Dear Reader

There is so much to talk about this month! Pour yourself a brew, get comfortable and I thoroughly hope that you enjoy reading this month’s issue of the VNJ.

It is just around the corner! You know what I am talking about, Veterinary Nursing Awareness Month (VNAM)! What do you have planned? There were lots of amazing photographs and short videos provided to help celebrate the month-long campaign last year. In this month’s issue of the VNJ, there is an article outlining the history of the campaign and how you can get involved. The theme this year is ‘Where can your RVN qualification take you?’

Whilst I am excited about VNAM, I am equally excited about the launch of Research Bites! Research is at the heart of decisions we make in the veterinary profession whether that be in practice, education or industry. One of the exciting aspects of our profession is that things never stand still. New products and protocols are brought into the workplace often because curious people ask questions, collect data, analyse the results which contribute to a better understanding of the topic, raise more questions (this is often the case!), help to develop a new product or allow us to tweak our current protocols to better support animals, our colleagues and/or owners. If you have been bitten by the research bug and are excited about sharing your research methodology and results, please consider Research Bites! Research bites will provide you with a platform to present a bite-sized summary of your research to your peers at BVNA Congress in the form of poster and oral presentations.

nurses in last month’s VNJ, returns with a follow up article, that will help you to put leadership theory into practice. Jordan Mitchell and Danielle Gunn-Moore have provided an update and summary of mycobacterial infections in cats and dogs including current recommendations for diagnosis and treatment. Emma Clifford shares a case study of a dog which had a reaction to ioversol whilst undergoing CT. In addition, we have an article from a team of researchers (Anne Carter, Aleksandra Dimitrova and Emily Hall) working at Nottingham Trent University who have been researching the use of non-contact infrared thermometers compared to rectal thermometers in horses.

Samantha Morgan (BVNA SVP) had kindly reviewed Helen Ballantyne’s webinar on nursing care plans. I hope that you find the take home messages and Sam’s reflection on this webinar useful. I personally found the last section of Sam’s reflection very interesting and it resonated with me a lot. Do you agree?

Last but by no means least, registration for BVNA Congress 2019 is now open! I have been working closely with the Learning & Development committee to provide a programme with practical learning outcomes to be applied in your workplace. I will be providing a workshop on how to write an article for the VNJ with Taylor & Francis. I hope to meet some of our readers during this workshop, through Research Bites or at some other point during congress. BVNA Fringe will be returning with discussions on a wide range of topics. The social programme will feature a ‘Night at the movies’ quiz and a ‘Night at the races’ on Friday evening followed by ‘Hollywood Movie Premiere’ themed Saturday night event. For more information about BVNA Congress, please visit the BVNA website: www.bvnacongress.co.uk

Author

Stacey Blease BVSc MVetSci PhD MRCVS Editor-in-chief

VOL 34 • April 2019 • Veterinary Nursing Journal