Valuing Veterinary Nurses

There are two sides to the phrase ‘the value of veterinary nurses’.

We all appreciate the value in the work they do, the vital role they play in patient care, and that the practice team could not function without them. But what about the financial value to practice business? How much is this overlooked?

Veterinary nurses are not just ‘the staff out the back’

“Veterinary nurses play a big role in the consulting room, not only as ‘assistants’ for the vets, but also as consulting professionals in their own right.”

“Veterinary nurses are not just ‘the staff out the back’ whose time is given away for ‘free’ in nurse clinics; they are expertly trained professionals who provide a necessary and valuable service for animals and their owners and their time is therefore worthy of a professional fee! “

A blog on this topic, published on the VN Futures site, is written by Stephanie-Writer Davies, who is a veterinary surgeon and a member of the VN Futures Career Progression Working Group.

Take a look, have a read. What do you think? Do your nurses have a tangible financial contribution to practice? Does your practice charge a fair fee for nursing services and consultations? If not, what is the reasoning behind this?

Why are so many nurse services provided for free?

I have long advocated that VNs should charge for their professional time, experience, training, expertise. I worked in a practice that charged for nurse consults, starting right back in 1999! So why are many practices so far behind? How does this tie in with nurse salaries, job satisfaction, recognition of nurses by the public – progression of our profession? In my opinion – it has an enormous impact. So why are so many nurse services provided for FREE!?

Take a look at the blog – comment, share, engage with this topic – it is really important to the future of our profession. If you would like to know more about VN Futures, then take a look at the website – and there are contact details there too if you want more information or would like to be involved in the project. I work part-time as the Project Manager for VN Futures and am passionate about driving our profession forwards. There are many arms to this, but this topic is a fundamental one.

Nurses have so much potential!

When I started ONCORE, besides providing engaging and demanding CPD (and anyone who has done a course with us knows you have to do some work!) – I wanted to help nurses really reach their full potential in practice by running successful clinics that provide excellent medical, nursing and preventative care. I speak to so many nurses who feel they are just not doing everything they were trained to do – they are standing at the sidelines, watching opportunities slip by, and feeling frustrated and under-utilised when it comes to medical management of patients.

I set up Nurse Clinics – putting your ideas into practice – to provide inspiration, support and guidance. To empower nurses to develop ideas for nurse-led clinics, then take them to the next level, and feel confident in implementing them alongside their team in practice. And to charge for their professional time!

We then added a series of shorter workshop-style courses to this, so that nurses could learn more about specific areas – and further workshops are planned.

We also aim to develop a course which will help nurses manage ongoing medical cases in practice – facilitating nurses playing the integral role in ongoing patient care that they can and should do. If you sign up for updates, you’ll be kept informed (see below).

This blog was part of one of our recent updates to our subscribers. If you’d like to register for updates, you can do that here.

Update from Jill Macdonald DipAVN (Surgical) RVN FHEA