Dr Jessica Pennock (left) from CVS South Hub and Samantha Fontaine (right) both received RCVS Knowledge Champion Award.

Educators and practice teams recognised for dedication to improving quality of care.

RCVS Knowledge has published a list of the winners of this year's RCVS Knowledge Awards. All of the winners were praised by the charity for championing the use of quality improvement (QI) methodology in their areas of work.

Dr Jessica Pennock from CVS South Hub received an RCVS Knowledge Champion Award for her outcome audit which assessed the effectiveness of a warm air circulating blanket that the practice had recently purchased for anaesthetic procedures. According to RCVS Knowledge, the results demonstrate what can be achieved with an accessible audit that will have a positive impact on patient welfare.

Samantha Fontaine from the University of Glasgow was also awarded as a Knowledge Champion for implementation of a new course that teaches QI to veterinary nurses. RCVS Knowledge praised this new curriculum for providing national and international students with the confidence and skill to apply QI initiatives to their work.

Plymouth Veterinary Group (IVC Evidensia) and CVS Small Animal Team were jointly awarded Practice Champions for their separate ear cytology audits.

Plymouth Veterinary Group developed guidelines for performing cytology on patients presenting with ear pathology, while CVS Small Animal Team carried out a long-term audit on small animal ear cytology on a national scale.

The School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Nottingham was also named a Champion Team for integrating QI and evidence-based veterinary medicine within its undergraduate and postgraduate curriculums.

RCVS Knowledge named nine applications as Highly Commended runners up. These are:

• Arbury Road Vets
• Charlotte Thomas
• Chester Gates Veterinary Specialists
• Equicall
• Hannah Almond
• Kathryn Wale
• Regan Vet Group
• Roundhouse Referrals
• Samantha Morgan-Hourd.

In addition, Linnaeus post-registration education team, VetPartners Ltd and Kathrine Blackie from Linnaeus were also named as ‘Highly Commended – One to Watch.'

Executive director of RCVS Knowledge Chris Gush said: “We were very impressed with the number of high-quality applications received for the 2021 Knowledge Awards.”

“Every award winner demonstrated a dedication to advancing the quality of veterinary care and we look forward to watching them continue to develop quality improvement initiatives in practice. Congratulations to all of the winners.”

Case examples of all this year’s winning projects will be published on the RCVS Knowledge website in early May and the awards will be officially presented at RCVS Day later in the year.

Image (c) RCVS.