Shelly Jefferies
Head Nurse
Shelly qualified from Bristol University in 1999. She has since completed a European Nursing Certificate, Certificates in Canine Massage and Canine Psychology, and more recently a BSAVA Merit award in Canine Rehabilitation and the BVNA certificate in Wound Management. Shelly is also a qualified assessor and clinical coach, and is responsible for the training of our student nurses.
Her main nursing interests are emergency care, critical care and medical nursing, but she can also often be found in a kennel providing some much needed TLC for our patients. Shelly is a strong believer in making the patient feel settled and loved during their stay, as there is strong evidence that this speeds up their recuperation and patients fear their next visit less. She says even after all these years of nursing it still makes her heart warm, when a dog or cat returns to the surgery for a check up or vaccination and they are pleased and even excited to see her.
During her nursing career Shelly has worked in Veterinary Hospitals as well as overseeing the care of 17 horses and 37 German Shepherds at a private breeding yard. This gave her lots of hands-on experience in breeding, whelping and rearing puppies, and she is often the person to volunteer to take orphans or hand rears home for the night.
Outside of work Shelly is a Bandaging Angel with the Veterinary Wound Library, providing training on wound and bandage care to practices all over the South West. She is also the proud owner of Daphne the Boston Terrier, and Hugo the French Bulldog, as well as Norman her rescue cat flu kitty.
