What's on our agenda at BVNA Congress 2017?

This year we will be talking to delegates at BVNA Congress in Telford, about the future of veterinary nursing, career diversification and mental health.

Following our recent consultation with veterinary nurses and vets on Schedule 3 of the Veterinary Surgeons Act, which allows vets to delegate certain minor surgical procedures and medical treatment to veterinary nurses, we will be talking to delegates at Congress (6-8 October) about what it means to them in practice.

Our stand will have a Schedule 3-themed game in which delegates will be given a list of procedures and then asked to decide whether or not they could be delegated to a veterinary nurse under Schedule 3 of the VSA. Julie Dugmore, our Director of Veterinary Nursing, and Beth Jinks, Advice Officer, will also be giving a talk at the Congress on Saturday 7 October from 2pm to 3pm about the Code of Professional Conduct and how it relates to Schedule 3.

Julie Dugmore explains: “We conducted our consultation on Schedule 3 earlier this year for two main reasons: to gauge how both vets and vet nurses applied it in practice and to consider possible changes that could be made to the legislation so that veterinary nurses could perform additional tasks. We hope that, with the game and with our talk, we can encourage veterinary nurses to think about their understanding of Schedule 3 and how it could be changed to bolster their profession.”

Visitors to our stand will also be able to get an update on the VN Futures project and the latest progress on all its major workstreams including One Health, structured and rewarding career paths, creating a sustainable workforce and having a confident, healthy and resilient workforce.

In order to demonstrate the rewarding career paths available to veterinary nurses the College has worked with the BVNA to develop a series of case studies to show the different areas of work available to nurses including academia, management, industry and even the military. These will be available to view on the VN Futures section of the Vet Futures website.

Allied to this there will also be an on-stand survey to ask delegates whether they would like to see the development of an Advanced Veterinary Nurse status and, if so, the areas in which they would like to developed advanced skills.

Furthermore, there will also be a Mind Matters stream at Congress (named after our Mind Matters mental health initiative) on Saturday 7 October.

Talks during this stream will cover issues such as coaching and mentoring staff and mental health first aid.

A full programme for Congress is available from the BVNA website.