Dedicated registered vet nurse Melissa Barnett shares how she's been supported by the easipetcare team to flourish. Melissa implements innovative protocols and quality improvement initiatives, making a meaningful impact on nursing care. With a close-knit team and modern facilities, easipetcare provides a supportive and progressive environment for professional growth.
I graduated from Plumpton College in 2017 with a foundation degree in nursing. Alongside working in practice, I decided to do an emergency and critical care certificate to expand my knowledge as ECC and in-patient care are passions of mine. I came to easipetcare in 2020 where I put my new skills into practice!
When I joined easipetcare I still had my exams for my ECC certificate to take, and they supported me by funding my exams. I’ve been able to go to the London Vet Show, and do other interesting CPD courses and talks, which I appreciate as I’m committed to continued learning.
I have a keen interest in patient care and hope to always provide the very best standard of care. Within my role in easipetcare I have designed and implemented new hospital/anaesthetic charts, and I am now learning about quality improvement audits. I’m currently working on a project on post-operative temperatures to further improve the patient experience and positive outcomes.
We all have a very good relationship, and we receive a lot of support and encouragement from our head nurse. We enjoy doing things together outside of work, such as dog walks and meals out - we are big foodies here!
We have a spacious reception and prep area, with separate kennels for dogs and cats which from a nursing perspective is important. We have all the equipment we need including an x-ray machine, doppler and oscillometric blood pressure, idexx in-house analysers, ultrasound machine, a dental machine, and soon-to-be dental x-rays.
My favourite piece of equipment is the multiparameter machine which is a fantastic tool for monitoring our anaesthetics and also nursing our critical patients. We also purchased a steam cleaner which all the nurses were excited about, and now can do chemical-free cleaning in some areas of the practice.
The vets support the nurses in performing schedule three procedures, the most common being working on aural haematomas and stitch-ups after the vet has completed surgery.
As nurses, we also perform x-rays which I enjoy doing, and we have learned how to improve their diagnostic quality, following guidance from our visiting orthopaedic surgeon. We also scale and polish teeth for dental procedures.
Since I started here at easipetcare I feel like I have made a difference in the nursing care, with new monitor charts and setting new protocols. I hope to continue this with my auditing and benchmarking within the practice and I always keep up to date with the latest recommendations.
If you’re looking for a supportive and progressive team, then easipetcare is the place for you. I feel like my hard work is always acknowledged by the leadership team. We’re appreciated and supported in our work and enjoy working together too!