Qualifications Needed

Arlo Guthrie — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:00:37 GMT

Current Revision posted to The Practice Survival Guide by Arlo Guthrie on 1/7/2009 7:00:37 PM

Nurses' clinics are best run by trained, experienced personnel with an excellent knowledge of the majority of subjects and procedures listed under the "Pet Healthcare Adviser Service" heading.

That is not to say that student VNs should be excluded. Provided adequate training is given, a competent trainee can be put in charge of weight reduction, new pet acquisition and home dental care appointments.

Whoever runs nurses' clinics, it is very important that they have the common sense to ask a senior member of staff or veterinary surgeon for advice and help when it is needed.

Training need not be formal, although there are 2 excellent courses available:

The Pet Health Counsellor's Course - run by Waltham
The Veterinary Healthcare Adviser Course - run by Hills

The Hills course is available as a correspondence course, or as a weekend seminar. In addition, Hills also offers a series of nutritional adviser courses that are extremely useful to any nurses involved in running clinics.

A senior member of staff should discuss with each nurse the procedures to be undertaken within the clinics and ensure that further training is available if required.

It is important that there is sufficient staff cover to allow the nurse time to organise and run the clinic - helping the veterinary surgeon with an emergency case whilst running a nursing clinic is physically impossible! It is also important to have back up to cover emergencies, sickness and holiday leave.