Veterinary nurses and veterinarians asked to join the frontline to battle COVID-19

The Hampshire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has reached out to veterinary nurses and veterinarians, asking them to join the frontline to battle COVID-19.

The job description, which encourages the animal care workers to apply for the paid or voluntary work, consists of supporting patients, who are in critical care and require treatment, by monitoring their pulse and respiration, oxygen saturation, temperature, blood pressure – venous and venepuncture cannulation, only if they’re trained to do so.

Veterinary surgeon, Jo Hillard, stated: “My friend works for the trust and this was something we began talking about 2weeks ago, as I knew a lot of people who wanted to help. Now the situation has got worse and the NHS has realised there is a bank of highly skilled professionals who are desperate to get involved and help fight this on the front line. I have been with someone as they died of respiratory failure. That is part of the reason why I am so passionate about this and want to do my bit to help, like hundreds of my colleagues across the country. These are unprecedented times and we know, as veterinary professionals, we can help. We can turn our hand to any species and are trained to think outside the box and think on our feet in different situations. As this develops I think vets and vet nurses will have an increasingly important role working alongside doctors and nurses in the NHS. I am speaking to other hospital trusts now too. We are going to get the ball rolling across the UK to help get as many vets and nurses up to the front line as soon as we can. I have set up a Facebook group for vets and nurses to sign up and to find out if there are any trusts near them that need help from this amazing profession.”