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Vet Futures has published a guest blog by Laura Kidd MRCVS which asks how the profession can increase the number of veterinary nurses entering and staying within the profession?
In her blog, Laura, a VN lecturer and clinical skills tutor for veterinary students, argues that the year-on-year increases in the number of veterinary nurses seems to be insufficient to meet demand. Furthermore, there is a trend towards people leaving the profession relatively early, with the average age being just over 30.
She writes: “Identifying the reasons for VNs leaving the profession at a young age and addressing these, is one potential way of increasing VN numbers in the future.”
Laura argues that poor pay, stress, not feeling rewarded or valued and perceived lack of career progression all contribute to people leaving the profession, although she welcomes initiatives from the British Veterinary Nursing Association (BVNA), BVA, RCVS and others to increase the status of the profession, create more diverse career opportunities and improve the profession’s mental wellbeing.
However, she adds that: “perhaps we may, reluctantly, have to accept that, for the time-being, veterinary nursing is a young profession with a high turnover.”
With this in mind she suggests that training more veterinary nurses will be the key to increasing the number of qualified members of the profession in the immediate future. In order to do this she believes that more practices need to be supported to become RCVS-approved Training Practices offering clinical training and work experience for student veterinary nurses and that an alternative training pathway for veterinary nurses may need to be looked at.
She adds: “The entry requirements for the VN Diploma are relatively low, yet the qualification is academically demanding: the volume and depth of knowledge is considerable for the level and qualification and the requirement to demonstrate critical reflection through academic writing can be challenging.
“It is regrettable that some student veterinary nurses, who appear to have the qualities to be very good VNs, are lost to the profession, unable to pass awarding body exams. Should we be developing an additional VN training pathway which allows more students to demonstrate they have the required skills to provide high quality nursing to their patients?”
In response to her proposal, this month’s poll will ask visitors “Is there a need for another VN training option?” To read the blog, leave a comment and take part in the poll please visit www.vetfutures.org.uk/discuss
Last month’s poll asked if vets always acted as animal welfare advocates. This was in response to an article by animal welfare expect Professor David Main in which he argues that the profession should do more to demonstrate its animal welfare credentials and introduce safeguards against excessive profit-seeking. Although just 22 people took part in the poll, around two-thirds (68%) of them said that vets do not always act as animal welfare advocates.
PS: Whilst you're here, take a moment to see our latest job opportunities for vet nurses.
last reply didnt post?
so will try again. I was also saddened by the high turnover comment - for the 30+ years I have been in this job it has always been the same. This is not something that has ever changed - with the exception that now it is worse than ever with more of your qualified nurses (some of them only just qualified) joining the rapidly accelerating gravy train that has become vet nurse training rather than actual nursing at the front line. Further training pathways are going to do nothing to solve this problem, but will do plenty to compound it.
Lets take a look at some of the 'pathways' we have now.
The apprenticeship - the age at which a student nurse could start their training was conveniently dropped to 16 to make full use of the apprenticeship scheme. So now we have even younger 'student nurses', many of them lacking maturity and with no clear idea of what they want as a career except that they would like to work with animals (and this is common to a high proportion of school leavers in their first jobs, whatever their first jobs happen to be). Its perfectly legal to pay them an hourly wage as low as £2.73 (will go up to £3.30 1st October). They may set out with best of intentions and may be really keen to be a veterinary nurse but after a while of living with parents (if they are lucky) doing a full time job, earning what is essentially pocket money and using the time that they are not working to study ...... doesn't take a genius to work out that there will be an incredibly high drop out rate.
The degree - living on a student loan, placements may be paid if you are lucky but there is a good chance they wont be. The ones that get that far qualify (eventually) and take their degree into something more profitable, or get a taste for studying and decide they would like another degree in something else. There are very few that stay in actual nursing very long
On the job training - earning at least the minimum wage, but the training has now become so onerous and costly to some practices that they no longer bother so training places are scarcer than rocking horse dung. Once trained and qualified many of the newly qualified will drift off in search of the bright lights of the referral practice and its higher wages leaving the practice that did the work of training them to start all over again.
There is no actual requirement for a practice to employ qualified nurses. Many of them don't. I don't see that changing, it can't until the nurse training becomes more acceptable/accessible to practices so more of them take part and for that to happen the qualification has to be more in line with what the practice requires rather than what somebody on high has decided they should have, and it certainly won't if it has already been decided that it is acceptable for vet nursing to be a high turnover occupation.