Celebrating RVNs at VVS
Suzanne Emptage RVN
VVS Referral Coordinator
Here at VVS we pride ourselves on being at the forefront of clinical excellence in the Veterinary field, by supporting Veterinary Surgeons and Nurses in first opinion practice and enabling them to have access to Veterinary Specialists like an extension of their clinical team.
One of the ways we support practices is we provide an interactive scanning experience using patented technology, allowing Vets and Nurses to collaborate with Specialists in their own practice. Ultrasound examinations have traditionally been carried out by Veterinary Surgeons, but in recent years, there has been an increase in the number of Veterinary Nurses who have been keen to get involved, and VVS are delighted to be working alongside some incredible RVN’s who are really enjoying scanning with us.
Any RVNs wanting to perform live-guided ultrasound examinations and consultations alongside our specialists at VVS, are required to have completed the VVS Ultrasound CPD, this will allow them to get the most out of the experience, and also maximises the benefit to the patient and practice. All cases are delegated to RVNs by their veterinary surgeon and the patient remains under the care of the veterinary surgeon throughout the consultation.
For details of the CPD, please contact a member of the VVS team at [email protected] and we will be happy to provide further information.
To find out a little bit more about RVN’s working alongside VVS for VVS live-guided ultrasound consultations, we chatted to the very lovely Liz, who is head RVN at Medivet Waltham Abbey.
Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions!
Can you tell us a little bit about your RVN Journey so far?
I qualified in 2021 after an extra 18 months as a student (Thanks, Covid!) and stepped fully into my role as Head Nurse at our Waltham Abbey clinic in Essex. After I’d settled in for a year or two I wanted to learn a skill that would be useful for the clinic and give me a more active role clinically. I’ve always found imaging fascinating, but particularly ultrasonography.
How has working alongside VVS helped your practice and your patients?
Simply put, the team at VVS are just fantastic. So friendly and helpful, right through from the referral coordinators to the specialists themselves. We are lucky enough to have our own VVS set up & ultrasound at Waltham Abbey which means we do not have to transport our patients to our amazing colleagues at our Enfield 24hr centre like we did prior. Clients love that we can provide a referral level service from their regular clinic and that their pet will be in a familiar environment. Having our own set up also means for our more critical or emergency patients we can investigate and stabilise through the emergency referral service without having to worry about transporting. Keeping the client with us internally improves the client practice bond through continuity of care.
Prior to your first VVS scan, had you scanned much in practice?
Before I started doing VVS scans I had been doing emergency triage abdominal or thoracic POCUS scans for my clinic looking for common critical illnesses; Pyometra, Pleural effusion, Ruptured spleens etc, but these were very much quick surveillance scans to assist the treating vet in completing a triage for critical patients. Prior to starting POCUS scans I had done a practical day POCUS course for RVNS and an online theory course aimed at vets & RVNS.
How do you find the experience of scanning alongside one of the VVS specialists? How has it helped your scanning skills?
Previously the scans I had been performing were cursory scans to look for the obvious medical emergencies as I mentioned above but when you scan with one of the lovely VVS team it is a full and comprehensive scan looking at the whole picture and is definitely a test of your fine motor skills! The diagnostic quality of my images has come a long way since starting to scan with VVS, not just my ability but even just the advice on how to ‘drive’ your ultrasound machine to get the absolute most out of your image. I hope to keep improving under their guidance!
What advice would you give to another RVN who is interested in scanning?
Do it! In some ways there are so many clinical things we can do for our patients but we are so limited in others. Take every opportunity you can get to gain more skills especially if you are blessed like I am with such a supportive team who give us the space to carve out our little niche areas of interest. Join your vets when they scan and ask lots of questions so you can identify organs and structures; My 24hr team very kindly let me shadow their scanning vets on my day off so that I could pester them with questions and make sense of the black and white blobs that you see on the screen!
What is the best thing about being a veterinary nurse?
Feeling like I’m making a difference, to our patients and clients is what keeps me going through the overtime and the emergencies and the difficult situations. We keep pushing and growing every year to learn more skills and provide better care and build stronger bonds as a team.
A huge thank you to Liz for speaking to us. We love to celebrate our RVN’s and extremely proud of the role that our own RVN’s do within VVS on our referral team and commercial team, but also all of the RVN’s that we get to work alongside in practice.
From booking the appointments, admitting the patients on the day, nursing them whilst in the practice, placing their intravenous catheters, clipping and prepping them, monitoring their sedation or anaesthetic or even doing the scans, you guys are amazing, and we are forever indebted to you.