the lungs. They have to measure the correct length of tubing, blow, and listen out for sounds to confirm the tube has reached the rumen successfully.
Additional training techniques Henryetta has been customised to allow include ear tagging and pinpointing the precise part of the front of the skull used to render a cow unconscious.
It can sometimes be difficult to get student and staff enthusiasm for new clinical skills models. Therefore, once the original modifications were made, staff and students were invited to come and help illustrate the underused right side of Henryetta. In addition to the naming competition this was another excellent opportunity to raise interest and engagement in ‘project cow’.
Pic shows rumen and the lubar vertebrae embedded in Henryetta as part of the paravertebral nerve block simulation. red cables resemble the spinal nerves while the black cables are part of the electrical circuit that gives feedback on correct needle placement.
A unique design was painted on her by celebrated Noongar artist Amanda Hart. The Noongar art piece represents the coming together, diversity and journey of students and reflects the strategic themes of the University. As the art is based on yarning circles which are a symbol of sharing knowledge, building respectful relationships, and fostering a culture of reflection, we hoped to create a positive and engaging story around Henryetta that allows students and staff alike to embrace the learning opportunities she offers. Henryetta is now not only a one-of-a-kind teaching model but also uniquely beautiful, and there is probably no one at the vet school who has not heard about her!
Annett is delighted with the student response to her latest creation.
“Models like Henryetta enable us to optimise our teaching of hands-on clinical skills as students can practise repeatedly in a safe environment. Students especially like the build-in feedback mechanisms like lights changing colour, hearing a buzzer or the rumen fluid, as they instantly know if they have been doing something correctly! It is fantastic to use opportunities like this to create unique teaching aids that help our students thrive and reach competence,“ she said.
