march, 2025
Course Details
As veterinary nurses, we want to provide our patients with the best possible care that we can and it’s hard to see our patients suffering and in pain.
Course Details
As veterinary nurses, we want to provide our patients with the best possible care that we can and it’s hard to see our patients suffering and in pain. Luckily our profession allows us to prevent this in many ways, but are we tackling pain the right way and making the best choices for analgesia? Can we make improvements to help our patients remain pain free and reduce side effects of the therapies we choose – whether that’s for our patients in the clinic or at home?
In order for us to treat and manage pain in our patients, we first need to understand the physiology behind how animals feel pain. We will start by expanding our knowledge and understanding of the pain pathway, before moving on to the different analgesia options for acute and chronic pain conditions. We will finish the course with pain scoring. By the end of the 4 weeks, we will have overviewed pain and the different treatment options available with the hope, that alongside the veterinary surgeon, we can build patient specific multi-modal analgesia plans for all our patients.
Week 1
The Physiology of Pain
Pain definitions
The mammalian pain pathway
Different types of pain
Principles of analgesia
Learning objectives
After completion of this week, participants should be able to:
Outline the definition of pain and associated terminology
Describe the different stages of the pain pathway and sites for analgesia intervention
Understand the concept of multi-modal analgesia and pre-emptive analgesia
Week 2
Analgesia for the In-patient
Review the analgesia agents used to treat acute pain conditions:
Opioids
NMDA antagonists
Local anaesthetics
Alpha 2 agonists
Learning objectives
After completion of this week, participants should be able to:
Be familiar with the different systemic and local options for treating acute pain
Discuss balanced multi-modal analgesia plans for patients in the veterinary practice
Understand the mechanisms of action, effects and side effects of the listed analgesic agents
Week 3
Analgesia for the Out-patient
Review the analgesia options for managing pain on a longer term basis:
NSAIDs
Paracetamol
Tramadol
Gabapentin
Alternative therapies
Learning objectives
After completion of this week, participants should be able to:
Be familiar with the different systemic and alternative therapies for treating chronic pain
Discuss balanced multi-modal analgesia plans for patients at home
Understand the mechanisms of action, effects and side effects of the discussed analgesic interventions
Week 4
Pain Assessment Methods
Review the different pain scoring options for both in-patients and out-patients
Canine pain scales
Feline pain scales
Grimace scales
Chronic pain scales
Pitfalls and problems with pain assessment
Learning objectives
After completion of this week, participants should be able to:
Have a better understanding of the different pain assessment types
Appreciate where pain assessments can be beneficial for managing conditions and allowing for appropriate analgesia interventions in the hospitalised patient
Provide owners with the tools to monitor and assess their pet’s pain and quality of life at home
Describe the indications and contraindications for pain scoring
The course will be fully tutored by Lisa Angell, and will consist of 10 hours of CPD given in various formats, including tutorials, tasks, case studies, forum discussions and quizzes. This course is tutored for 4 weeks, followed by a two week extension of untutored ‘catch up’ time, before the course officially ends.
All delegates will then have unlimited lifetime access to the learning material for future reference
Time
march 3 (Monday) - 28 (Friday)
Location
Online
Speaker
Lisa AngellVTS (anaesthesia and analgesia) PgCert Vet Ed, FHEA, RVN Head Anaesthesia Nurse, Royal Veterinary College
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