I am such an advocate for client education. There is so much information we can provide to clients and free up valuable time for the Vet to carry out their ‘important jobs’. Nutritional, surgical, post-operative and general wellbeing are just a few of the advice topics that Cert IV Vet nurses are taught and are well able to discuss with clients.
Many practices offer Nursing clinics for weight control to help get those extra pounds off or dental clinics to assess the dental hygiene of the pet so we should be maximising the potentials of what we can talk about Veterinary Nurses have a wealth of knowledge and are there for the public to utilise – I highly suggest a chat with a Vet nurse – we just need to change the publics perception.
You might be asking – But what can I do? As a vet nurse or someone working in the animal care industry you need to take the lead. LEARN, LEARN and continue to LEARN. You need to ensure you know the information. There is no faking it to you make it here as we are in the era of ‘Dr Google’ with a large amount of ‘fake news’ thrown in for good measure; you need to ensure you are getting the correct information from the correct source. Make sure you are in the right continent when searching, make sure you are taking stock of the information provided by company reps. Don’t get your information from some random website of someone who ‘think’s’ they know what they are talking about. You need to inform yourself properly.
Ensure your information is current – no point using out of date information. It should be reliable – know your source. Credibility is paramount – who is giving you the information and what situation are they in to give it to you. I do not believe anyone now days should be unaccredited – They must have done some form of formal learning in order to be qualified to take information from.
Once you have all of your base knowledge you should be able to present a relevant plan to the manager for consideration on what you want to run in the clinic – If there are no protocols for a guide – make some. Do what you can to set things up right – right from the beginning. That way you will pave the way for nurse consults to become a mainstay in your clinic and have clients asking to ‘see the nurse’. Don’t forget too your time as a professional is valuable and a cost should be associated – we should not be doing consults for free. Therefore you need to know your stuff to get an added income stream as well.
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