Southern Counties Veterinary Specialists hosted visiting veterinary students and nurses to give them a chance to see how a specialist referral practice works, and to experience procedures and techniques that are not readily available within a first opinion practice.
"Eighteen students from Sparsholt College came to visit our practice, which is our biggest group to date," said a spokesperson.
"They are currently in their second year of their veterinary nursing diploma and we were pleased to welcome their tutor, and former SCVS employee, Denise Laughlin to our practice for the visit.
"Their visit included a tour of the SCVS practice and they were able to see the MRI machine, wards and prep room. During the tour they also got a brief explanation of SCVS’ history to where we are today with future plans. The tour was headed by David White, our Head Anaesthesia Nurse and Joanna Tuck, our Health and Safety Officer. On top of this the students attended a CPD talk by our Head Neurology Nurse, Karen Church, about referral nursing.
"After the tour and talk, the students were split into smaller group so they could experience more of our practice including surgery and imagery of which we had several procedures being carried out. One of them was a patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) correction by our cardiology department. They also got to observe neurology where our specialist imaging team were conducting magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in our state of the art MRI machine. During this time, the students were able to converse with our staff members and ask questions about their jobs within a specialist referral practice."
David White, Head Anaesthesia Nurse at Southern Counties Veterinary Specialists, was pleased with how the day went: “The day was an experience had by all and we would like to thank Sparsholt College, Denise, and the students for visiting SCVS.
“I would also like to thank the entire staff at SCVS for making the students feel welcome and interacting with them even though it was still a case packed day. Special note should be made to Julie Marzetti`s reception team, Joanne Tuck, Karen Church, Rebecca Savory, and Amy Nelson for taking time out of there day to help this run smoothly.”
Similarly, Denise Laughlin, the veterinary nursing tutor at Sparsholt College, was pleased with the experience her students gained: “The Sparsholt Student Veterinary Nurses were excited to be given the chance to see the specialist veterinary teams at work.
"Putting their theoretical knowledge of advanced clinical procedures into context has been of great benefit in the run up to their important summer exams and they were grateful for the opportunity afforded to them through Sparsholt Colleges links in industry.”
