Evaluation of equine perineural anesthesia simulators with integrated success control for veterinary education

The skills necessary to perform diagnostic perineural anesthesia in equids belongs to one of the Day One Competences of a veterinarian, so every veterinary graduate should be able to perform them correctly. For logistical, hygienic and ethical reasons, practical exercises on cadaver limbs are not accessible to all students. Two equine distal limb simulators were developed and evaluated as an additional instructional tool to train the required skills. Both simulators were designed and built with an integrated success control, with Simulator I (S1) designed to be a simplified anatomical model and Simulator II (S2), a more realistic model. The simulators were tested by 68 students in the 5th year who were divided into two groups. Thirty-four students received a training session using the simplified anatomical model (S1) and the other 34 students one on cadaver limbs, the usual instructional tool. The practical learning success of both groups was validated using S2. Additionally, data on self-ecacy were collected. The results show that the two groups did not di