feline friendly nursing courses

Developed by FAB/ISFM, in association with the Centre of Applied Pet Ethology (COAPE), Nestlé Purina and Veterinary Nursing Times, these distance learning courses to bring together all aspects of feline friendly nursing, from behaviour and handling, to recognition of pain and nutrition.

The cat may not be the easiest of patients; it may be fearful and react aggressively; it maybe in pain but showing no outward signs; it may not be eating and it will almost certainly be expecting the worst to happen!

Dealing with cats, and their owners, requires understanding and skill. You may be tackling anything from weight loss to critical care and, as if that is not enough, there are inherited breed disorders in pedigree cats and the challenges of feral cats to consider. Anyone involved with nursing will tackle these issues on a daily basis; small things can make a real difference to how cats behave, how amenable they are to handling and how well they recover.

Now there are dedicated feline courses that bring together all these aspects, and more, to give a rounded and competent approach to nursing the cat in practice. Building on the principles of FAB’s Cat Friendly Practice and Wellcat programmes, and its wealth of veterinary information, these courses are designed to improve your confidence and skill, and to give you recognition within the profession and among your cat-owning clientele. In addition, COAPE’s expertise in behaviour and Nestlé Purina’s expertise in small animal nutrition make these courses an unparalleled opportunity.

Three different levels to suit anyone in practice from animal assistants
to degree level VNs

Working with cats
To work with cats successfully you need to understand them as a whole animal. Perhaps the reason we find them so fascinating is that their health is affected by stress and aspects of their husbandry or environment can matter enormously in terms of how they react to us and how well they recover.

During this series courses we will be examining what a cat is, looking at its innate behaviours and how these impact on how cats live with people.  In particular we will look at how natural behaviour impacts on cats within the practice and what nurses and practice personnel can do to make it a more feline friendly experience. It will also give nurses a great deal of insight into cat behaviour and more confidence in dealing with cats and their owners and integrating information and advice which goes beyond the surgery door.  Cat owners much appreciate understanding and advice for home recovery too.  As the courses increase in complexity, the volume and range of content increases to more detailed topics such as breeding, monitoring, feline lifestages, preventive care, nutrition and interaction with cat owners.

The course
The course is presented in six stages of course notes that you will receive by e-mail along with supporting material on the internet (if applicable).  The  content has been put together by the Feline Advisory Bureau, the charity which has pioneered cat care standards, from veterinary information through to catteries for over 50 years. The information has been developed by experts in the feline field – a collaboration of vets, nurses, behaviourists and others who want to improve the care we give cats.  It is backed up by over 500 pages of information on FAB’s website www.fabcats.org.  Our partners Nestlé Purina bring a wealth of knowledge of nutrition and COAPE bring a reputation of behaviour excellence.

In order to make the courses more flexible and dynamic COAPE have developed the Student Resource Centre which is a password protected site exclusively for students on these courses.  You will find much here for the feline nursing courses – we are adding videos of handling and other techniques and of cat behaviour in practice.

Through work assessment at each of the six stages (at the end of each stage you complete a multi-choice assessment questionnaire) the courses will enable you to demonstrate your knowledge and you will learn more at every stage.  The more effort you put into your studies the more you will get out of the course and in applying your ideas in the future. The courses comprise six units, spread over the period of nine months with start dates February or September each year.

Our partners
We are working in several partners in bringing you these courses - The Centre of Applied Pet Ethology (COAPE) will be administrating the course and contributing to the behaviour content.  COAPE has been appointed by the National Open College Network (NOCN) as an Approved Education Centre – for more information on this go to www.coape.co.uk COAPE is also an Accredited Provider for BVNA as part of their Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Partners scheme – again more information on this on the COAPE website.

Our other partners for these courses are Nestlé Purina and Veterinary Nursing Times.  All of our organisations wish to promote and improve the care of cats in veterinary practice and beyond and are hugely enthusiastic about being involved with veterinary nursing.

Conference day
We also hope to run a conference day with Nestlé Purina on the day before BVNA congress in 2010 for anyone who is undertaking the courses – more information to follow.

The qualification
An Open College Network certificate will be awarded to those who complete the course successfully. We will also provide you with an eye-catching and attractive  certificate for you to use in the practice.

Registration
There is a registration fee of £45 and the course costs £395. 

For more information about the different course levels and to register, please go to www.coape.co.uk

Nurse comments on the course (from February 2010 course)

'Very relevant to my practice as we are not cat friendly!'

'Excellent content – explanations are really useful for discussing behavioural issues with clients. Extremely relevant to practice. It is already helping every feline patient I nurse.'

'We want to set up a cat clinic and ward.'

'I found the course very helpful and interesting and feel I am more confident with clients and cats and it has helped me greatly in practice. I would definitely recommend this course to any one who has a great interest in cats.'

'It allows you to step back and look at how the practice is coping with being 'feline friendly'.'

'I would like to think that the knowledge I have gained can be used to teach the younger nurses and I hope to set up more nursing clinics soon.  Some clients are already referring to me as ‘the cat nurse’.  It has made me realize we can do a lot more to be cat friendly and we are implanting the changes.'

'The distance learning works very well in fitting around a busy life.'

‘I am really enjoying the course and have learned a lot. I think the level is just about right and the subjects very relevant to working in practice.'

'Challenging course content encourages thinking outside the box – very relevant to practice and am beginning to set up some basic feline behavioural consults. Topics are useful and relevant.'

'A very challenging course which is very relevant to practice – lots of useful topics that are already proving valuable.'

'Level of difficulty just right for me; content superb. Learned lots and a good revision of things already known. All topics very relevant to practice and nurse clinics.'

'I am already getting vets asking my advice! More confident in clinics.'

'It is nice to have my opinion respected by the vets in the practice.'