Veterinary Nursing whilst pregnant

Re: Veterinary Nursing whilst pregnant

millza — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 09:04:45 GMT

Better than I expected it to. Didnt really go through much but I know it anyway, wil still do anaesthetics but only closed and be more careful with xrays etc, general common sense and helping me lift the animals.

Re: Veterinary Nursing whilst pregnant

Tracy Windler RVN — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 18:23:04 GMT

How did it go with your boss?

Re: Veterinary Nursing whilst pregnant

Helen Fulleylove — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 21:58:03 GMT

Congrats on your pregnancy!

Having been through 2 pregnancies whilst Vet Nursing, I can say that its a challenge but not impossible. You'll need to sit down with the person responsible for H&S in your practice and discuss a risk assessment. This should be a 2 way process and take into account not only the obvious things like radiography, anaesthesia, tetragenic drugs, lifting heavy weights, but the less obvious things like the cleaning litter trays, increased rest breaks, emotional pressures (hormones) nausea, manual handling, lone working, aggressive patients....

As a general rule, I carried on nursing but did not:

Lift anything heavier than 10kgs (15kg absolute tops as your joints get soft and your centre of gravity shifts)

Enter the Xray room when the machine was switched on ( I did assist an SVN with positioning for Hip Score Xrays with the machine off)

Do any anaesthesia without a good scavenging system or anaesthesia involving masks

Lone working

Handle drugs without gloves

Handle patients with potential zoonoses

Handle aggressive patients ( I was bitten by a stroppy cat early in my first preg and the doc couldn't give me the ab's he wanted to as I was pregnant and it got really infected even though I was on penicillin!)

The rest is just common sense and good hygiene really , And I made sure I took a short break when my body told me to - you don't have to do nothing, just a sitting down job for 10 mins to recharge your batteries. I was fortunate not to have been the only VN in the practice but occasionally found myself being the only VN in the building and had to get the vets to help each other and get help from reception staff when I was really stuck. Your employer may find they have to employ an extra pair of hands on a temporary basis at least, particularly as you'll be needing time off for antenatal appointments which will become more frequent as you get closer to the end of your pregnancy.

Hope you manage to get everything sorted - your employer should also review your situation at least twice during your pregnancy as your needs may change as the pregnancy progresses.

Helen x

Re: Veterinary Nursing whilst pregnant

millza — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 08:30:51 GMT

Thank-you very much for your replies, it has eased my mind, I shall be telling my boss on saturday as its nice and quiet and may be a bit of a shock to him, lol.

Re: Veterinary Nursing whilst pregnant

Tracy Windler RVN — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 19:18:38 GMT

Congratulations! I know it can seem impossible, but if you have the support of your employer, it shouldn't cause too many problems. I was essentially the only nurse at a one-vet practice and although I went on maternity leave quite early (30 weeks), it didn't have to be a problem before that. You can lift things, but do it sensibly (lifting will not damage your baby, but you are more likely to suffer strains etc, as your ligaments loosen during pregnancy) and like others have said, stay away from anaesthetics without adequate scavenging or intubation. Also, you shouldn't top-up the isoflurane

Any teratogenic drugs should be avoided totally (these should already be handled with gloves, such as griseofulvin-if you still use it) as well as cytotoxic drugs. I was told to wear gloves with steroids and spot-ons, but using gloves as a rule is easier.

The obvious care with cat and dog faeces to prevent toxoplasmosis infection, but it must be pretty difficult to get it, as I tested negative for exposure!

To be honest, the worst thing I found was hoovering and mopping etc. I think the twisting and turning, while bending continually, was much harsher on my back than lifting the odd 20kg dog!

But do tell your employer asap, so that they can put risk assessments in place. And try not to worry- its a magical experience and the health of you and your baby are more important than work xx

Re: Veterinary Nursing whilst pregnant

Steph Worsley — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 17:52:33 GMT

Congrats

as the other guys have said tell your boss ASAP so they can perform risk assessments (which should be constantly revised throughout your pregnancy as things can and will change)

I'd wear gloves when handling all meds to be on the safe side.

You shouldn't be lifting 25kg anyway, the maximum amount a woman should be lifting on her own is 15kg and a bloke can lift 20kg.......I know no one really pays attention to this but how may of us end up suffering with bad backs because of it!!!!

Re: Veterinary Nursing whilst pregnant

Julie-Anne Wilson — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 14:54:51 GMT

[quote user="Nicola Jamieson"]

your practice manager/boss should do a risk assessment with you

[/quote]

That's the words!!! Don't you just hate when you have a total brain fart over the simplest things?

Re: Veterinary Nursing whilst pregnant

Nicola Jamieson — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 14:51:08 GMT

Firstly congratulations on your pregnancy.

Having never been pregnant i cannot really comment too much about all the ins and outs but i guess the sooner you tell your boss the easier it will be given there is only a small team they will be able to help you more with some of the tasks that you cannot do. I understand with scans etc that you might want to wait. That decision can only be made by you.

As far as i remember from colleagues being pregnant your practice manager/boss should do a risk assessment with you which would identify areas that are going to cause issues for you e.g. working with the anaesthetic gases and doing xrays.

Re: Veterinary Nursing whilst pregnant

Julie-Anne Wilson — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 14:45:46 GMT

From what I gather, you should tell your boss ASAP so a hazard something-or-other can be done (I'm not in the legalities side so can't remember the name of these things, LOL). Basically, you should go round each individual area of the practice and list anything hazardous in that area.

But the sooner your boss knows the easier it'll be on you. If you try and not tell them you'll have to start thinking up reasons for why you can't do this or that.

Anaesthetic wise, as long as your scavenging system is safe, you should be fine doing closed anaesthetics. Open anaesthetics are a definite no-go. Again, you and your boss have to come up with a list of hazards in the practice and you can't do anything seen as hazardous.