Nursing Team

<h2>Nursing Team </h2>   <img src="../../pictures/0000/0269/nursing_long.jpg" alt="http://besupported-001.vm.brightbox.net/pictures/0000/0269/nursing_long.jpg" /> Our centre currently has more than 30 nurses and kennel assistants. Our nurses are led by Head Nurse, Emma Johnson and our Head of Training, Josey Killner. The nursing team is specifically trained for caring for severely ill, traumatised and debilitated patients and giving them all the surgical and medical care they require prior to, during and after clinical investigations and surgery. <h4 style="padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: transparent; clear: both; color: #005398; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 20px; background-position: initial initial; border: 0px initial initial;">Emma Johnson <span style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 100%; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: transparent; color: #0083d7; font-weight: normal; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 10px; background-position: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">RVN, A1, Dip AVN (Medical)</h4> <img class="inline" style="float: left;" src="../../pictures/0000/0235/about-us_emma.jpg" alt="http://besupported-001.vm.brightbox.net/pictures/0000/0235/about-us_emma.jpg" />Emma joined Fitzpatrick referrals in 2006 as Head Surgical Nurse and has recently passed her diploma in medical nursing. She is now working towards her surgical diploma. Emma works tirelessly assisting the vets, nurses and kennel staff with inpatient care. She is in charge of all the nursing administration and the orders for the orthopaedic equipment to be used the following day. Monitoring anaesthetics and assisting with total hip surgery, training nursing staff and organising weekly nursing meetings are also an essential part of her job. She runs a very efficient team of dedicated nurses who are specifically trained to cope with often very complex, painful and debilitated cases in a calm and sympathetic but highly professional manner. <h4 style="padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: transparent; clear: both; color: #005398; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 20px; background-position: initial initial; border: 0px initial initial;">Josey Killner <span style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 100%; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: transparent; color: #0083d7; font-weight: normal; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 10px; background-position: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">DipAVN(surg) DipAVN(med) VN D32/33</h4> <img class="inline" style="float: left;" src="../../pictures/0000/0239/about-us_josie.jpg" alt="http://besupported-001.vm.brightbox.net/pictures/0000/0239/about-us_josie.jpg" />Josey qualified as a veterinary nurse in 1988. She continued to work in primary care practice for 22 years gaining the advanced diploma in surgical nursing (DipAVNsurg) and NVQ Assessor qualification in 2001. She then achieved the advanced diploma in medical nursing (DipAVNmed) in 2006. In 2007 she joined us at Fitzpatrick Referrals, as Head of Training. She enjoys all aspects of veterinary nursing, including caring for the in-patients, nutrition and wound management. Her main interests are in anaesthesia and analgesia and she is passionate about the training of student nurses and the continued development of qualified veterinary nurses.   <h4>A day in the life of a veterinary nurse at an orthopaedic referral practice</h4> It seems a lifetime ago that I worked in a primary care practice, even though I was there for 22years, and have only worked at Fitzpatrick Referrals for 18 months.  Life is very different here, and I still marvel at the size of the place as I drive towards the three, huge converted barns that are Fitzpatrick Referrals. The surgery is situated in the middle of farmland on the edge of the small Surrey town of Godalming.  <img class="inline" style="-webkit-user-select: none; float: left;" src="../../pictures/0000/0427/nursing6.jpg" alt="" />The day starts at 8am when the duty Kennel Nurse for the week completes a ward round with our Night Nurse. The Night Nurses do a wonderful job, caring for our inpatients overnight, ensuring analgesia is maintained and giving that ever important TLC to the dogs and cats that are missing home (often quite noisily!) The Nurses and Kennel Assistance get on with the job of walking the dogs, cleaning and medicating. Our Kennel Assistance’s are fantastic workers that, as part of their job, walk, feed, groom, clean and generally care for the inpatients, alongside the nurses and veterinary interns. They also have the courageous task of loading our huge, industrial washing machines and tumble dryers that are forever full of the ubiquitous dirty bedding! The futuristic kennel block is an amazing place, with large kennels coated in Corian to enable ‘proper’ cleaning, and with toughened glass doors so we can scribble details of the occupant directly onto them and wipe it all off later. Some kennels even boast a plasma screen TV. (slobber proof of course), whilst all kennels have a piped sound system and ‘mood’ lighting. Some of our nurses are thinking of moving in as, with the thick orthopaedic mattresses, frequent feeding and in-house media, it’s almost better than home.  After the veterinary surgeons ward round, the nursing of the inpatients starts in earnest.  Our patient’s have often serious, debilitating injuries such as multiple pelvic fractures, spinal injuries or elective surgeries such as Total Hip Replacements or TPLO’s (tibial plateau levelling osteotomies) which all require physiotherapy to assist and speed their recovery. Muscle wasting, joint stiffness and neurological injuries are common in the process of recovery.  We have two physiotherapists that work alongside the nursing staff and design individual plans for each of the patients. The nursing staff are trained to continue with the rehabilitation process and really enjoy this element of their job.  Some of the patients are booked for hydrotherapy sessions once there skin wounds have healed. The nursing staff accompany the dogs (and cats sometimes!) to the pool, often using specially made slings, to support them. The hydrotherapists don wetsuits for the pool and encourage the sometimes reluctant patient’s to enter the water down a gentle slope. Many of the patients benefit hugely from the hydrotherapy sessions, and it is a wonderful feeling when you see a dog that had no movement previously in their hind limbs, kicking out in the water. Once dried off they also look really cute with their Thermatex coats on! <img class="inline" style="float: left;" src="../../pictures/0000/0429/nursing7.jpg" alt="http://www.fitzpatrickreferrals.com/pictures/0000/0429/nursing7.jpg" />The Kennel Nurse continues with her work of medicating and caring for the inpatients whilst the rest of the nurses retreat to the prep room to organise the day’s surgeries. The prep room is a huge area with a central column that has four anaesthetic machines attached to it. Nurses and vets alike have been known to hide behind the column when they are being searched for! The nurses set up and damp dust each of the three operating theatres and then prepare kit for the scheduled surgeries. The amount of kit required for an orthopaedic operation is enormous. The tables used to hold the sterile kit are large enough to make any dining room proud! A lot of the equipment to be sterilised is large and boxed, requiring careful packing. We have three autoclaves at the practice, two of which are taller than me (I am only 5’ 3’’ but even so…) plus the usually table top variety for our delicate powered instruments and air hoses.   Patients begin to arrive for their 6 week post operative x-rays. These are generally carried out with the patient under domitor (medetomidine) and torburgesic (butorphenol).  We have direct digital radiography which means the image gets transferred immediately to a computer screen, where it can be centred, collimated and even have the exposure enhanced to better demonstrate bone or soft tissue. More importantly than all that is, of course, that we don’t have to go running around with a cassette and fiddling about in a dark room for hours on end!  Patient’s scheduled for surgeries that day are given their premedicant, once we have checked their heart, respiration and temperature. Their anaesthetic forms are then filled in to prepare for the procedure. All patients have an intravenous catheter placed prior to induction to allow access for intravenous medications and fluid therapy during their anaesthetic. Once the patient is stable under their anaesthetic they are moved to radiography or our MRI suite for diagnostic imaging prior to surgery. The MRI machine is lovingly cared for by Kat our qualified radiographer, who ensures no-one is allowed to enter unless they have been divested of all metallic objects (such as collars with dog tags attached). These are attracted to the huge magnet and many MRI machines have been fatally injured due to items flying through the air to adhere to them, not excluding the damage that can be done to personnel from these air borne items. Once the patient is positioned correctly Kat and the anaesthetic nurse retreat to the scanning room where the anaesthetic is monitored through the use of a capnograph, pulse monitor and the visual aid of a camera positioned at the head of the patient. Kat then produces the images of the area being studied onto computerised screens to enable full analysis. The MRI process can be quite lengthy, depending on the complexity of the area being screened.  <img class="inline" style="float: left;" src="../../pictures/0000/0431/nursing8.jpg" alt="http://www.fitzpatrickreferrals.com/pictures/0000/0431/nursing8.jpg" />Once the patient is returned to the prep room and surgery has been decided on, the patient is prepared for theatre. A nurse will clip the fur over the surgery site and then scrubs the area with a chlorhexidine solution to remove gross debris. The patient is then transferred to theatre and a final skin scrub completed. The anaesthetist attaches the patient to the monitoring system which provides information on the circulatory and respiratory system throughout the surgical procedure. The patient is also placed on intravenous fluids to help support the circulatory system.  A scrubbed, gowned and gloved veterinary intern wearing a surgical hat and mask will unpack the sterile kit and drape the patient to ensure an aseptic area is maintained around the operation site. The surgeon then commences the surgery. Some surgeries, such as Total Hip Replacements, Total Elbow or Knee Replacements, SHO (sliding humeral osteotomies) and some spinal surgeries require a number of surgeons to assist with the procedure. Luckily we have three large, well equipped operating rooms so we never feel crammed in. The surgeries are often very complex and the anaesthetic can be quite lengthy. The anaesthetist will ensure the patient maintains its body heat by using a Bair Hugger, which is a warm air blanket that can be placed under or over the patient.  Once the surgery is finished and the radiographs taken, the patient is returned to the comfort of the kennel room, where it continues its recovery on a comfortable orthopaedic mattress under the watchful eye of the nurse.  Overnight the patients are cared for by a veterinary nurse, who ensures they are given their medications, fluid therapy and lots of TLC.  Josey Killner <h4>Theatre Nursing at Fitzpatrick Referrals</h4> <img class="inline" style="float: left;" src="../../pictures/0000/0433/nursing9.jpg" alt="http://www.fitzpatrickreferrals.com/pictures/0000/0433/nursing9.jpg" />One of the main and most rewarding areas of nursing in Fitzpatrick referrals is the theatre nursing.  This may comprise of doing a challenging anaesthetic for a spinal procedure, being the circulating nurse during a Total Knee Replacement or scrubbing in to run the table for a Total Hip replacement. The nurses at Fitzpatricks are all trained to a high standard to manage lengthy and demanding anaesthetics. These may be on an 8kg rabbit with a femoral fracture, a 12 week old puppy with a growth deformity or a seizuring Labrador that requires MRI.  The pre-medication, analgesia and peri-operative drugs used varies depending on the individual case and the procedure being performed.  <img class="inline" style="float: left;" src="../../pictures/0000/0435/nursing10.jpg" alt="http://www.fitzpatrickreferrals.com/pictures/0000/0435/nursing10.jpg" />The quantity of surgical instruments and equipment we use is enormous. We have air hoses, powered instruments and boxes of very specific specialised tools to facilitate the procedures we do. The circulating nurse in theatre needs to have access to all of the equipment that might be needed. This is a hugely pressurised job and it is essential to know all the names of the instruments (including some pet names that are used in-house!).  During a Total Hip Replacement there is such a large quantity of kit that two large tables are required to hold it all. A few of the nurses are specially trained to assemble the tools and hand each piece of equipment to the surgeon when it is required. They have to be familiar with the procedure to ensure they have prepared the correct instruments at the correct time.  We see some incredible and innovative procedures during our time in theatre, but the biggest thrill comes from seeing the patients recovered, pain-free and going home with their families.

2008-11-12T11:31:05Z

We couldn't help noticing the dedication of the whole team we had contact with. You are all a credit and owe yourselves a huge pat on the back. Once again, thank you very much...

Jason Clelland

Our hospital currently has 30 veterinary nurses & veterinary assistants. The nursing team is specifically trained for caring for the dog and cat patient before and after surgery

nursing team, nurses, rehabilitation, Fitzpatrick, referrals, small animal, orthopaedic, neurology, veterinary specialist, vets, nurse, health, care, dog boarding, pet, veterinary emergency, referral service, dog veterinary, animal hospital, veterinary hospital, mri, scan, xray, ultrasonic, hydrotherapy, canine

Veterinary Assistant |Veterinary Nurse | Animal & Veterinary Hospital | Fitzpatrick Referrals

24 hour availability 365 days a year Advanced Diagnostic Imaging - MRI and CT - 7 Days a Week Custom designed kennels with electronic monitoring system, audio & TV Pioneers of joint replacement and limb prostheses State-of-the-art Conference Centre with direct video link to ORs Rehabilitation Centre - Physiotherapy Arena & Hydrotherapy Pool

7,9

399

We are continually introducing new technologies to remain at the forefront of neuro-orthopaedics and to consistently improve our service to referring clinicians, clients and patients.

nursingteam Nursing Team

2009-12-07T10:27:25Z