As a Veterinary nurse you play a key role in the preparation of patients for surgery, the running of theatres and during patient management in the post-operative period. You are also permitted to perform minor surgical procedures under veterinary direction and doing so can be hugely rewarding whilst assisting the efficient flow of a surgical list.

This course will provide you with an overview of how to prepare a patient for surgery, how to apply key surgical principles to optimise tissue healing and considerations for nursing the post-operative patient. The lectures will include a step-by-step guide to performing the surgical techniques listed below and there will be an opportunity to practice all of these techniques in wet lab practical sessions.

What you’ll learn:

• Use of surgical instruments
• Suture patterns and materials
• Knot tying
• Use of skin staples and tissue adhesive
• Fine needle aspiration and biopsy techniques for skin lesions
• Simple skin mass excision
• Open wound management
• How to apply tie-over wound dressings
• Indications for surgical drains, how to use them and how to secure them

Tutor : Faye Swinbourne BVM&S MVetMed DipECVS MRCVS RCVS & European Specialist in Small Animal Surgery