Featured activities: vet nursing

The Animal Welfare Centre is actively engaged with vet nurses, animal care assistants, and animal paraprofessionals. This is via research, teaching, online courses, and continuing professional development.

An area that the Centre will be focusing on in 2026 is supporting vet nurses and animal care assistants. This includes a new research project, new continuing professional development (CPD) online courses, lectures, and a grant application. We welcome you getting involved!

Survey

If you are a vet nurse, animal care assistant, or veterinary paraprofessional (UK and international) we would be delighted if you could take 5-10 minutes to complete our online survey. We want to understand what topics and species are priority for different audiences; as well as understanding what barriers or challenges exist relating to delivery approaches or engagement.

Deadline March 2026

 

New Grant

The Centre is delighted to announce that Jess Davies, Martyna Godniak, Hayley Walters, Katharine Ross, Stella Mazeri, Rob Ward, and Rebecca Doyle, have been awarded one of the University of Edinburgh’s Fiona and Ian Russell Seed Corn Fund for Companion Animal Research. The project will focus on the development of a tool to support decision making in cases of complex care needs, and critical cases, for companion animals in a clinical context. 

 

New lectures

Hayley Walters, RVN, MBE, will be delivering a number of international lectures in January. Dr Yuki Otani, has invited Hayley to deliver an online workshop on ‘Euthanasia and its welfare implications’ to students at Hokkaido University, Japan. In addition, Hayley has been invited by Dr Syamira Syazuana, a former Edinburgh PhD graduate, to deliver two online lectures to students at Putra University’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Malayasia. The lectures aim to increase the students’ knowledge on how to improve patient welfare in the clinic and ways to reduce dog bites within the clinical setting through a greater understanding of normal, anxious and fearful dog behaviour.

 

Animal Welfare in the Clinic - Online Course

The Animal Welfare in the Clinic online course (MOOC) provides information about the welfare of the animal and how it can be supported at every stage of the clinical visit (from transportation, waiting area, examination, operating room, and recovery). ​

Worth 12 CPD hours.

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