VNJ Articlesawareness of the vn roleclient educationfeaturespreventative healthcareveterinary team
23 August 2022
Your transforming role in preventative healthcare by John Helps
ABSTRACT: Veterinary nurses can play a key role in preventative healthcare and this should be highlighted to clients and veterinary surgeons during VN Awareness Month. In collaboration with University of Nottingham’s Centre for Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine, MSD Animal Health’s Keeping Britain’s Pets Healthy initiative was launched. The project revealed that neither owners nor veterinary surgeons were completely confident about what services veterinary nurses could provide. As the veterinary nursing title is not protected in the UK it is not possible to determine how many of the staff described as “veterinary nurses” were actually registered veterinary nurses. A key conclusion is that there is an urgent need for further understanding and clarity of the roles and responsibilities of nurses within small animal practices. The two-year project resulted in guidelines being created for practices to consider throughout the preventative healthcare experience of clients. An important key theme identified was the role that veterinary nurses and receptionists play in educating and engaging clients in preventative healthcare.
Author
John Helps BVetMed CertSAM MRCVS
John graduated from the Royal Veterinary College in 1990 and worked in mixed and small animal practice, developing a wide interest in internal medicine and obtaining a CertSAM in 2001. In 2003 he joined what was then Intervet in a technical role as veterinary advisor, supporting the company’s broad product portfolio.Today he has a broad interest in preventative healthcare and remains the GB technical manager for MSD’s Nobivac Companion Animal Vaccine range as well as the Pet Diabetes portfolio.
Email: john.helps@merck.com
Keywords: preventative healthcare; veterinary team; awareness of the VN role; client education
To cite this article: Veterinary Nursing Journal • VOL 35 (05) • May 2020 • pp142-143
To gain access to this article, select one of the links below: