9 May 2023
Alison Mann explains how knowledge summaries have been a “go-to” to find up-to-date evidence, along with how they can aid in growing a healthy evidence base – benefiting nurses as well as patients and their owners.
Alison Mann
Job Title
Image © herraez / Adobe Stock
I have always been interested in evidence-based veterinary medicine (EBVM) and how nurses can get involved.
Since 2009, I have been a qualified RVN and, although I qualified in a primary care practice, I moved into referral shortly after and eventually became a head theatre nurse.
In this role I was involved in education, which is where my first experience with the Veterinary Evidence journal came about. When I was preparing lectures, I wanted to ensure what I was teaching was current and evidence-based.
I first heard about Veterinary Evidence when it launched in 2016. I remember a competition at the time to win a ticket to the first RCVS Knowledge conference in Edinburgh. As part of the application, I had to write a Knowledge Summary, which was published in Veterinary Evidence.
My Knowledge Summary explored if alcoholic hand rubs were superior to scrubbing brushes at reducing bacterial counts in small animal surgery1. I was really pleased when I won a ticket to the conference and I have been a regular user of the journal ever since.
At the conference I learned more about what the charity RCVS Knowledge (which manages the Veterinary Evidence journal) has to offer veterinary teams and how it can support us. This was seven years ago now, and the opportunities and support from RCVS Knowledge has grown massively in that time.
The Veterinary Evidence team launched a new website in January this year and I really like how everything is set out – it’s really user friendly2. If you like podcasts, you can find those easily, and you can see what the most popular knowledge summaries and articles are, too.
If you want to write a Knowledge Summary, the author hub has everything you need to know. If you haven’t explored it yet, I would recommend you do so. Whenever I am writing lessons, it is the first place I go for up-to-date evidence. It’s clear the website has been designed with busy veterinary professionals in mind.
I am proud to now have two of my Knowledge Summary articles published in Veterinary Evidence. My second paper was published in 2018, and asked if the friction method or concentric circles was more effective at reducing bacteria levels on the skin when prepping patients for surgery3.
The team at RCVS Knowledge is helpful and supportive – a special shout out to Clare Boulton who regularly helps me with my literature searches.
As an RVN, I am always delighted when I see a published Knowledge Summary that can help guide nursing care for our patients.
I was recently pleased when I saw a moderate amount of evidence supporting the use of EMLA cream for reducing pain associated with venepuncture in cats4. It’s one of those areas where people I have worked with have different opinions. It was especially great to see some guidance on the time it needs to be applied, too, as in my previous experience, it wasn’t left on for long enough.
This sort of knowledge can really help to contribute towards patient experience, which we know can have such a lasting effect on our patients.
I always recommend Veterinary Evidence to my RVN colleagues. When it comes to finding evidence and research, it can be daunting for some nurses who may have not really been taught about these areas when they were studying towards their veterinary nursing qualification. The fact Veterinary Evidence has pretty much done the work for you is a win-win situation – provided it has been published, of course.
If any RVN has done a literature search and appraisal, I would always encourage them to turn it into a Knowledge Summary to add to the growing evidence base.
Veterinary Evidence can really help nurses in practice because it could provide them with answers to clinical queries they might face on a daily basis, whether it’s a question from an SVN or client, or looking for current evidence on a particular aspect of nursing care.
The Veterinary Evidence team is really supportive and will answer any questions, queries, and help you get started writing a Knowledge Summary. The submission process is timely and you always get very valuable feedback to make your Knowledge Summary the very best it can be.
In one of my current roles as a post-registration programme manager (PRP), I support nurses working in their first year of referral nursing.
As part of this, the PRP nurses can choose a project, one of these being writing a Knowledge Summary, which we hope will become published in Veterinary Evidence. This is often the first time these nurses have had anything published and I get a real sense of satisfaction knowing that I played a part in that.
Veterinary Evidence has helped massively throughout my career – in my teaching role, my head theatre nurse role and now in my current role. It is always my first “go to” to find published up-to-date evidence.
Veterinary Evidence is an online, open access5, peer-reviewed journal owned and published by RCVS Knowledge. It publishes content relating to EBVM and its application in veterinary practice to enhance the quality of care provided to patients. RCVS Knowledge is a charity with a mission to improve the quality of veterinary care for the benefit of animals, the public and society.
