About
Fitzpatrick Referrals prep nurse team is the first point of contact your animal will have following their consultation with the clinician.
The prep nurse team has an extremely important role in your animal’s care during their journey through the hospital from admission until the ward nurse team continue their care. Our prep nurses’ responsibilities predominantly revolve around ensuring patients have all of their investigations performed in an efficient and effective manner, which involves working closely with the clinicians and our team of interns. They require excellent communication, observation and time management skills to make sure our patients receive nothing but the best of care whilst they are in our hands.
Our prep room nurses will ensure that, firstly, your animal friend feels at ease in the hospital environment before performing any necessary blood tests that the clinician has requested. They will also prepare the patient for sedation or general anaesthesia and assist in the induction of general anaesthesia or administration of sedation alongside an intern, to allow your animal to have the necessary investigations, be it radiographs, CT, an MRI scan or surgery. Be rest assured that our prep nurses use some of the most advanced patient monitoring systems available in the veterinary field and are all highly experienced in anaesthesia.
They stay with your animal throughout the duration of their procedure, giving undivided one-to-one care until they are woken from their sedation or general anaesthesia and settled in their bed, to ensure our patients see a familiar face as soon as they are awake.
Our prep nurses are responsible for giving a comprehensive clinical handover to our ward nurse team, who monitor each patient in our recovery unit until it is appropriate for them to be transferred to their bed in the general ward or go home.
My role as a prep nurse has allowed me to develop my nursing skills and experience through assisting with complex surgeries, some of which we only perform here at Fitzpatrick Referrals, such as limb salvage surgeries and custom hip, knee and elbow replacements. I have post operatively nursed patients after craniotomies, been involved with the administration of chemotherapy and gained more advanced nursing skills such as using ventilators during anaesthesia and assisting with spinal stabilisation surgeries.
Prep Nurse Amber
