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RCVS Council member Professor the Lord Trees has today submitted a Private Members’ Bill to the ballot of the House of Lords which would legally protect the title ‘Veterinary Nurse’.
If the Bill is drawn sufficiently highly in the ballot, it will be debated in the Lords and the Commons. If approved by both Houses, it'll become law.
As it is drawn up, the Bill would prohibit use of the title ‘Veterinary Nurse’ for any person whose name is not on the RCVS Register of Veterinary Nurses. Any non-registered person who used the title Veterinary Nurse or a name, title or description that implied they were on the Register would be guilty of an offence and may be fined or convicted under the Veterinary Surgeons Act.
Lord Trees said: “It is very exciting, and a privilege, to be entering a Private Members’ Bill to protect the title veterinary nurse into the ballot for Private Members’ Bills in Parliament. If we are drawn high enough in the ballot and if we can get Parliamentary time – two important ‘ifs’ – I am confident that the Bill will receive total cross-party support.
“It would mark the final brick in the wall of creating a fully-fledged, recognised and protected veterinary nursing profession. This is what the veterinary nursing profession merits and the public deserve.”
The House of Lords ballot will be drawn before the summer recess. In the meantime, the RCVS is encouraging registered veterinary nurses to back its campaign to protect the title and raise awareness of the issue with their clients.
Further details about the campaign, including a short animated film, can be found at www.rcvs.org.uk/vntitle
PS: Whilst you're here, take a moment to see our latest job opportunities for vet nurses.
Don't we have to start somewhere? This is a great big step in the right direction. Yes there is awareness issues but that has to come down to the practices and individual RVN's helping to educate owners on the value of ALL the skill sets in their team. This isn't undermining other very experienced staff but if we don't have our title protected we may as well do away with the qualification all together! I am proud of my RVN status and worked hard - and continue to work hard for the benefit of the profession I am passionate about and I want the Veterinary Nurse title to be protected.
to be fair its a bit of both. Protecting the name is a start so people could double check things, I would hope this would be a start of things where the RCVS states it law that only REGISTERED AND TRAINED nurses are allowed to carry out nursing procedures. This should also include this "qualified microchip implanter" rubbish that I notice going around on FB at the moment..
and we all know where 'assume' gets us - so essentially protecting a name is more important than a standard of care for all practices?
this would protect the title. As once people are informed this is one of our "nurses" the general public automatically assume they are qualified and registered. If they have to State that they are an assistant they this would make the public think about actually who is monitoring any anaesthesia or have they actually had any training. I would then like to assume, this will encourage practices to either train and allow staff to attend college or employ Registered Vet Nurses.
Sorry but I am really not getting this - what exactly are we protecting? There will still be a very large number of unqualified nursing staff (whatever you want to call them) in practice because there is no legal requirement for nursing staff to be qualified and as an extension of that for them to be regulated. So if this is 'the final brick' this is the best you can hope for?