ANA'S - advice please

Re: ANA'S - advice please

Honeybadger — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 20:35:43 GMT

ohh, formatting went a bit crazy there - sorry!

Re: ANA'S - advice please

Honeybadger — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 20:33:30 GMT

In January 2006, following concerns expressed by the Practice Standards Working

Group and others, the Advisory Committee decided that further evidence was

needed to justify advice that only veterinary nurses

should assist with the

monitoring and maintenance of anaesthesia, and recognised that any advice must

be practicable.

3) Therefore, the advice on the monitoring and maintenance of anaesthesia remained

as follows;

a) Inducing anaesthesia by administration of specific quantity of medicine

directed by a veterinary surgeon may be carried out by a veterinary nurse

or,

with supervision, a student veterinary nurse

2, but not

any other person.

b) Administering medicine incrementally or to effect, to induce and maintain

anaesthesia may be carried out only by a veterinary surgeon.

c) Maintaining anaesthesia is the responsibility of a veterinary surgeon, but a

suitably trained person may assist by acting as the veterinary surgeon’s hands

(to provide assistance which does not involve practising veterinary surgery), for

example, by moving dials.

d) Monitoring a patient during anaesthesia and the recovery period is the

responsibility of the veterinary surgeon, but may be carried out on his or her

behalf by a suitably trained person.

e) The most suitable person to assist a veterinary surgeon to monitor and

maintain anaesthesia is a veterinary nurse

or, under supervision, a student

veterinary nurse

Re: ANA'S - advice please

checksue — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 01:44:49 GMT

thanks for all the advice guys,much appreciated

Re: ANA'S - advice please

zookeeper — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:51:38 GMT

I am a Qualified ANA, I am now a 2nd year Student nurse. I had to gain the ANA qualification as I did not have the full required grades to go straight onto the VN course.

The colour uniform an ANA should wear is Burgandy colour (see BVNA website) as the ANA course used to be run by them before ABC took over. I am sure they still sell the official ANA uniform.

When I was an ANA i wasnt allowed to monitor GA's without a QVN standing with me etc. I was on reception and helped with the cleaning packaging kits etc. It wasnt until I progressed as a SVN that I was allowed to do more.

When you do qualify as an ANA, you can fax your certificate to the course provider which at the time was BVVA and they seny you the official ANA badge which I wear with pride!

Sarah -x-

Re: ANA'S - advice please

Rhiannon Hutton — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:46:03 GMT

A qualified ANA still shouldn't really be responsible for monitoring anaesthetics on their own however basic anaesthetic monitoring is part of the new CAW Veterinary Care Assistant curriculum so they learn a little bit of it during their course. I didn't cover much of it whien I did the ANA course through the BVNA but I think the course has changed since then.

The BVNA suggest that qualified ANA's wear burgandy. When I was an ANA, I got my uniform directly from the BVNA which had the BVNA logo on it. Not sure if they still do this though.

Re: ANA'S - advice please

Lauren R — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 22:18:50 GMT

Legally they are in the same position as a lay person... although legally anyone can monitor an anaesthetic, whether it's right or not is obviously debatable. I did ANA and you get a surprisingly broad knowledge of A&P, law & basic nursing, obviously not to the depth of the nursing qualifications but enough so you can comfortably do basic nursing.

When I was an ANA a lot of it was just decided on my confidence and experience. I did lots of cleaning & kits, holding animals, walking dogs, feeding (inc syringe feeding), oral meds (but not on own inititive reading off a hosp sheet, only when specifically asked to medicate that animal), drawing up drugs (not calculating, and they would always be checked) and quite a lot of lab work. When I was more confident and just before moving onto be an SVN I started doing s/c & i/m injections (supervised), assisting with radiographs & monitoring cat castrates and the odd (healthy) sedation (with the vet keeping a close eye too). It made the transition to SVN much smoother :)

Re: ANA'S - advice please

Eira Davies — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 07:36:08 GMT

Im sure ive read that the only people that are legally able to offer nursing care to animals are RVN's and those who are registered with the RCVS as student nurses. Therefore, ANA's legally cannot do much :( I assume that an ANA does most of the cleaning bless them, walks the dogs, and feeds patients, but cannot give meds etc. Hope this helps xx

Re: ANA'S - advice please

Stuart McQueen RVN MBVNA — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 07:03:09 GMT

I think you should probably check with the RCVS.

But personally the only person I would want monitoring my animal under GA would be a qualified nurse.

Giving responsibility like that to an ANA (in my opinion) takes away the idea of the professional status that veterinary nurses want... if an ANA can do it, whats to stop a ACA or a receptionist... if trained in the right way! Just my opinion! ;-)