Improve Veterinary Education’s Louise O’Dwyer Scholarship Awards Winner in Fourth Year of Running

14 September 2023 -
Patricia Rigio

Patricia Rigio RVN has been awarded the Louise O’Dwyer Scholarship run by Improve Veterinary Education (IVE) and will partake in its Emergency and Critical Care (ECC) ISVPS Nurse Certificate Programme at no cost.
The Scholarship was set up to continue the legacy of Louise O’Dwyer who passed away in 2018. Louise worked tirelessly in ECC, spoke at several events to help other veterinary professionals around the globe and she worked as a speaker for Improve Veterinary Education to educate other vet nurses. This year, the scholarship received over 30 entries across the UK.

Patricia Rigio RVN shared: “I was born and raised in Venezuela where I graduated as a marine biologist in 2012. I moved to the UK in 2014 because I wanted to improve my English, little did I know I would end up discovering veterinary nursing as a career and falling in love with it. I have been working mainly in general practice since I started my training in 2018 but after qualifying, I decided to support Vets Now in my spare time to gain more experience, this has fuelled my passion and interest in emergency and critical care.
I’m overjoyed to have been awarded the Louise O’Dwyer Scholarship this year. I feel truly honoured and lucky as this programme is an amazing opportunity for me to further my skills in ECC and to apply everything that I can learn through the programme in practice, to the benefit of my patients and to help my colleagues. Louise made a difference to thousands of pets throughout her life and motivated countless nurses and veterinary professionals around the globe with her expertise and desire to share knowledge, I can only hope to honour her legacy by motivating fellow nurses to strive for excellence as she did.
Thanks to Louise’s family and Improve Veterinary Education for this award.”

The ECC Nurse Certificate Programme is accredited by ISVPS and delivered by IVE as both a face to face and online learning programme. Spanning seven modules, it covers important subjects, including:
• Triage, monitoring and stabilisation
• Fluid therapy
• Medical emergencies
• Surgical emergency procedures and more

Charlotte French, Head of Business Development UK & US at Improve Veterinary Education, said: “Congratulations to Patricia for being selected for this wonderful initiative. We are excited to welcome
her into our learning community and help improve her skills, knowledge and experience in this challenging area of veterinary nursing.
“As a business, we take great pride in running the Louise O’Dwyer Scholarship and work closely with her family to select the winner. We look forward to what the future of this Scholarship will bring year after year.”