Fundamentals of Anaesthesia for Vet Nurses Dry-lab NZ (July 2026)

This workshop gave vet nurse anaesthetists a deep dive into the foundations of small animal anaesthesia, from troubleshooting machine, circuit, and equipment faults, to mastering intubation, correct cuff inflation, and capnography waveform interpretation. Attendees also built confidence applying anaesthesia depth and minimum alveolar concentration across different ages, sizes, and health statuses, walking away equipped to recognise and prevent the top avoidable anaesthetic errors in small animals, an essential skill set for today’s veterinary nurses in practice.

Marcia Fletcher

RVNS, Dip VN (Dist), VTS – Anesthesia and Analgesia. Director and founder of The Pink Stethoscope

Marcia Fletcher is a registered veterinary nurse specialist and an international speaker on veterinary anaesthesia. She worked for the Massey University Veterinary Teaching Hospital as the senior anaesthesia nurse for over 16 years. Her patients ranged vastly in size, and included small animals, avian, large animals, equine and exotic patients. In 2011 she became New Zealand’s first Veterinary Technician Specialist in Anaesthesia and Analgesia. She has been New Zealand’s “Vet Nurse of the Year”, and been awarded several teaching awards, including “Teacher of the Year” for veterinary technicians. Marcia is also a RECOVER certified instructor of basic and advanced CPR. In 2020 she left university life to create “The Pink Stethoscope” and independently provide postgraduate veterinary anaesthesia education. Loving all aspects of teaching, her passion has always been to share and impart anaesthesia knowledge to both veterinarians and veterinary technicians and nurses. Marcia currently teaches veterinary anaesthesia throughout New Zealand and Australia, and also delivers webinars for her wider audience around the world. Away from work she enjoys her home life with her husband, daughter, son and very special “fur-daughter” Minnie the cat.