21 Jul
“I would say to all nurses: practice on your patients that don’t have heart failure, so that then when it comes to doing a blood pressure on a patient that is in heart failure, you know exactly what you’re doing.”
Charlotte Pace
Job Title
In this episode of the VN Times Podcast we join Congress Times editor Tom Jackson as he speaks with BVNA president Charlotte Pace, who provides some practical advice for veterinary nurses who may wish to develop the knowledge and skills required to successfully and confidently support cardiology patients in their care.
Charlotte looks at the definition of heart disease – which presents differently in different species – before going on to discuss the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine’s consensus statement guidelines for the classification, diagnosis, and management of cardiomyopathies in cats and dogs.
BVNA president (2022-23), Charlotte qualified as a veterinary nurse in 2003, while working in practice in London. In the same year she moved to the RVC to work as a medicine nurse. In 2006, she became the dedicated cardiology nurse for the RVC Queen Mother Hospital for Animals.
In 2010, Charlotte passed American veterinary technician exams and became the first nurse to hold the cardiology qualification outside the US. Since 2012, she has taught veterinary nurses on both degree and diploma programmes.
Charlotte returned to veterinary practice in 2015 – she works at Vets4Pets in Cambridge – and continues to write and lecture on veterinary cardiology.
