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VN Futures Board

VN Futures Board reports progress

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The new VN Futures Board met for the third time at BSAVA Congress in early April where discussions included the formalization of working groups around key themes from the 2016 VN Futures report.

A spokesperson said:

“The Working Groups are where the real work and delivery of the VN Futures initiative lives. We are fortunate to be able to draw upon a breadth of talent and diversity of interests. This is a timely refresh of the membership of our Working Groups ensuring members are available and willing to help progress these important matters.”

Several vacancies have arisen and so the VN Futures Board is calling for interested and experienced nurses to contact them if they are interested in getting involved.

The VNF Board also discussed communications and keeping the profession up to date with progress on the VNF initiative, the work of the Board and the achievements of the Working Groups. Notable achievements to date include the emerging Post Registration Qualifications Framework.

A spokesperson said:

“It is exciting to hear exactly what is happening when you are so close to the project – but for many this is not the case. We have to let people know this has not gone cold or lost momentum and that real improvements are being worked on.”

Efforts discussed included: providing a calendar of forward activities and events, promoting the VNF work amongst students and staff art HE and FE institutions. The Board also recognized the importance of developing key messages and engaging through social media.

Vet Futures: full steam ahead during first year of action phase

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One year on from the Vet Futures Summit, and excellent progress has been made on key actions that are putting the veterinary profession in charge of its future, made possible through great engagement from the veterinary and veterinary nursing professions.

 Vet Futures, powered by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) and the British Veterinary Association (BVA), created a blueprint for the future of the veterinary profession, and over the past twelve months activity has been taking place across the professions to put the plan into action.

The Vet Futures Summit took place on 4 July 2016 at the Royal Veterinary College in Camden, and saw the launch of the Vet Futures Action Plan and the VN Futures Report and Action Plan in front of an assembled audience of vets, nurses, students and stakeholders from the UK and overseas.

The Vet Futures Action Plan included a series of 24 work-streams to be completed over five years (2016-2020), building on the six core themes of: animal health and welfare; veterinary professionals’ wider roles in society; the health and wellbeing of veterinary professionals; diverse and rewarding veterinary careers; sustainable businesses and user-focused services; and leadership.

Over the last twelve months, key activities have included:

  • The setting up of a UK One Health Coordination Group, which will meet for the first time later this year, bringing together representatives from the veterinary, medical and environmental professions to provide a focus for One Health activity in the UK, and delivering the actions in the BVA animal welfare strategy (Actions A and F).
  • The establishment of the Veterinary Animal Welfare Coalition, which aims to coordinate public communications on key animal welfare issues to amplify messages about the five welfare needs. The Coalition has launched the five welfare needs logo and undertaken PR and social media activity throughout National Pet Month (Action D).
  • The launch, by the Veterinary Schools Council (VSC) Research Committee, of a UK summer studentship programme that aims to increase the number of vets engaged in research – 16 students will start the programme this summer (Action E).
  • The planning stages for an online careers hub as a one-stop-shop for anyone interested in studying for, or progressing, their veterinary career (Action G).
  • The launch of a Graduate Outcomes project to consider the skills and competences of future veterinary professionals, including the viability and desirability of limited licensure, the behaviours and skills required of veterinary graduates and how the undergraduate course might be structured in the future (Actions H, I and J).
  • A survey amongst non-UK EU graduates to better understand the support required by this group (as well as their intentions with regard to working in the UK post-Brexit), which received a 55% response rate (Action K).
  • A collaborative research project on workforce issues with psychologists at the University of Exeter, as part of which researchers are currently undertaking a literature review and analysing existing data in preparation for further research into some of the major workforce trends and challenges (Action L).
  • Research towards the development of a leadership massive open online course (MOOC) and also a hub to promote and develop leadership skills at all levels within the veterinary profession (Action Q).
  • The creation of an Innovation Symposium, to be held at the Warwick Business School campus in the Shard on 20 September 2017, which will bring together thought-leaders and those involved in innovative veterinary technologies and business models, to lead discussions on how these can be embraced by the profession. The event will also see the launch of an online innovation hub (Action R).
  • A consultation across the professions and the public to gather views around how new veterinary technologies should be regulated, with a view to establishing a framework to encompass future innovations; around 1,500 views were received and the findings are being considered by the RCVS Standards Committee (Action S).
  • Agreement on options for a framework for the regulation of allied professionals by RCVS Council at its June 2017 meeting, which are now being progressed into more detailed proposals (Action U).
  • Following discussion with the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE), the Vet Futures model is now being embraced across Europe, with the FVE adopting aspects of it into their own strategy plan, and France, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark developing similar projects. Some of the European associations, such as the Federation of European Companion Animal Veterinary Associations and the European Veterinarians in Education, Research and Industry, have now added Vet Futures Europe to their strategies (Action W).

VN Futures

The VN Futures project (Action X of Vet Futures) isolated six ambitions to achieve by 2020, with the shorter time-scale reflecting the faster rate of both turnover and training for veterinary nurses.

A number of development groups have been created, focusing on each of these ambitions and creating specific actions to ensure their completion. Of these:

  • The One Health Working Party has collaborated with the Royal College of Nursing on smoking cessation.
  • The Careers Progression Group has met twice and is planning four regional events, the first of which will take place at Hartpury College in Gloucester on 11 July, and will focus on veterinary nurses as managers.
  • The Schedule 3 Working Party has asked vets and nurses for their thoughts on, and experiences of, the role of the veterinary nurse. About 35% of veterinary nurses and 20% of veterinary surgeons responded, feeding into a wider analysis of whether Schedule 3 should be reformed.

“When we launched Vet Futures back in 2014, the scope of the project seemed daunting and some were sceptical of our ability to succeed. However, through a robust process of evidence-gathering, analysis, action planning and now taking action itself, we are starting to make an impact on some of those core areas that are so fundamental to the future of our profession, such as animal welfare, technology, veterinary skills and knowledge, and leadership,” says RCVS President, Chris Tufnell.

“Our Action Plan set out a five-year timeframe and we have made some really excellent progress in year one. This will form the foundation of work yet to come – although it remains important to ensure we scan the horizon for new issues that will have an impact on the profession, navigating our way through challenges as they arise.”

BVA President Gudrun Ravetz adds: “The excitement was palpable at the Vet Futures Summit last year and it spurred us on to roll up our sleeves immediately to start working on the Action Plan, and so a lot has been achieved already.

“Many of the actions are interlinked and so BVA, RCVS and the VSC are working closely together to oversee their delivery, but we have been particularly pleased at the high level of engagement and enthusiasm from others. The success of Vet Futures will be in the profession coming together to bring about the changes we need for a sustainable future.”

VNs looking to themselves for change

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Daniel is Operations Manager at Dick White Referrals and a practising RVN. Daniel began his career as a Saturday receptionist at a small clinic and became a veterinary nurse in 2007, moving on to become Head Nurse at a large 24-hour veterinary hospital in East London.

Daniel holds the A1/V1 Clinical Coach qualifications, Level 3 in British Sign Language and is currently completing a Chartered Management Institute Level 7 qualification in Strategic Leadership. Daniel works across HR, strategy and development, facilities management, health and safety and leadership.

Daniel Hogan

Daniel Hogan

My current role is Operations Manager at Dick White Referrals. Starting my career as a veterinary nurse in a variety of roles, and moving to senior management positions, I have always been passionate about the profession and my role within it, but felt that the nursing profession was under-valued and lacked recognition for the important roles RVNs play. I also believed that this attitude towards RVNs restricted our full potential.

Having not previously been engaged with the RCVS and other professional organisations, I felt it was time to play a more proactive role in influencing the future of our profession and joined the Vet Futures and VN Futures projects. Immediately it was clear that a large amount of work had already been started, but there was still a substantial task ahead of us.

Both Action Groups contained a fantastic mix of professionals from an array of backgrounds with a variety of experience, but the real challenge was capturing everybody’s thoughts and ideas and placing them within the context of a working document; a challenge I hope we have met.

It was fantastic to see that everyone shared the same passion for the profession and, more promisingly, that the veterinary nursing profession could address its own issues separately.

VN Futures hosted several evening meetings to meet RVNs from around the country to obtain feedback about their priorities for the future and discuss what were felt to be the biggest issues in the profession. The response was incredible and covered a range of practical, current and future issues. More importantly, we discussed where we wanted our profession to be!

Initially I was apprehensive that the ambitions were too big and not manageable and I had a genuine concern that it was the same issues being addressed by the same organisations. We have, however, engaged with people from across the entire veterinary and veterinary nursing professions and, crucially, those outside the veterinary world.

Many in the VN profession are unhappy and we would be naive to assume everything is perfect. Whether it is low salaries, poor working conditions, lack of training opportunities, disappointing progression routes, absence of support from the employer, or a lack of recognition for the work that we do, we now have an opportunity to make a change.

So I truly believe that both the Vet and VN Futures plans will modernise and develop our professions for the better and, importantly, that we will achieve this within a credible timeframe.

I urge everyone who works in the veterinary team to engage with the action plans. This is our profession and our opportunity to contribute to its future.

VN Futures project launched

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The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) and the British Veterinary Nursing Association (BVNA) have launched VN Futures, a companion project to Vet Futures, which aims to draw up a blueprint for the future of the veterinary nursing profession.

One of the recommendations of the Vet Futures report (Taking charge of our future: a vision for the veterinary profession for 2030), which was published in November 2015, was to “encourage veterinary nurse leaders to develop a report and recommendations which are directly relevant to veterinary nurses and their future…”.

Following a joint meeting between the RCVS VN Council and the Council of the BVNA in October 2015, it was decided that a ‘VN Futures’ project would provide the relevant leadership and engagement to achieve this.

An initial meeting with a broad range of stakeholders took place at the RCVS on 7 January 2016, and, following this, a VN Futures Action Group has now been established to take the project forward, with the aim of delivering an action plan at the Vet Futures Summit in the summer.

The Action Group includes a mix of individuals involved in the training, representation, regulation, employment and management of veterinary nurses.

The timeframe under consideration for Vet Futures is until 2030, however, it was considered that a five-year timeline may be more appropriate for veterinary nursing, given that it’s a younger profession, the retention rate is lower, and the training cycle is shorter.

The VN Futures project is running a series of evening meetings to engage with VNs and those involved in the profession, as follows:

  • 14 March, University of Bristol, Langford, Bristol BS40 5DU
  • 18 April, the College of Animal Welfare, Topcliffe Close, Capitol Park, Tingley, Leeds WF3 1DR
  • 11 May, Edinburgh Napier University, Sighthill Campus, Edinburgh EH11 4BN
  • 17 May, Nottingham Belfry Hotel, Mellors Way, Notts NG8 6PY, this will be a discussion stream within an RCVS Regional Question Time meeting
  • 31 May, SSE SWALEC Stadium, Cardiff CF11 9XR, this will be a discussion stream within an RCVS Regional Question Time meeting

The meetings are free to attend and will start at 6.30pm, with a buffet supper. To register visit the VN Futures Eventbrite page.

“The VN Futures project aims to deliver an action plan that will help take the veterinary nursing profession into its next phase of development. With the new Charter now in place, and a willingness from Defra to review Schedule 3, the time is ripe for us to take control of what happens next,” says Liz Cox, Chair of the RCVS VN Council.

“The key to VN Futures’ success will be collaboration – I am delighted that we are working with the BVNA on this, together with other representative bodies – and also engagement: we want to hear VNs’ aspirations for their profession to ensure our action plan is as relevant and far-reaching as possible. I look forward to seeing a good turn-out for our roadshow events,” she added.

Sam Morgan, BVNA President, says: “BVNA is delighted to be working alongside RCVS VN Council on this project. We fully believe in the importance of the veterinary nurse within practice and think this project can help shape the future of the profession. Being involved in the Vet Futures project, via BVA, was an eye-opener, and that only just touched on our own profession; we now have the chance to look at veterinary nursing specifically, and it is an opportunity not to be missed. Knowing where we want to take the profession will make it so much easier to reach the goal.”

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