A new project has been launched to celebrate and enhance the careers of equine veterinary nurses. Project NURSE’s initial phase involves a public survey aiming to discover how horse owners feel about equine veterinary nurses visiting yards to carry out certain procedures.
Created by VetPartners Equine Nursing and Client Communication Special Interest Groups, with support from the Equine Clinical Board and Clinical Board Support Team, it has received approval from the RCVS ethics board.
Project NURSE stands for Nurturing and Utilising REVN Skills and Experience, and follows VetPartners receiving feedback from its nurses on how they would like their roles to evolve.
Phillippa Pritchard (pictured below and top), an equine veterinary nurse and training manager at Liphook Equine Hospital, one of VetPartners’ practices, has been awarded a £1,000 grant by MSD Animal Health to promote the survey and is helping lead Project NURSE on behalf of VetPartners.
“REVNs have an important role to play in equine practices and hospitals, but many nurses would welcome the opportunity to be more involved in yard visits and put their skills to the best possible use,” she said. “There are many procedures we are qualified to do, including changing wound dressings, taking blood samples and administering prescribed doses of sedation, and by making more use of these skills we feel we would be able to help our practices provide an even better service to patients and clients.
“I also believe that having more interaction with owners and their horses would have a positive impact on job retention because equine nurses would be more fulfilled in their role and feel they have opportunities to develop their careers.”
VetPartners equine director Julian Rishworth added: “Our central ethos revolves around practices being a great place to work and striving for clinical excellence. Equine veterinary nurses are such an integral part of practice teams and if we don’t allow them to fully use their skills and fulfil their potential we are failing the team, our clients, their horses and our own group aspirations.”
The survey should take around 10 minutes to complete. Responses are anonymous, but respondents can choose to have their details entered into a prize draw to win £100 of Love2Shop vouchers.
To find out more and access the surveys visit https://vetpartners.co.uk/project-nurse-recognising-and-enabling-veterinary-nurses-skills/
