Unit information: Applied Clinical Veterinary Nursing in 2018/19

Unit name	Applied Clinical Veterinary Nursing
Unit code	VETS30036
Credit points	40
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Mrs. Jeffery
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	All 1st, 2nd and 3rd year units
Co-requisites	All other 4th year units
School/department	Bristol Veterinary School
Faculty	Faculty of Health Sciences

Description including Unit Aims

This unit is a part of the BSc Honours Programmes- Veterinary Nursing and Bioveterinary Science & Veterinary Nursing and Companion Animal Behaviour. It expands upon the underpinning knowledge gained within the Clinical Veterinary Nursing Theory unit in year two of the programme and will enable students to investigate in more depth key areas of both medical and surgical nursing, anaesthesia and analgesia. They will reflect upon the clinical nursing they have carried out within the 3rd year of the programme, evaluate its effectiveness and formulate care plan strategies based upon clinical practice and theory taught within the unit.

Aims:

• To expand the students knowledge and understanding gained in year 2 of the pathophysiology, diagnosis and management of typical and complicated medical conditions in small animals, enabling them to understand the implications of the diseases in relation to effective nursing care of the individual patient.
• To expand on the knowledge and understanding of surgical nursing, and patient management acquired in Year 2 and applying that knowledge in order to develop a strategy to meet the needs of patients suffering from the less common surgical conditions of cats, dogs and horses.
• To provide students with a more advanced understanding of anaesthesia and analgesia to the introductory level in the 2nd year unit.
• To develop students skills in problem solving

To enable the student to understand and assume the responsibility for the provision of the nursing and veterinary requirements of patients under the direction of the supervising veterinary surgeon.

Intended Learning Outcomes

At the end of this teaching unit, the student should be able to :

1 Assess the specific needs of patients presenting with medical conditions (typical and complicated) or undergoing advanced surgical procedures and choose the most appropriate nursing interventions to support these patients.

2 Plan , implement and evaluate the effectiveness of the nursing delivered to a range of patients with common and complex surgical and/or medical conditions (including, when appropriate, anaesthesia management, pain assessment and management, fluid therapy, nutritional support)

3 Prepare, check and appropriately use a wide range of diagnostic, surgical and anaesthetic equipment and appraise the use of this type of equipment in high dependence surgical and medical patients.

4 Analyse, criticise and combine the available literature on advanced surgical and medical nursing (including anaesthesia and analgesia) and integrate this in their nursing practice

Teaching Information

Lectures

Case Studies

Practicals

Assessment Information

The pass mark for this unit is 40%. Students must obtain a minimum of 40% in each of the following assessment components:

- 2 hour written paper (80% weighting)(ILO 1,2,3) - Research Skills group DSE (20% weighting)(ILO 4)

Students who fail to satisfy either of the above criteria will be deemed to have failed the whole unit and will need to resit that component part.

Resits as above

Reading and References

Recommended:

BSAVA manual of canine and feline advanced veterinary nursing
Book by Moore, Alasdair Hotston; Rudd, Suzanne; British Small Animal Veterinary Association - c2008

BSAVA manual of canine and feline anaesthesia and analgesia
Book by dawsonera - 2016

BSAVA manual of canine and feline surgical principles: a foundation manual
Book by dawsonera - 2012

Anaesthesia for veterinary nurses
Book by Welsh, Elizabeth; MyiLibrary – 2009

Further reading:

Veterinary anaesthesia
Book by Clarke, K. W.; Trim, C. M.; Hall, Leslie W.; Wright, John G.; dawsonera - 2014

Small animal surgery
Book by Fossum, Theresa Welch - 2018

Veterinary surgery: small animal
Book - 2018

Small animal spinal disorders: diagnosis and surgery
Book by Sharp, Nicholas J. H.; Wheeler, Simon J - 2005

Equine surgery
Book by Auer, Jörg A.; Stick, John A - c2012