Vicki Harrington

RVN, DipCABT CCAB RQF Level 5

I have been working as a Veterinary Nurse since 1991 and remember wanting to be involved in veterinary medicine since I was 6 years old after getting our first dog, a Dobermann called Mitch. After leaving school I moved to Bristol to train and qualified as a RVN (Registered Veterinary Nurse) from Bristol Vet School in 1995.

I started working for Hook Norton vets in 1998 after moving to the area a couple of years before and I took over responsibility for our in-house lab shortly after starting. Lab work was something I had not had much experience of until this point and I found the subject fascinating and rewarding.

A couple years after Hook Norton Vets moved to our current premises on Sibford road I took over the Head Nurse position after covering the position for the previous Head Nurses maternity leave.

Since 2000 I have developed a keen interest in animal behaviour after attending a course on the subject in the hope that I could be better prepared to advise owners, as behaviour is not a subject we are able to spend a lot of time focusing on when training. From that first course I was hooked and started to study the subject. I gained Level 3 Diploma in Companion Animal Behaviour with COAPE (Centre for Applied Pet Ethology) shortly after and in 2004 worked my way to their level 4 diploma after which I started to run behaviour clinics for our clients. As it is a subject which is continually being researched, and as it progressed I continued to stay up to date and achieved a level 5 diploma with COAPE in 2015.

In 2018 I stepped down from the Head Nurse position to concentrate on my behaviour work alongside veterinary nursing. I am interested in many other areas within nursing, including inpatient care and medical nursing.

My most recent interests have been focused on chronic pain and pain relief alongside working towards reducing stress for patients visiting the surgery, alongside the ‘Fear Free’ initiative initially set up in the US (for which I hope we can become certified for). Although the correlation between pain and behaviour has always been recognised, in recent years this relationship has been proved to be much closer and more complex than once thought.

At home I enjoy spending time with my ‘fur babies’ a crossbreed called Luna and my two Moggies, Taz and CeCe.