Support us

Alison Skipper

Hi I'm Alison Skipper. I've been a small animal vet for a long time, and I'm also currently writing up a PhD in Veterinary History at Kings College London, funded by the Wellcome Trust.

The library, archives and staff at RCVS Knowledge have been an invaluable help during my research, and so I was really pleased to be able to give something back by volunteering for the transcription project.

I really enjoyed this insight into the early years of our profession, and I got a lot better at reading early Victorian handwriting. My own thesis looks at the history of health and disease in pedigree dog breeding. Through RCVS Knowledge, I was able to read through 100 years worth of veterinary journals, and see letters from the past that gave me a unique insight into the story of canine health work. 

But I've also learnt a lot about our profession in other ways. Most of the issue and challenges we face today have a long history, and RCVS Knowledge preserves that history to inform our professional futures.

It helps us gain perspective on animal welfare and science, it helped me understand what I could do for pedigree dog health and why. And maybe, it can help you understand your place in our profession, and how you can help contribute to our common future.

Louise Buckley

Hello my name is Louise Buckley I'm a veterinary nurse and I've been involved with RCVS Knowledge for about five years now. So I  currently sit on the editorial board for Veterinary Evidence, I review submissions that come in, I'm a member of the inFOCUS clinical review team and I am also the author of about nine different Knowledge Summaries.

So I use the RCVS Knowledge resources extensively in my role as an educator and through extracurricular activities like journal clubs aimed at vet students. So I'm currently running a course on evidence-based practice aimed at paraprofessionals, like clinical animal behaviourists and that's built heavily around the EBVM learning resource but also utilizes things like the toolkits and the significant event and clinical auditing templates that RCVS Knowledge provides.

I also use these QI resources to develop my educational governance and now regularly run significant event audits and educational audits on aspects of my teaching. So if you're watching this and you're interested in getting involved, I would say go for it! Whether you've got time to offer, money to offer you really won't regret it.

RCVS Knowledge is playing a key role in shaping the future of our veterinary profession and we really would love you to be more a part of that process. Thank you for listening.

Yaiza Gómez Mejías

 Hi, my name is Yaiza, and I am a small animal practitioner working in the UK and Spain. I volunteer with RCVS Knowledge as a member of the clinical review team for inFOCUS. This involves helping to identify the most useful articles to include, and helping to make sure that the summaries are clinically relevant. inFOCUS is a way of keeping up-to-date with the latest evidence. It watches a wide range of veterinary journals, to provide vets with summaries of interesting and recent publications that are relevant to their work.

Every 2 months, you receive in your inbox a newsletter containing those summaries and a bottom line for implementation in practice. As the number of monthly publications available is rather large, it may be difficult to keep up. Vets and vet nurses are busy and there is not much time for reading. The Knowledge Library does a great job by picking the most useful information and offering it to you in a reader-friendly manner. Amongst the different ways you may choose to help improving the veterinary profession, supporting RCVS Knowledge is definitely a good one.

 Danny Chambers

Hi, my name is Danny Chambers, I'm a Trustee of the charity RCVS Knowledge, and I find my involvement with this organisation extremely rewarding because the information that we provide empowers vets and vet nurses to incorporate evidence-based medicine into their daily veterinary practice. And that has a huge impact on animal health and welfare. And we'd absolutely love you to be involved as well, and one of the best ways you can do that is to help answer one of our Knowledge Summaries.

Now, a Knowledge Summary is an answer to a very specific question that we deal with on a daily basis within veterinary practice, just for example, what type of suture pattern should we use to close the linear alba. And if you are involved in either submitting a question or, with the help of the RCVS Knowledge staff, publishing an answer to that, the information you provide will go globally, and it will affect how vets make decisions regarding that situation worldwide. And the feeling you get knowing you are impacting animal welfare on a global scale is absolutely phenomenal. So I'd really encourage you to get involved in answering one of these RCVS Knowledge Summaries. Thank you.

Jenny Brown

Hello, I'm Jenny Brown and I volunteer for the RCVS Knowledge Quality Improvement team. Alongside my role in first opinion practice, I'm the clinical lead for RCVS Knowledge's new project to create a national audit of post-operative outcomes. I chose to get involved with this project because quality improvement is something that I've become really interested in over the last few years alongside looking at human factors and how we can limit avoidable harm.

Through this project, I hope to play my part in making the journey surgical journey as safe as it can be for the patients that are entrusted into our care. I also feel that by donating my time to this project I'm giving something back to the profession that I've loved being part of for over 16 years. RCVS Knowledge is playing a part in shaping the future of our profession and I'm really excited to be involved. If you want to get involved with volunteering for RCVS Knowledge, I'd really encourage you to do it. It doesn't have to be a huge commitment, you'll get to meet some amazing people along the way even if it is only virtually at the moment!

Amanda Boag

Hello, I'm Amanda Boag, Chair of the RCVS Knowledge Board of Trustees. It's been a huge year for the charity. 2020 has been a challenging year. We've adapted our work to ensure our resources were delivered to veterinary professionals when they needed them most. The wide-reaching impact of our resources has made a difference across the industry, with colleagues including Blue Cross, CVS, RSPCA, PDSA and Vets Now accessing our COVID hub, enabling them to deliver the best possible care to animals who needed it in challenging circumstances.

The RCVS Knowledge team is driven by a passion for improving veterinary care. None of our work would be possible without the support so many people donate to us, whether it be financial contributions, clinical expertise or trustee support. If you can support us in any of these ways please get in touch by our website. Thank you to everyone who has supported RCVS Knowledge this year.

Helen Silver-MacMahon

Hello my name is Helen Silver MacMahon. I'm a veterinary nurse and I volunteer with RCVS Knowledge's Quality Improvement team. Alongside my work as an education consultant and my master's on patient safety and clinical human factors, I'm on the Quality Improvement features working group and the inFOCUS clinical review team. I find it hugely rewarding to collaborate with like-minded people, passionate about ensuring patient safety through the implementation of quality improvement and human factors in practice.

As part of the Animal Health Trust theatre team, I was delighted to receive a Knowledge Champion award for our use of the surgical safety checklist. RCVS Knowledge's work is so important within the veterinary profession and the resources they produce are interesting, easy to use and freely available. So whether you are considering donating money or time to this fantastic charity I'm sure you'll be inspired and find it extremely rewarding.