An Interview with Sally Everitt, inFOCUS Clinical Support Lead

Tell me a bit about your career background.  

I qualified from Bristol vet school in 1981 and spent most of my career working in first opinion small animal practice. I enjoyed clinical practice, but I also became increasingly interested in the process of how we delivered care. I undertook a master’s degree as part of one of the SPVS learning sets, looking at Clinical Audit in the veterinary profession, and then went on to do a PhD looking at the factors affecting clinical decision making in veterinary practice.  

This led to an interest in how we make the best evidence easily available to vets at the time of the consultation, and after my PhD I spent 6 years working for the British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) providing evidence-based materials to support science and policy.  

How did you get involved with RCVS Knowledge?  

In my role at BSAVA I relied heavily on being able to access veterinary journals through the RCVS Knowledge Library and Information Service. Shortly after I left BSAVA I was approached to become a reviewer for inFOCUS, the RCVS Knowledge journal watch which summarises recent papers, and later became chair of their clinical review team.  

At the start of the COVID pandemic there were concerns about the role of animals in the epidemiology of disease and I developed a resource to collate the emerging evidence on the subject, providing easy access to the most up to date information.  

What does your job at RCVS Knowledge entail?  

I now have a part time role providing clinical support for the Library and Information Service at RCVS Knowledge. In practical terms this involves answering a range of queries and developing resources, such as the Journal Club and in the Spotlight features, that sit alongside inFOCUS.   

We have also started recording podcasts to help make both the process and findings of veterinary clinical research more accessible.  

What are your career highlights?  

I think going back to university at 50 and getting a PhD has to be one of the highlights, and it has opened up a whole range of opportunities, including my role at RCVS Knowledge.  

From a more clinical perspective I was always lucky enough to work in practices where we were part of the local community and were able to provide good continuity of care. Perhaps the most memorable example of this was a puppy that I delivered by Caesarean section, looked after all her life, including delivery of her own puppies and was the one to put her to sleep when the time came.  

Can you tell us something about yourself that might surprise people?  

Based on the information above it probably won’t surprise anyone to know that I am still studying, this time Applied Neuroscience with King’s College London. I am also trying to learn some basic German so that I can read to my grandson, who lives in Germany.  

Would you like to learn more about Sally’s work with inFOCUS?

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