California Business and Professions Code section 4830(a)(4) states the following:
A student of a veterinary medical program accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education who participates as part of the student’s formal curriculum in the diagnosis and treatment with direct supervision by a California-licensed veterinarian, or in surgery with immediate supervision by a California-licensed veterinarian, provided all of the following requirements are met:
(A) The clinical training site has been approved by the university where the student is enrolled.
(B) The student has prior training in diagnosis, treatment, and surgery as part of the formal curriculum.
Furthermore, California Code of Regulations, Title 16, Section 2027 states:
A junior or senior student or a graduate of a recognized veterinary college listed in Section 2022(a) who is performing any animal health care task in a veterinary premises registered by the Board may perform only the identical job tasks with the identical degree of supervision by the supervisor as specified for a R.V.T. pursuant to Section 2036.
California Code of Regulations, Title 16, Section 2036 permits RVTs to do the following:
(b) An R.V.T. may perform the following procedures only under the direct supervision of a licensed veterinarian:
(1) Induce anesthesia;
(2) Perform dental extractions;
(3) Suture cutaneous and subcutaneous tissues, gingiva, and oral mucous membranes;
(4) Create a relief hole in the skin to facilitate placement of an intravascular catheter;
(5) Drug compounding from bulk substances.
(c) An R.V.T. may perform the following procedures under indirect supervision of a licensed veterinarian:
(1) Administer controlled substances;
(2) Apply casts and splints;
(3) Drug compounding from non-bulk substances.
California Code of Regulations, Title 16, Section 2034 defines “direct” and “indirect” supervision as:
(e) “Direct Supervision” means: (1) the supervisor is physically present at the location where animal health care job tasks are to be performed and is quickly and easily available; and (2) the animal has been examined by a veterinarian at such time as good veterinary medical practice requires consistent with the particular delegated animal health care job task.
(f) “Indirect Supervision” means: (1) that the supervisor is not physically present at the location where animal health care job tasks are to be performed, but has given either written or oral instructions (“direct orders”) for treatment of the animal patient; and (2) the animal has been examined by a veterinarian at such times as good veterinary medical practice requires, consistent with the particular delegated animal health care task and the animal is not anesthetized as defined in Section 2032.4.
The law offers no definition of “immediate” supervision, and thus the common knowledge definition for the term applies. The common definition of “immediate” is: “occurring or done at once, nearest or next to in space.” Thus, the supervising veterinarian would need to be scrubbed in during surgery if a veterinary student is performing surgery during an externship.
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