Dear Reader

Welcome to the November edition of the VNJ. As I write this the rain is battering the windows and the nights are drawing in ever more. What better excuse than to curl up in a feline manner for half an hour with a cuppa and enjoy your brand new copy of the VNJ hot off the press.

I sincerely hope that you enjoyed congress as much as we did and that you were inspired by the increasing level of evidence based lectures. It’s certainly not too early to think about looking ahead to next year and booking your spot for what promises to be another amazing scientific programme. We will be featuring some of the presented abstracts from the conference over the next few months so keep your eyes peeled and enjoy these research snippets if you didn’t manage to attend them. VNJ held a writing workshop at BVNA again this year in the hope of inspiring budding writers to have a go and begin to think about formulating articles for the journal but if you missed this then please refer back to the October edition of the journal for hints and tips to help put pen to paper.

Whilst reviewing the proofs for this month’s journal, and reading with interest the clinical articles on pain assessment, nursing the artificial airway patient and the research paper on recognition of fear aggression, I have been struck by the increasing evidence base that is being presented in our journal. It is truly commend-able that we are seeing more nurses willing to write these clinical articles and publish their literature reviews and research projects. This was certainly part of my own vision for the journal and I am delighted at how this is progressing.

This month I have also particularly enjoyed the more personal and practical approach in our ‘cat friendly’ feature article. I would like to see some more practical feature articles, especially aimed at our students and newly registered nurses. So if you have any ideas then please do contact us with ideas even if you feel unable to write these yourself. As an editorial team we actually receive little feedback on the journal from our readers and it would be great to hear from you regarding your views on the journal and what you might like to see.

I hope you enjoy this edition of the journal as much as I have and manage to have that well-earned cuppa and time to read it cover to cover. Don’t forget to have a go at the multiple choice questions.

Author

Sam McMillan BSc(Hons) VTS(Anesthesia/Analgesia) DipAVN RVN Editor-in-Chief

DOI: 10.1080/17415349.2016.1238669

VOL 31 • November 2016 • Veterinary Nursing Journal