Osteoarthritis for Vet Nurses – Updates, Clinical Assessment and Tips

Team management of osteoarthritis (OA) patients is gaining increased acceptance as the most effective means for optimising OA patient care. This culture shift presents an opportunity, and need, for veterinary nurses to gain further insight into OA, how it is diagnosed, advances in therapeutics and how to play a key role in delivering multimodal OA management plans.

This course will provide veterinary nurses with a concise OA update, empowering them to be confident collaborating with vets and other paraprofessionals in delivering effective OA care. The course will discuss new pharmaceutical and intra-articular therapeutics, provide an update on pain management in OA, include interactive case discussion scenarios and seek to provide insight into how OA clinics can be set up and delivered successfully in practice.

Topics to be covered:

• Clinical examination of OA patients
• Medical therapeutics update
• Intra-articular therapeutics overview
• OA case scenario discussion: ‘what, when and why’
• Chronic OA team management: why we must stay positive about chronic disease
• OA clinics: set up and management
• Assessment and review of OA: why once isn’t enough
• Measuring progress: CROM questionnaires and other tools
• ‘Feline’ a little creaky? Cat OA management