RCVS Veterinary Nursing Awarding Body streamlines visits

The Veterinary Nursing Awarding Body of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons is streamlining the activities of its External Verifier (EV) team, meaning that its 53 Veterinary Nursing Approved Centres and approximately 1,500 VN Training Practices will receive fewer visits in the future.

The changes follow recommendations made by an Independent Review of the qualification commissioned by the College in 2005, which called for increased devolution of responsibility across the training structure in recognition of the fact that the veterinary nursing training system had found its feet since veterinary nurse National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) were introduced in 1999.

New procedures agreed by the veterinary nursing Awarding Body will mean approximately 25% fewer visits will take place each year, with some checks that were previously carried out on separate occasions being brought together.

For example, those centres supporting both the NVQ and the Vocationally Related Qualifications (Certificates in VN Theory) previously would have been visited three times per year and will now only be visited twice. In addition, there is a requirement from the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority that affiliated training practices are visited every six years: in future, it may be possible for these visits to replace one of the two annual centre visits.

"This more hands-off approach reflects the growing experience of those involved in the delivery of veterinary nurse training," according to Mrs Julie Dugmore, Quality Assurance Manager for the RCVS Awarding Body. "It's a positive move which aims to reduce disruption and make the verification process more efficient, while allowing centres and their training practices more autonomy to address their operational requirements."