Dot Creighton, a former president of the British Veterinary Nursing Association has been announced as this year’s recipient of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) Veterinary Nursing Golden Jubilee Award. Dot was nominated for the Award by fellow veterinary nurse Lindsey Raven-Emrich, who praised her enthusiasm and input to the profession.
Dot devised the concept of VN Awareness Day as a way of making animal owners and local communities more aware of veterinary nurses and what they do. This subsequently developed into an awareness week and now National VN Awareness Month, which takes place every May.
Kathy Kissick, Chair of VN Council said, “Dot has worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the veterinary nurse, both within the profession and with the general public. She has always supported the student veterinary nurse in training and leads by example at all time inspiring nurses to stay in or return to practice even when life changes their circumstances.
“Dot is an inspiration to many, many nurses and always commits 100% to the welfare of the animals in her care and to her clients. I congratulate her on achieving this award.”
Dot, who is currently working in practice in Essex, said she was delighted to win the award at such a crucial time for the profession. She added, “It couldn’t be a more exciting time to train to be a veterinary nurse- we have a robust training scheme, we are pushing and advancing the boundaries of veterinary nursing practice, we are seeing veterinary nurses branch out into different fields of clinical practice and most importantly, the new Royal Charter officially recognises veterinary nursing as a regulated profession.”
The Award will be given to Dot at this year’s RCVS Day which takes place on Friday 10th July in Westminster.