Emotions and stuffed toys: Anxiety in the Veterinary Surgical
Abstract for poster presentation
Emotions and stuffed toys: Anxiety in the Veterinary
Surgical Learning environment and the effect of training in a Surgical Skills Lab
Rikke Langebæk and Mette Berendt, Department of Veterinary Clinical and Animal Sciences,
University of Copenhagen
’All learning has an emotional base’ (Plato, 400BC) and negative emotions have been documented to have a negative impact on learning. As the veterinary surgical learning environment is considered demanding and stressful it is therefore of great importance to address the issue of emotions involved in this learning situation and to identify ways of reducing negative emotions.
At the Department of Veterinary Clinical and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen investigatio ns were carried out in order to determine students’ levels of anxiety in the surgical learning environment and to investigate the effect of training on models on these levels. It was documented that veterinary surgical students have a high degree of anxiousness before their first live animal surgical experience. Furthermore, our research demonstrated that training in a Surgical
Skills Lab with low-fidelity models significantly reduces the level of anxiety.
By providing a more positive learning environment a Surgical Skills Lab therefore not only has economic, practical and ethical benefits, but also pedagogical ones.
(162 words)
