Learn more about the work of the
Equine Clinical Board (ECB)
Clinical Quality Improvement
Clinical Quality Improvement (QI) is a key activity for the ECB. QI activities can vary from a great discussion about a clinical case, through to clinical audit and significant event meetings. QI is about learning from each other and our past experiences. It’s about questioning what we do and exploring ways we can progress our standards and consistency of care, for the benefit of the patients we treat, our clients and our teams.
Examples of some of our current QI projects include:
Equine Critically Important Antibiotic Audit
This report contains an in-depth audit of antibiotic purchasing data across equine only practices in the VetPartners group, using data from the past four years. We have prioritised ceftiofur and enrofloxacin as two key Critically Important Antibiotics (CIAs) in equine practice, while also monitoring trimethoprim/sulfadiazine to evaluate any shifts in the usage of a first-line, licensed antibiotic as our CIA purchasing patterns change.
Equine Clinical Insights
Twice a year we publish Insights to keep our teams up to date on key Clinical Board activities within VetPartners. The Clinical Board is for everyone in our teams working with clients and their animals. To make us as effective as possible it is important that clinical teams know about us, what we do and know how to join and contribute to our activities. You can preview a sample of Equine Clinical Insights by downloading the PDF version or streaming our new audio edition, launched this year.
Clinical Research and Development
The ECB are passionate about encouraging and supporting clinical research. We drive the creation of new knowledge, directly relevant to clinical practice in response to our teams’ needs, to progress care both within the group and the broader profession.
All our research comes from ideas in practice that our teams want to focus on because there is a knowledge gap and as a big group it is possible to do research on a large scale.
Examples of some of our current clinical research projects include:
Project WORMS
Project WORMS recognises that veterinary teams and owners need to work together to tackle resistance to worming products. A responsible approach to the use of wormers is crucial to maximise animal welfare and ensure we have effective products available in the future.
We have now published four papers in total; parts one and part two of the owner survey as well as parts one and two of the stud survey. We are now continuing the collaboration and asking livery and competition training yard owners/managers how they control worms on their yard. This survey has recently closed, and we have begun work on the analysis.
Press release:
myvetpartners.co.uk/post/livery-yard-owners-urged-to-help-fight-anthelmintic-resistance
Project NURSE
This ongoing project aims to improve animal health and welfare by addressing the strong interest among our equine nursing teams in developing their clinical roles and providing more client-facing services.
In April 2024 we published part one of this study on owner perceptions, before launching and completing part two which asked equine nursing teams about their current role, as well as their thoughts on career progression.
Press release:
vetpartners.co.uk/news/equine-clients-welcome-ambulatory-nursing-care-for-their-horses/
Creating Clinical Decision-making Resources
Working with our Clinical Interest Groups (CIGs) and Clinical Board Support Team (CBST), the ECB have created numerous evidence-based resources to support our teams in practice, review new medicines which have come on the market and address knowledge gaps that have been identified in practice.
For the duration of BEVA, we have made several resources open access to share examples of the work we carry out and offer support our new graduate colleagues:
Equine Veterinary Nurse STIRRUP Poster (click for more information)
This poster can support teams in identifying how to support and utilise nurses to improve workflow, patient care and nurse team job satisfaction.
What Can Equine Nurses Do? Toolkit (click for more information)
This toolkit aims to identify activities that can be safely and consistently delegated to Registered Veterinary Nurses.
Elisa Tapeworm Testing in Horses (click for more information)
This resource, prepared by the Equine Medicine Clinical Interest Group, outlines the diagnostic tests for tapeworm, their advantages and disadvantages and discusses some of the common myths surrounding tapeworms.
Retained Fetal Membrane (RFM) Decision Making Flow Chart (click for more information)
This decision making flow chart outlines possible approaches to retained fetal membranes (RFM).