Every patient we see is a precious part of someone’s family who entrust them into our care.
Having experienced pain, I am privileged to work in referral where I have the opportunity to work solely within the anaesthesia and analgesia discipline, and experience advanced levels of treatment to these beloved companions. I feel very lucky to have mentoring from veterinary specialists within this field.
Anaesthesia and analgesia are a crucial part in all aspects of veterinary
investigations. Having the skills and facilities to deliver the best possible care to reduce pain and suffering as well as a safer, better managed sedation or anaesthesia is fundamental.
I have always been amazed by the power of chemicals and how they work. Learning the different approaches such as nerve blocks, multi-modal analgesia, blood gas analysis and other various techniques available to ultimately reduce pain and stress to our patients is not only is better for the animal, but provides job satisfaction to myself.
As part of the RCVS consultation for the veterinary surgeons act revision 2021, it hopes to enhance vet-led delegation of certain roles to paraprofessionals including VNs, extending the VN’s role in anaesthesia and enable us to carry out more procedures such as the possibility of a prescriber role.
This would be great for my role as we could become more involved in routine procedures and problem solve with better haste, ultimately assisting in high-level care to the patients and distribution of workload.
Nurses play a key role in patient care and being given the opportunity to be more active within anaesthesia and analgesia, I feel that we as VNs would provide nurturing and forward planning considerations for the patient’s specific needs during their stay in the hospital.
