Humane Alliance: A Program of the ASPCA offers a two-week Extern Training Program (40 hours/week) designed to deliver spay/neuter surgical instruction, and offer students a behind-the-scenes, hands-on look into the world of spay/neuter and shelter medicine. The program excels in its surgical instruction and practice, with seven out of the program’s ten days involving some amount of surgery. Because of the fluctuating nature of our business, the exact curriculum moves according to patient/case availability. However, depending on each student’s ability, most students have historically performed between 15 and 30 surgeries in the two-week period.

Our Extern Training Program experience includes (but is not limited to):

SURGERY - including:

• Anatomy review
• Introduction & usage of high-volume surgical techniques (ligatures, ovarian pedicle ties, incision placement theories)
• Review of individual student techniques, including efficiency of motion & body mechanics
• Instrument review
• Surgical preparation procedures
• Identification & management of complications

EXAMINATIONS, ANESTHESIA, & PHARMACEUTICALS

• Pre-surgical physical examination
• Patient selection, including discussion of expected outcomes & higher risks
• Patient anesthetic monitoring & recovery
• Recheck examinations

• Drug records/logs
• Discussion of in-house anesthetic protocols, including pain management
• Anesthesia machine maintenance

CLASSROOM LECTURES

• Community cats
• Surgical anomalies
• Surgical complications

THE LOCAL SHELTER EXPERIENCE

• Working visits at one or two local area shelters