VetNurse.co.uk has today officially launched the new Small Animal Diagnostic Imaging GroupVetNurse.co.uk has today officially launched the new Small Animal Diagnostic Imaging Group, where all veterinary diagnostic imaging news, discussions, clinical reference photographs and CPD will now be found under one roof.

The diagnostic imaging group is one of a number of special interest groups being launched on VetNurse.co.uk in the coming months which ALL members are invited to come and join.

The new groups make it much easier to find and follow content that interests you. More than that, they bring together members with a shared interest in the subject, thereby facilitating the sharing of information, experience and knowledge.

To that end, each group will have a number of 'expert contributors' who dip in from time to time and help out where they can. I'm delighted to welcome Nick Shackleton FdSc PgCert Dip AVN (Surgical) RVN as our first Diagnostic Imaging Expert Contributor. 

As elsewhere on VetNurse.co.uk, reading content in the new groups or participating in discussions can count towards a VetNurse.co.uk CPD certificate. Just press 'Claim CPD' at the top of the page, then collect the record and certificate from your profile.

The new groups have been set up in order to offer veterinary nurses a more valuable online discussion tool than Facebook. In particular:

  • On Facebook, posts are displayed chronologically, so what you see is largely defined by the time you arrived. On VetNurse, posts are displayed by title, making it much easier to pick out the discussions you want to participate in.

  • On Facebook, you usually have no idea whether the person you are 'talking to' has any idea what they are talking about, unless they are a 'friend' and you can see their profile. Even then, you can probably only see that they have a cat and like to wear a silly hat when skiing. On VetNurse.co.uk, professional profiles are visible to all logged in members of the site.

  • On Facebook, discussions are threaded, which means replies to replies are collapsed and you have to expand them to reveal what was said. This makes it near impossible to refer back and find who said what, when. Importantly, that also means that when experts share something useful, it is too easily lost, where on VetNurse, discussions - and the information they contain - are far more enduring.

  • Lastly, whilst you can theoretically claim time spent sharing on Facebook towards your CPD requirement, who has the inclination to record it? On VetNurse, it's as easy as clicking the 'Claim CPD' button, and you get a certificate at the end, together with an auditable list of the discussions you have contributed to, or the content you have read.

The bottom line is that for general chat, Facebook is great. But if you have questions about specific clinical disciplines, VetNurse is where you'll find better answers, quicker, and VetNurse is where you can claim it towards your annual CPD requirement.

So, with no further ado, you are all invited to come and join Nick in the Diagnostic Imaging Group. You'll need to login to the site, then press the 'Join' button top left of the Diagnostic Imaging home page (on mobile phones you may need to rotate your phone to landscape). You may also want to subscribe to the weekly (or daily) digest of new content added to the group.

PS: Whilst you're here, take a moment to see our latest job opportunities for vet nurses.