RE: District Veterinary Nurse - Thoughts

apache — Tue, 07 Aug 2018 19:21:28 GMT

Erm, am I missing something? Why can't nurses currently do this role as part of their practice duties? When qualified I will have our nurse do all those things you list. As long as working as part of a vet practice/under some nominal direction of a vet then a VN can do everything schedule 3 allows. I would not be supportive of them doing these things without that support and back up.

An insurance company should pay when such a model of care is deemed most cost effective. In humans there is a humanitarian need to get patients home (also pressure on beds), we don't have that in the same way in vet medicine. It is vastly less efficient traveling around seeing animals and therefor it has to cost more. Should the insurance company pay for the nurse to call in 3 times a day to administer eye drops? I tend to think not. It's going to be crappy working hours giving tablets every 8 or 12 hours, we generally get owners to give things like Maxitrol drops 4-6 times per day.

I'd suggest creating some kind of boarding fee at the surgery with a charge for administering each treatment may work, but the vast majority of owners do manage at home very well.

[quote user="Ben Ogden"]post surgery nursing plans[/quote]

No one should be doing surgery on an animal without putting that in place themselves. It requires liaison with the surgeon. I'd say it would be gross negligence sending a patient home without that in place.