Page 2 - Clinical Connections Summer 2016

RVC RESEARCH STUDY VETERINARY SERVICES RVC.AC.UK
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
A key goal for the RVC’s teaching
hospitals is to contribute to the advancement of knowledge and skills
in clinical practice, and this edition
of Clinical Connections features
new and innovative services offered through our teaching hospitals for the bene t of animals, owners, veterinary professionals and students.The delivery of groundbreaking initiatives frequently requires investment in facilities and equipment; the scale of investment in our clinical facilities across the species is obvious to anyone visiting us at either campus, development of the QMHA referred to in these pages being just
one example.
The most important factor though in delivering the best possible veterinary care, is the quality and dedication of
our clinical teams, and it’s therefore particularly pleasing that our efforts in small animal and services have been recognised as “outstanding” in every area so far assessed under the new RCVS PSS Awards Scheme, and that the RVC has also received an award for Excellence in Faculty Development from leaders in healthcare education around the world.
One nal thought in this edition borrowed from our Principal: Staff and students from all over the UK and the world contribute to this great institution’s success: everyone is welcome here. #RVCisOpen.”
Graham Milligan,
Vice Principal (Clinical Services)
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drive to self-improve and ensure that patients receive the highest quality of care whenever they need it. As these are very much aligned with RVC Small Animal Referrals’ service, it was only natural that we sought to become a recognised Level I VTC.”
There are currently 26 VTCs, most of which are located in North America. There are currently fewer than 10 Level I VTCs in the world, and the RVC joins an elite group of leading hospitals to be designated as such.
RVNs are a vital element of ECC at RVC Small Animal Referrals where Belinda Andrews-Jones VTS (ECC) DipAVN (Surg) RVN PgDip Vet
Ed FHEA is Senior Emergency and Critical CareVeterinary Nurse and Clinical Educator. Belinda specialises in emergency medicine and was the rst RVN in England to gain the acclaimedVeterinaryTechnician Specialist (VTS) quali cation.
“Nurses at RVC Small Animal Referrals have a different role to those in most rst opinion practices. RVNs here each chose a speciality they want to focus on. We have many nurse speciality departments but we all t together like a big puzzle to care for all of the patients, and their very varied diseases and conditions. Specialising within nursing ensures that the patients received the best nursing care from specialised nurses, allowing nurses
to do the nursing they love and have passion for, this then allows the nurses to develop their knowledge and skills in the area they enjoy.”
One of those specialities is the Emergency and Critical Care Department (ECC), where all ECC
nurses work in both areas of emergency which includes dealing with trauma cases and critical care, both areas t together, basically dealing with really sick patients where their condition can change rapidly.
“I have been specialised in ECC
for 14 years since the service started. My VTS quali cation hugely helped increase my knowledge and skill
set within my specialised eld.We
now have VTS specialised nurses in Anaesthesia, surgery and another in ECC, many more are working towards this quali cation or other specialised quali cations. It was a requirement for the hospital to have two VTS quali ed nurses in ECC in order to gain the Level 1 Trauma Centre status. Having such a strong clinical nursing team with VTS quali cations across so many areas was an important factor in the hospital gaining the Level1 Trauma Centre recognition.
EMERGENCY REFERRALS
Emergency Referrals sees over 2000 cases annually and our First Opinion Emergency sees another 2,000 cases. The trauma centre sees trauma cases from all services:
■ Emergency Referrals
■ First Opinion Emergencies,
Orthopaedics,
■ Soft Tissue Surgery,
■ Ophtho and Neurology.
An “Emergency” can come via any service but the bulk are seen by Emergency Referrals.
02 Summer 2016