Davies hosts networking day for Veterinary Nurses
Davies Veterinary Specialists played host to local vet nurses at its exclusive networking event in Higham Gobion, Hertfordshire on Saturday. The occasion was held to celebrate Veterinary Nursing Awareness Month (VNAM).
The day began with refreshments in the lecture theatre, giving attendees a chance to meet the team and watch a short presentation about nursing at Davies. A representative from a selection of our services then held a short talk on how the nurses are involved in their specific discipline, what their role entails and examples of interesting cases. The lectures were informal yet bespoke to the nurses and gave the attendees a real insight into the working ethos and caseload at Davies.
Charlene Oosthuizen, Patient Care Supervisor then gave a talk on the three main areas in which Davies nurses work on rotation:
- Veterinary Nurses (VNs) play an essential role in the care of patients and are the backbone of the specialist veterinary team. Our VNs are skilled in undertaking a range of diagnostic tests, medical treatments and minor surgical procedures. Our nurses also advise on the best care for the patient throughout recovery. At Davies our dedicated nurses work in three main areas:
- Diagnostics: Assisting with everything from the diagnostic imaging of critically ill emergency cases, to routine follow-up radiographs, as well as working with advanced diagnostic equipment.
- Patient Care: VNs have an important job, ensuring that all the patients under our care have a comfortable and smooth recovery and managing and monitoring treatments.
- Theatres: Working as part of a theatre team, which includes the anaesthesia team and specialist surgeons. VNs work on many varied and interesting cases, including:
- Ophthalmology
- Spinal surgery
- Soft Tissue surgery (including thoracotomies and laparoscopies)
- Orthopaedic procedures (including fractures, TPLOs and total hip replacements)
Ronan Doyle, Head of Soft Tissue Surgery at Davies said:
“Days like today are an excellent opportunity for us to explain how we work as a team to prepare for cases – everything from receiving a referral phone call to briefing client care, the theatre team, anaesthesia right through to potential rehabilitation follow up in the Therapy and Fitness Centre – it’s nursing throughout the spectrum.”
Ian Battersby, Director and Specialist in Small Animal Internal Medicine continued:
“Our networking days give us the chance to get to know industry colleagues and help them understand what working at Davies is all about. We are a friendly team and whilst we work to the highest possible standards we are approachable and we offer incredible support and development for all our nurses.”
Caroline Cownie, an SVN who attended the event, said,
“Coming to Davies today has been a fantastic opportunity for me to understand what specialisms are available and what opportunities and routes there are for me. It’s been great to understand what experience I could gain at a referral hospital like Davies. A really interesting day for all of us – thank you.”
A Quick Q and A with Suzanne Knight, Head of HR at Davies:
So tell us a bit about the day?
We arranged an informal networking day firstly to support National Nurse Awareness Month and secondly so we can really get to know the nurses out there and tell them more about what we do, and who we are. We have the very best world-renowned specialists working here at Davies dealing with the most challenging cases. While we are not a training hospital, we really want the nurses out there to see how cohesive, collaborative and friendly our teams are. The nurses are so well supported and encouraged to learn and take responsibility and we really wanted the opportunity to showcase this side of our culture – it’s an excellent place to learn and grow as a nurse.
Will you be holding more of these days in the future?
Yes. The day was educational and insightful and the feedback represented this. The attendees were all extremely positive and those we spoke to individually said that they had really enjoyed the day. Charlene, our Patient Care Nurse Supervisor, and I were able to sit down and speak to the nurses after they had networked with our specialists and nursing team to get to know them. I now have a number of students with whom I will be keeping in touch, keeping in mind they may like to join Davies once they are qualified. We‘ll most certainly be organising more events.
See our Nursing recruitment page to find out more about veterinary nursing opportunities at Davies.