Agreement between veterinary students and anesthesiologists regarding postoperative pain assessment in dogs.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the levels of agreement among first- and second-year veterinary students and experienced anesthesiologists in assessing postoperative pain in dogs from video-recordings.


METHODS
Cross-sectional study.


METHODS
Twenty-seven veterinary students, five anesthesiologists and 13 canine clinical patients.


METHODS
Prior to their enrolment in a core anesthesia course, veterinary students volunteered to watch 13 90 second videos of dogs. Dogs were hospitalized in an intensive care unit after a variety of surgical procedures. Students were asked to score the level of the dogs' pain using the Dynamic Interactive Visual Analog Scale and the Short Form of the Glasgow Composite-Measure Pain Scale. The same videotapes were scored by five board-certified anesthesiologists. The differences and agreement between the ratings of anesthesiologists and students, and first- and second-year students were determined with Mann-Whitney U-tests and Fleiss' or Cohen's kappa, respectively.


RESULTS
Pain scores assigned by students and anesthesiologists differed significantly (p < 0.01). Students assigned higher pain scores to dogs that were given low pain scores by anesthesiologists, and lower pain scores to dogs deemed to be in more pain by anesthesiologists. On average, students assigned higher scores on both scales.


CONCLUSIONS
Veterinary students early in their training assigned pain scores to dogs that differed from scores assigned by experienced anesthesiologists.
Department of Large Animal Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
Michele
M
Barletta
Department of Small Animal Medicine and Surgery, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
Courtni N
CN
Young
Department of Small Animal Medicine and Surgery, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
Jane E
JE
Quandt
Department of Small Animal Medicine and Surgery, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
Erik H
EH
Hofmeister
D000328:Adult; D000768:Anesthesia, General / Q000662:veterinary*; D000776:Anesthesiology; D000818:Animals; D002983:Clinical Competence; D004285:Dogs / Q000502:physiology* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000662:veterinary; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000662:veterinary*; D013337:Students, Medical; D014741:Video Recording; D055815:Young Adult
dog; pain assessment; pain scale; veterinary student; video