Paws Under Pressure: An Emergency Medicine Conference
Navigating the shift from routine veterinary consults to emergency cases demands a unique skill set. The upcoming conference, led by experienced expatriate Australian vets Kate Hopper and Dominic Barfield, and supported by local experts Merrin Hicks and Sam Long, promises to equip attendees with the skills for seamless transitions.
An emergency presentation comes through the door – how do you feel? Vaguely panicked? Completely terrified? Quietly confident?
It’s really hard to shift gears from routine consults to dropping everything to deal with an unexpected emergency case. You have to remain calm and be able to flip a switch – moving from the routine to the urgent and critical. This conference aims to leave you with the capability to make that transition seamlessly.
Ex pat Australian vets, Kate Hopper (UC Davis) and Dominic Barfield (RVC) and local experts Merrin Hicks and Sam Long, will help you develop an instinctive, first principles approach and provide you with some useful rules of thumb. They will help you to avoid cognitive overload in these high-pressure situations by demonstrating key clinical markers to help narrow down your list of differential diagnoses. And they will assist you with refining the art of critical care medicine – starting to make the patient better whilst you’re still working out what’s going on.
The collapsed patient, updates in CPR and approach to respiratory distress will all be discussed, along with intoxications, blocked cats and pain relief and sedation within the ER. Our presenters will share their own hard-learned lessons to help you identify and avoid common mistakes in critical care.
This is one conference you can’t afford to miss!
Learning Outcomes
By successfully completing this course, you will be able:
- Develop a refined approach to initial assessment and stabilisation of the critical patient
- Understand the applications and limitations of point of care diagnostic tools and tests for emergency presentations
- Have a better understanding of the work up and stabilisation of patients in respiratory distress
- Develop a first principles approach to envenomations, intoxications and poisonings
Program
Download Program
| Day |
Monday 21st October – Initial Assessment & Stabilisation |
|
| 8.00 - 8.30 |
Registration + Welcome |
Simone Maher |
| 8.35 |
Approach to the collapsed patient + Q&A session
|
Dom Barfield |
| 9.30 |
CPR – update on approach and getting the team involved + Q&A
|
Kate Hopper |
| 10.50 |
Clinical decision-making using POCUS + Q&A
|
Dom Barfield |
| 11.50 |
Evaluation of oxygenation in the critical patient + Q&A
|
Kate Hopper |
| 1.35 |
Venous blood gas interpretation - how to use it in concert with pulse ox readings and physical examination + Q&A
|
Kate Hopper |
| 2.25 |
Pain relief/sedation in the ER + Q&A
|
Merrin Hicks
|
| 3.30 - 4.30 |
What test is best, and when to do them?? + Q&A |
Dom Barfield |
| Day 1 Breaks |
Morning tea 10.30 (20 min), Lunch 12.50 (45 min) and Afternoon tea 3.15 (15 min) |
| Day 2 |
Tuesday 22nd October – Respiratory Distress |
|
| 8.00 |
Common errors made in the ER/ICU (and how to avoid them) + Q&A |
Dom Barfield |
| 9.00 |
Respiratory distress localisation I + Q&A |
Kate Hopper |
| 10.20 |
Respiratory distress localisation II + Q&A |
Kate Hopper |
| 11.15 |
Stabilising the septic patient + Q&A |
Dom Barfield |
| 1.00 |
Antibiotic use in sick patients + Q&A |
Dom Barfield |
| 1.55 |
Mechanical ventilation 101 – what you can achieve in your own practice + Q&A |
Kate Hopper |
| 3.05 - 4 |
The dogma of blocked cats + Q&A |
Dom Barfield |
| Day 2 Breaks |
Morning tea 10.00 (20 min), Lunch 12.15 (45 min) and Afternoon tea 2.55 (10 min) |
| Day 3 |
Wednesday 24th October – Toxins, Venoms & Poisons |
|
| 8.00 |
Ingested toxin/overdose management + Q&A |
Kate Hopper |
| 9.00 |
Status epilepticus (including toxicants that cause seizures) + Q&A |
Sam Long
|
| 10.20 |
Interpreting coagulation tests (50 mins) and case studies of patients with coagulopathies + Q&A |
Dom Barfield |
| 11.15 |
Practicalities of blood transfusions in cats and dogs + Q&A |
Kate Hopper |
| 1.00 |
Australian nasties: snakes, ticks and spiders + Q&A |
Merrin Hicks |
| 1.55 |
Firey topic: are there any approaches you disagree on? Let’s discuss + Q&A |
Kate Hopper, Merrin Hicks & Dom Barfield |
| 3.05 - 4 |
Is this a test?? + Q&A |
Kate vs the world Ft Quizmaster Dom |
| Day 3 Breaks |
Morning tea 10.00 (20 min), Lunch 12.15 (45 min) and Afternoon tea 2.50 (15 min) |
Who should enrol?
This course is suitable for qualified veterinarians. Veterinary students are welcome to enrol.
| |
Full Conference |
|
| Registrant Type |
Early Bird |
Full Rate |
|
|
| Member* |
$1,710 |
$1,800 |
|
|
| Recent Grad / Part-Time Member |
$1,070 |
$1,125 |
|
|
| Student Member |
N/A |
$900 |
|
|
| Non-Member/eMember |
N/A |
$2,250 |
|
|
*Members include: Practice, Professional and Academic members.