Redbourn awarded Compassion Understood Platinum status

Following the successful completion of the course, they have been awarded Platinum accredited status – the highest level available.

We are all pet owners ourselves so know only too well that losing your pet can be a devastating experience.

The training, run by pet loss specialists Compassion Understood, helped vet Shireen Brewster, head nurse Sophie Harris and student veterinary nurse Jess Stacy to learn to support owners at this difficult time, offering practical advice on protocols and veterinary procedures to make a pet’s end of life as smooth and compassionate as possible. They also learned about the different stages of grief and the range of emotions experienced by owners going through it.

Shireen Brewster explained: “We are all pet owners ourselves so know only too well that losing your pet can be a devastating experience. We care passionately about our patients and saying goodbye to a much-loved family pet is unfortunately one of the more difficult and sad aspects of our work. We wanted to ensure that we were doing everything we could to help owners to know when they should perhaps start thinking about it and, when the time comes, to make the process as smooth and as dignified as possible.

“The online course highlighted other ways in which we can help our clients and their pets into handling end-of-life discussions and patient care both compassionately and sensitively. We have already introduced some of what we learned into practice.”  She added: “Nothing we can do will make saying goodbye easy but we hope that the additional training we have all undertaken will mean that we improve the experience we offer to our clients at this sad time and help them to process their grief.”