Coming up: vet nursing stream in Ljubljana

The upcoming Eastern European Regional Veterinary Conference (EERVC) will be held 23-25 October in Ljubljana, and includes three parallel subject streams running over the full 3 days of the event. It also includes a full-day nursing stream on Saturday 25 October.

The nursing stream

Matthew Rendle RVN and Hayley Ayers RVN are lecturers of the Veterinary Nursing stream, supported by BSAVA and organised in collaboration with ACOVENE. Topics include

Nursing the shock patient: compensation and decompensation, understanding the different kinds of shock and how to handle them
Advanced wound treatment: recognising and understanding how mammals heal, and the impact of the bioburden (infected or not) and the overuse of honey
Holistic emergency and critical care nursing: the importance of collecting clinical data and responding in a proactive and reactive manner, the role of nutrition and analgesia
Two-minute trauma triage (do it well and do it quickly): making a quick assessment in an ECC setting, learn to prioritise life-threatening conditions (“first life, then limb”)
Welfare-minded infectious disease management: when do infectious diseases require isolation or enhanced biosecurity, how to manage isolation care
Supporting the BOAS patient: sadly the number of dogs with brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome is very high, and these patients require special attention during corrective surgery due to the increased anaesthetic risk during induction and recovery

About the speakers

Matthew Rendle RVN started his veterinary nursing career in 1989, and has experience in nursing care for many species from ants to elephants (and most things in-between). He currently is an elected member of the RCVS VN council and board member of ACOVENE. Matt is the Chair of AZEVN which he helped found in 2016 to provide CPD for nurses working with zoo, exotics and wildlife species. At home Matthew cares for his collection of 30 reptiles and hangs out with his Bengal cat, Olive.

Hayley Ayers RVN BSc (hons) CertVN ECC APVNES (Herp, Avian) has gained advanced qualifications in emergency critical care and exotics. She is currently studying for her PGc in advanced Veterinary Nursing of Exotic, zoo and wildlife species. She works for a large wildlife centre in the UK, alongside undertaking locum work in a variety of referral and first opinion veterinary hospitals. She thoroughly enjoys teaching and inspiring the next generation of Vets and Veterinary Nurses.

EERVC, advancing the profession in Eastern Europe

EERVC is a small animal veterinary conference designed to serve the continuing education needs of veterinarians in the wider Eastern European region. Its conference offers cutting-edge international speakers, a large regional trade exhibition and great opportunities for professional networking during ‘an affordable, high-quality, 3-day annual meeting’ that rotates each year between countries.

EERVC is a not-for-profit organization, reinvesting all conference profits into the annual event. The founding partners were the Small Animal Veterinary Associations of Croatia and Serbia, working together with the British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA). BSAVA has invested in EERVC as part of its remit as a registered charity and is offering its expertise gained from 60 years of BSAVA Congress.

*In some countries, they are called veterinary technicians, veterinary auxiliaries, para-veterinarians or simply carers for sick animals. European standards for the education and training of these professionals have been set up by ACOVENE.

DISCLAIMER: Please note that what veterinary nurses can and cannot do legally may differ per country.