Improve International Announces Recipient of 2021 Louise O’Dwyer Vet Nurse Scholarship

15 June 2023 -

Jennifer Busby RVN awarded a free place on its NCert ECC

Jennifer Busby RVN, an anaesthesia nurse at Dick White Referrals in Newmarket, has been announced as the recipient of Improve International’s 2021 Louise O’Dwyer Vet Nurse Scholarship. She has been awarded a free place on the company’s Nurse Certificate in Emergency and Critical Care (NCert ECC) programme, which starts in December 2021.

Modules include Triage, Monitoring and Stabilisation; Fluid Therapy in the Emergency Patient and Medical Emergencies. The programme includes a final practical module at Improve International’s state-of-the-art wet lab, during which delegates practise the techniques they have learned.

Louise O’Dwyer was a highly respected and awarded ECC veterinary nurse, who was passionate about ECC and an inspiration to her colleagues. She lectured not only on Improve International’s NCert ECC programme but also on its other nursing courses and at congresses around the world.  She died in 2019.

Commenting, Jennifer Busby said: “I am thrilled and shocked to have been selected as the winner of the Louise O’Dwyer legacy scholarship.

“Louise has been a massive inspiration and role model to me throughout my career.  When I started veterinary nursing, a lecture of hers was one of the first I attended and I felt empowered through her passion and knowledge to further my own career in a similar way. I have been lucky enough to be able to follow my interests in veterinary nursing anaesthesia but have always had a passion for ECC.  Receiving this scholarship will enable me to further my interest and training in this field. I want to thank her family, together with Improve International, for this amazing opportunity.”

Dr Charlotte French, Head of Curriculum and Quality and UK Country Manager for Improve International, said: “We wanted to do something special to remember Louise O’Dwyer, who was such a talented and well-respected speaker on this course and within the profession.

“This annual scholarship in her name enables a veterinary nurse, technician or paraprofessional the opportunity of a sponsored place on our NCert ECC Programme. We would like to thank Louise’s family for assisting us in selecting someone whom they feel she would have considered would truly benefit from this postgraduate training and qualification.”

The full cost of the programme is covered, together with the examination fee for the International School of Veterinary Postgraduate Studies (ISVPS), which awards the qualification.  The successful applicant will also receive a copy of the textbook ‘Practical Emergency and Critical Care Veterinary Nursing,’ written by Ms O’Dwyer with Dr Paul Aldridge.

For more information on the ECC course from Improve International, visit the website.