JMICAWE's Hayley Walters is guest speaker at Veterinary Nursing Evening

Veterinary nurse (VN) Hayley Walters spoke at The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons’ virtual ‘Veterinary Nursing Evening’ this week. During the evening, over 70 newly registered VNs were formally welcomed to the register; and the achievements of several nurses who have completed their Advanced Diploma were recognised.

It is the second year running Hayley has been a special guest speaker at this very happy event. Last year it was held at London Zoo where Hayley talked about her career as a veterinary nurse and how the qualification led her to work with moon bears in China and Vietnam, street dogs in Bosnia and teach in vet schools in India and Sri Lanka. 

This year Hayley gave the talk from her home in Nottingham and focused on the challenges of working in low to middle income countries, and why they exist for the veterinary profession.

“Working in developing countries, once I’d qualified as a veterinary nurse, was something I’d always wanted to do, and I have had amazing experiences whilst doing it. It is something I would recommend to any VN who has a passion for combining their job with travelling. It is an exciting thing to do with your life, but it is also a productive way of helping animals who are less fortunate than our UK pets. However, it can also be upsetting to see some of the welfare challenges that exist so this talk was to highlight a few of the difficulties, why they exist and what to do when you are faced with them.”

Hayley will receive a donation for her chosen charity ‘DogStar Foundation’ in Sri Lanka as a thank you for her time.

BVNA Scientific Poster Competition Winner!

Congratulations to Emma Hogarth (née Campbell) who was the winner of the BVNA Research Bites Award 2020 for the Best Scientific Poster at the recent virtual BVNA Congress!!

Emma Campbell BSc(Hons)RVN MScCAB graduated from the online MSc Clinical Animal Behaviour in 2019 and since then has gone onto publish her work in The Veterinary Nurse Journal (Campbell et al 2020). Most recently Emma presented a poster titled, "From handling fails to waggy tails! Communication between canine owners and veterinary staff on canine handling intolerances in practice", at the virtual British Veterinary Nursing Association Congress which took place from 9-11th October. 

Following the disappointment of being unable to present her poster in person, Emma was delighted to be awarded the BVNA Research Bites Award 2020 for the Best Scientific Poster: 

"I was extremely grateful to get the opportunity to present at the BVNA Congress and it was such a surprise to win the Best Poster Award. I'm so pleased my research has been presented to the veterinary community and hope my results will help practices think about the way they approach patients with handling intolerances."

We are very proud of what Emma has achieved within the field of veterinary behaviour and wish her all the best for the future.

Campbell, E., Connor, M. and Buckley, L.A., 2020. A prospective cross-sectional survey of UK-based dog owners to explore canine handling intolerances and owner willingness to disclose these to veterinary professionals. The Veterinary Nurse, 11(2), pp.96-102.

Veterinary Nurses Day - Guest Speaker Hayley Walters

Veterinary nurse (VN) Hayley Walters was invited to speak at VN day in London recently to the newly qualified VNs graduating that day.

As a previous Golden Jubilee award winner, Hayley was asked by The Royal college of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) to give a 15 minute presentation to showcase what a VN can do and help inspire them as they start their careers.

Hayley qualified in 1999 from a mixed animal practice in Derbyshire and since then has worked with bears in China and dogs in Bosnia; taught in vet schools in Sri Lanka and Vietnam; taught final year vet students on their anaesthesia rotation in The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, examined students in their practical exams and created free online teaching resources used all over the world.

“Veterinary nursing has come a long way since I qualified 20 years ago. The aim of the talk was to help demonstrate to these new VNs that there is so much you can do with your career now. If you want to stay in general practice then that is fine but if you want to be an army VN, go into research, teach, work for an animal welfare charity, or specialise in referral, then that is all possible now. And since the British VN qualification is well respected all over the world, there is a lot of opportunity to work overseas too. Not many jobs offer this much diversity!”

Hayley received very positive feedback and was approached by many of the new veterinary nurses afterwards who had aspirations to progress their career.

A donation to a charity of Hayley’s choice was given by the RCVS in return for her talking. Hayley chose Dogstar Foundation; a high welfare catch, neuter, vaccinate, return project for free roaming dogs in Sri Lanka.

Send a Veterinary Nurse to India Project gets underway

The nursing of patients whilst they are sick or recuperating in hospital is of huge importance for ensuring all their needs are met and that their welfare doesn’t suffer. Nursing doesn’t just involve giving medication, changing dirty bedding and providing food for an animal, it is also about ensuring the patient is treated as an individual and given everything it needs, not just for its physical wellbeing but also its mental wellbeing. Taking the time to comfort and befriend a frightened animal, or simply groom or play with a long term inpatient is just as important as keeping its intravenous fluids running or administering antibiotics.

 

Sadly, in many countries, the nursing of animals is low down on the hospital’s priorities and many animals are left unintentionally neglected. Little time is spent observing the animal and therefore changes in behaviour, which could indicate pain or fear, go unnoticed. The opportunity to toilet out of the kennel area is often not given, tipped over water bowls go unreplenished, uneaten food may be summed up as in appetence rather than a preference for something else, soiled bedding (if provided) remains unchanged and behavioural needs, such as hiding, are overlooked. The animal becomes nothing more than a ‘tick list’ of duties rather than an individual character with preferences and personal needs.

In November this year JMICAWE’s Hayley Walters and Heather Bacon will be taking 8 student veterinary nurses from Edinburgh Napier University to 2 vet schools in Kerala in India to promote the value and importance of veterinary nursing. Over the course of 2 weeks the student veterinary nurses will help to demonstrate how good nursing improves patient care which in turn speeds up recovery times due to the provision of a comfortable environment, good nutrition, appropriate pain relief and lots of TLC.

The ‘India expedition team’ met up last month for a team building day at The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, which involved a tour of the small animal hospital, presentations from Hayley, Heather and the student nurses, an interactive problem solving session and appropriately finished with a meal in an Indian restaurant in Edinburgh.

The long term plan for this project is to not only improve patient welfare through the caring profession but to eventually develop a veterinary nursing curriculum and qualification at the 2 vet schools in Kerala; something which will be of great value to the vets, veterinary students and, most importantly, the animals, when it happens.

 

 

2nd Regional Meeting of Animal Welfare Groups in The Balkans

JMICAWE veterinary nurse Hayley Walters has recently returned from Croatia after presenting at the 2nd regional meeting of animal welfare experts in the Balkans.

 

The committee  was created last year by Alex Hammond Seaman of RSPCA International and Tomislav Mikus  of the Croatian Veterinary Institute and is the beginnings of a network and forum for sharing knowledge and experiences from different sectors and stakeholders across 8 different non EU member countries; Croatia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia , Albania and Kosovo. The meeting was attended by vets, OIE staff members, laboratory animal research/welfare scientists, animal behaviourists, veterinary lecturers, European commission members, NGOs and those involved in Dog Population Management.

Hayley spoke of the relevance of animal welfare in veterinary education and the challenges for the future. Since the integration of JMICAWE and our increase in animal welfare education into the curriculum over the last 4 years, research has shown that our students now show more empathy and recognise higher levels of sentience in animals as opposed to findings from research carried out pre 2011. Hayley also spoke about the importance of using models and manikins instead of live animals in teaching clinical and surgical skills. Research has shown that 91% of students who are taught clinical skills on animal alternatives, such as models and manikins, rated their learning experience equal or superior to learning on a live teaching animal.

This information was well received by the 40 strong audience and interest was shown by both Serbian and Slovenian vets who still use live teaching animals in their teaching and would like JMICAWE to run a ‘Train the Trainer’ workshop in their vet schools.

Hayley said, “It was wonderful to see so many passionate animal welfare experts, from so many different countries who were freely volunteering their time to speak or attend, altogether in the same room. The Balkan region has a long, sad history of wars where human welfare has been compromised but now the time is here for attention to be turned to improving animal welfare through collaborative efforts”.

It’s a very new committee that is a work in progress but it’s a platform where Balkan member countries can meet to avoid duplication of the same animal welfare mistakes from the past, share expertise and collaborate on a regional level.