Dr. Sheilah Robertson to head anesthesia group

Sheilah Robertson, an associate professor at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, has been selected as president-elect of the American College of Veterinary Anesthesiologists.

Robertson will serve for two years as president-elect before officially taking her post as president in January 2002. Her duties will combine her expertise in veterinary anesthesiology with administrative tasks, as the organization concentrates its efforts into recruiting more veterinary students into the specialty of anesthesiology.

“There’s an international shortage of veterinary anesthesiologists,” Robertson said. “People think that if you specialize in anesthesia, all you do is anesthetize animals, which is not true at all. It’s a much broader field than people think.”

The duties of veterinary anesthesiologists range from pain management for surgery animals to developing anesthetic drugs for the pharmaceutical industry for both animals and humans.

Robertson said the urgency and stress of the field might account for the scarcity of anesthesiologists.

“It’s very moment-to-moment, working with critical animals and making decisions. And it can be quite stressful,” she said. “Although it’s exciting, I think.”

Robertson said she is “apprehensive but excited” about serving as ACVA president, forecasting that her new duties will challenge both her administrative know-how and her schedule.

“I’ll be even busier than I am now,” she predicted, “if that’s possible.”