I am absolutely delighted to hear that The Veterinary Nurse has sponsored a graduation prize for the most promising writer on the Royal Veterinary Colleges Graduate Diploma in Professional and Clinical Veterinary Nursing course. The prize this year was awarded to Claire Lewis (nee Thomas) for her two care reports titled A care report of a feline sacroiliac and coxofemoral luxation following a road traffic accident and Extended care report after graft surgery for a descemetocoele.
I guess that you would expect me to be pleased and proud that one of our students has won a prize and that is obviously true. However this has much greater significance for veterinary nursing as a whole and that is why I am so delighted.
The aim of the prize is to encourage veterinary nurses to read and write more academic care reports, reviews and papers on their subject. This is not just degree and graduate or advanced diploma nurses but any veterinary nurse who is passionate about their subject and wants to improve patient care and welfare by helping make veterinary nursing evidence based. By writing and publishing you are contributing to an embryonic but growing discipline that will form the bedrock for future generations not only in the UK but around the world.
The views of veterinary nurses who are practitioners and delivering care in the real world is very important; this is where change actually happens. Nothing stands still and in another 50 years of veterinary nursing, those of you who will be able to look back on the early issues of The Veterinary Nurse will probably be amazed at how things were done or equally how some things haven't changed.
The development of a professional academic journal is part of the development of the profession. Perhaps some of you might feel that progress is slow but please take the long view and remember the saying that ‘mighty oaks from little acorns grow’. I feel privileged to be witnessing a profession which is so obviously growing in confidence and ability. Well done to Claire and The Veterinary Nurse and now you know why I am so very delighted by the prize!