Vet nurse praised for awareness work
Dot Creighton is the winner of this year's VN Golden Jubilee Award.
Dot Creighton is the winner of this year's VN Golden Jubilee Award, the RCVS has announced.
Dot, a former president of the BVNA, will be presented with the award at the RCVS Day in July.
During her presidential year (2003-2004), Dot devised the concept of VN Awareness Day as a way of making animal owners and local communities more aware of veterinary nurses and what they do.
Subsequently this developed into an awareness week, and now National VN Awareness Month, which takes place every May.
The RCVS say this legacy was one of the main reasons why Dot was chosen to win the award.
Kathy Kissick, chair of VN Council, said: “Dot has worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the veterinary nurse both within the profession and with the general public. She has always supported the student veterinary nurse in training and leads by example at all times inspiring nurses to stay in or return to practice even when life changes their circumstances.
“Dot is an inspiration to many, many nurses and always commits 100% to the welfare of the animals in her care and to her clients. I congratulate her on achieving this award.”
The VN Golden Jubilee Award was launched in 2011 to mark the 50th anniversary of the first RCVS training scheme.
Dot was nominated for the Award by Lindsey Raven-Emrich, a fellow veterinary nurse, who praised her 'enthusiasm and input' to the profession.
Delighted at winning the Award, Dot said: “It couldn’t be a more exciting time to train to be a veterinary nurse – we have a robust training scheme, we are pushing and advancing the boundaries of veterinary nursing practice, we are seeing veterinary nurses branch out into different fields of clinical practice and, most importantly, the new Royal Charter officially recognises veterinary nursing as a regulated profession.”
Two independent vets have launched a podcast to help owners strengthen their bond with pets. Dr Maggie Roberts and Dr Vanessa Howie, who have worked in both veterinary practice and major charities, are keen to use their experience to enable people to give pets a better life.
