Guiding technicians using mechanical ventilation in patient care

Tasha McNerney, BS, CVT, CVPM, VTS (Anesthesia), director of training and staff development at Mount Laurel Animal Hospital in New Jersey, and a founder of the Anesthesia Nerds organization, discusses the upcoming Veterinary Meeting & Expo (VMX) workshop on mechanical ventilation, in an interview with dvm360. McNerney will co-present the workshop with Tami Lind, BS, RVT, VTS (ECC), and Darci Palmer, LVT, VTS (Anesthesia & Analgesia), for a VMX audience of veterinary professionals who are new to mechanical ventilators or who are considering a ventilator purchase in the future. It will be held Saturday, January 25, 2025; 8 am to 12 pm, at the Rosen Centre in Orlando, Florida.

The following is transcript of the video:

Tasha McNerney, BS, CVT, CVPM, VTS (Anesthesia): The mechanical ventilation lab is going to be really interesting. It's taught by myself, and then 2 other VTS techs, Tammy Lind, [BS, RVT, VTS (ECC),] out of Purdue [University], and then Darcy Palmer, [LVT, VTS (Anesthesia & Analgesia),] who is out of Tuskegee [University]. Pretty amazing, amazing faculty.

So, we are going to walk people through a case-based approach to when am I going to need to use a mechanical ventilator. I'm watching this patient under anesthesia. At what point do I say, 'hey, this patient needs more support than what I can just give manually.' And when should I throw on that mechanical ventilator?

Then, we're going to take it a step further, and we're going to look at different types of mechanical ventilators, because you might go into one practice, and they may have a very basic, volume-driven mechanical ventilator, but then you might go into, say, our downstairs [at Mount Laurel Animal Hospital], and you may have a very advanced mechanical ventilator that has 6 different settings and different modes. And how do you choose one over the other? When do you increase your tidal volume. When would you increase your respiratory rate?...

Because Tammy is a VTS in emergency and critical care, we're also then going to be exploring long-term mechanical ventilation and how that long term mechanical ventilation plays in the ICU. So she's going to be going over the ICU ventilator in particular, and how, again, you can change different settings based on the way your patient is presenting to you.