The British Veterinary Nursing Association LTD

Oral Care Nurse
Get your teeth into oral and dental health!

Infection Control for Practice Standards
CPD to meet RCVS Practice Standards Scheme Core & Award Modules 3 month online course 120 hours of accredited CPD

BVNA Congress
BVNA Congress...The Veterinary Nursing Event of the Year! 9-11 October 2020 | Telford International Centre

VN Knowledge
Our online platform delivering webinars, webcasts & online learning tools for veterinary nurses. Proudly sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim

Available courses

Oral Care Nurse Get your teeth into oral and dental health!

Infection Control for Practice Standards CPD to meet RCVS Practice Standards Scheme Core & Award Modules 3 month online course 120 hours of accredited CPD

BVNA Congress BVNA Congress...The Veterinary Nursing Event of the Year! 9-11 October 2020 | Telford International Centre

VN Knowledge Our online platform delivering webinars, webcasts & online learning tools for veterinary nurses. Proudly sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim

Available courses

Oral Care Nurse
Get your teeth into oral and dental health!

Infection Control for Practice Standards
CPD to meet RCVS Practice Standards Scheme Core & Award Modules 3 month online course 120 hours of accredited CPD

BVNA Congress
BVNA Congress...The Veterinary Nursing Event of the Year! 9-11 October 2020 | Telford International Centre

VN Knowledge
Our online platform delivering webinars, webcasts & online learning tools for veterinary nurses. Proudly sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim

Infection Control for Practice Standards Cohort 11 June 2020

Oral Care Nurse 2020

Regional Co-ordinator 2016

BAVNS

Council

Infection Control for Practice Standards Cohort 11 June 2020

Oral Care Nurse 2020

Regional Co-ordinator 2016

BAVNS

Council

Pride - A Veterinary Nurse Prospective

Samantha Payne RVN, BVNA Council Member and representative on the RCVS Diversity and Inclusion Working Group, talks about diversity and Pride in London.

“Saturday June 27th, the streets of London should have been filled with hundreds of thousands of people celebrating Pride in London, but this year we’re having to find new ways to celebrate together. Many virtual Prides are being organised by friends, associations and groups across the country.

Celebrating diversity and inclusion is always important and we’re reminded of the importance of raising awareness when we see the continued attacks on the trans community - highlighting the need for further education and greater allies.

In 2019 Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons [RCVS] formed the Diversity and Inclusion Working Group [DIWG], created to ensure a focused approach moving on the issue. The aim of DIWG is to help continue breaking down the barriers in place in the selection, recruitment and retention of veterinary professionals, and to encourage more diversity within the profession. DIWG recognise there are many factors within the complex issue of diversity and inclusion and there is a long road ahead.

The Group continues to meet regularly to gather further information on where the profession is today, where we need to get to and also where we need to get to in the future.”

Samantha goes on to express her feelings on being a transgender veterinary nurse:

“Pride has a very personal meaning for myself. Being one of few transgender veterinary nurses in the profession, I aim to be out, and I am proud of my journey to where I am today.

I am a trans veterinary nurse and very aware of those in the profession who may need to see other members of the LGBT+ community before they feel they can be out themselves. There are far too many veterinary nurses who are not able to be out at home, let alone within the practice because of prejudices and fear of discrimination.”

What about the BVNA and support from other organisations? Samantha says…

“BVNA has a history of diversity but my hope for the future would be to increase diversity in terms of LGBT+ and BAME and my involvement in RCVS DIWG will help to increase the impact of BVNAs diversity and inclusion practices going forward.

Progress is made when different people with different experiences and backgrounds come together: we educate each other, we learn and grow. British Veterinary LGBT+ are a veterinary association that was created in 2016 to help the profession with education on LGBT+ issues within the work place and to celebrate diversity. Their continued aims are for better education at all levels from teaching to out in the work place. You can find them on Facebook and a new website will be online soon.”

Article written by Samantha Payne RVN, BVNA Council Member.
The Virtual Future of Veterinary Nursing Careers

In this day and age, social networking at our fingertips - does that mean your next career move is too?

Whether you’re looking for a new role in a new practice, wanting to venture into other industry related businesses, or even if you are happy in your current job, creating and maintaining an effective digital profile means you won’t let any exciting opportunities slip by!

The daunting task of job hunting used to involve flicking through newsletters or clicking through recruitment sites, preparing and updating a CV, applying for roles and then going through the interview process. But now in this progessive world, imagine an employer or recruiter reaching out to you? What if they could see your up-to-date achievements and strengths, and what if they could contact you directly to offer you a role they think you’re suitable for?

By using social media and networking, employers now have an opportunity to get a more three-dimensional view of who you are when applying for a role. So make it count - you are your own brand! Let’s take a look at how a digital profile lets you showcase your talent.

Free Online Event

The BVNA is proud to host a webinar on how to create a professional digital profile to help you take control of your career.

“The Virtual Future of Veterinary Nursing Careers” online event takes place on Wednesday, 1st of July at 7pm and you can register for free here.

It will cover:

â—�     How to set up a LinkedIn profile and maximise it for yourself

â—�     Learning how to be heard and seen in a virtual world

â—�     Discovering how to create opportunities for yourself

â—�     Exploring how to balance your own opportunities against loyalty to those who have given you chances

Our speaker, Dr Ben Sweeny, is a veterinary surgeon who is fueling a recruitment revolution through his agency “Simply Locums”. BVNA Vice President Wendy Nevins joins us too.

Linkedin

Linkedin is like a professional Facebook. There are profiles to view for both people and businesses; connections can be made, post can be shared and commented on, and there is a newsfeed to scroll through.

Your Linkedin profile is a modern-day CV and recruiters (whether they’re an agency or part of HR in a practice) will see your name, current job title and workplace, a summary about yourself, as well as your experience and where you have worked before.

Most recruiters use Linkedin to canvas CVs and stay ahead of the hiring-game by finding the best candidates for their customers.

Your profile:

â—�     Profile Picture - this should be a professional looking headshot. You want to look approachable too, so smile! Avoid selfies and cropped group photos. You can even have a colleague take one of you in your scrubs with your stethoscope.

â—�     About - this is where first impressions count, and you’re allowed to brag! Here you can briefly describe your success and progression in the industry, your career highlights, what your passions are, and what you are working towards professionally.

â—�     Featured - here you can share a few links and documents of things you have written or presented, or even photos of some work you have done. It's a visual showcase.

â—�     Background - this is similar to a CV where previous employment is listed and the tasks undertaken. You can use your previous job descriptions to help with the wording. This is also where you can list where you’ve studied and volunteered. There are often alumni pages for educational centers and it may help to open up your connections to people you previously studied with.

â—�     Skills and Endorsements - in this section you list the skills you have, and colleagues or those who have worked with you previously can endorse these. Think of them as your referees on your CV, they are vouching for you! Skills could include; anaesthesia, surgical nursing, customer service.

â—�     Accomplishments - this is similar to the featured section, but this lists everything you have achieved. It might be publications you have, projects you’ve worked on, any awards you have received, and even the languages you speak. In this section, use a lot of keywords to make your profile appear in the top of searches; veterinary, nurse, RVN, SVN, RCVS, animal, pet, vet

â—�     Permalink - this is changing the website link from a series of default numbers, to something tidier and memorable e.g. www.linkedin.com/yournameRVN

Many veterinary practices and businesses have a Linkedin page that you can follow. You can see their latest news and updates (new CT machine, maybe?), postings of new roles, and they may share some staff achievements or publications. It means you can start connecting by liking their posts, commenting on it, or sending a private message.

It’s not just about making contact with businesses too. Other organisations and charities use Linkedin to generate interest on what they stand for, and when you follow them it can show others what is important to you too.

Facebook and Instagram

These platforms are usually used as a private and personal platform, as well as businesses or organisations.

You can use it to join and follow veterinary groups and pages, and to make comments and share posts, which helps break the ice to start conversations - if there is a particular place you want to work, follow them on Facebook and engage them through commenting on their posts or send them a private message.

Although it is a personal platform where you can share things with your friends and family, there are some drawbacks which may include inappropriate posts on personal issues or professional information which can be seen by potential employers if the privacy settings are public. The RCVS also have social media guidance on what is appropriate to post, which can be read here.

To see what is public on your Facebook profile, go to your profile page and click the ‘eyeball’, or the ‘view as’ button and select ‘public’. If there are any posts you would like to restrict from the public setting, then click the ‘world’ icon and select ‘friends only’. If you want to make all previous posts private (friends only) then go to the Facebook Settings and Privacy tab > Privacy Shortcuts > See More Privacy Settings > Under ‘Your Activity’ selected ‘Limit Past Posts”.

On Instagram, simply go to the settings tab, click privacy and change your profile to private.

Twitter

On Twitter, you can share an informal side of your professional personality by tweeting and retweeting opinions and posts about your interests and passion within the veterinary industry.

You can also learn about an employer’s culture and values! They may share some non-veterinary posts like them making their tea-room a 100% recyclable zone, and this may align with your personal ethos too.

With Twitter, you can also follow hashtags that are important to you, which can open up new businesses or organisations to follow.

So where to start on this new modern-day adventure?

Start by doing a ‘spring clean’ and googling yourself.

The internet can be a big archive box for everything you’ve ever uploaded, commented on or liked. Click through a few search pages to see if there is any content you don’t want future employers to see (like commenting on a forum with bad language about a parking ticket issued a few years ago!). You’ll be able to see what's lurking in the background and still shows up when you are searched, and then you can work through the sites to delete or hide them.

Then secondly, register for our webinar here to get started on your digital future.
RCVS News: RCVS to hold first-ever virtual Annual General Meeting in July

The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) 177th Annual General Meeting will be the first to be held virtually in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the associated government guidance on social distancing.

The Annual General Meeting will take place via a dedicated online platform on Friday, 10 July 2020 starting at 10am when RCVS Council will meet to approve the Annual Report and Financial Statements for 2019, welcome new members on to RCVS and Veterinary Nurses (VN) Councils and say farewell to retiring Council members. The AGM will also be Dr Niall Connell’s final occasion as RCVS President as he passes the reins to Dr Mandisa Greene, who will be invested as President for 2020-21.

The full agenda for the day is as follows:

·         Welcome and opening remarks (10am)

·         Annual Report and Statement of Accounts

·         Answers to members’ questions on the Annual Report

·         Council elections: new members and retirements

BREAK (11 – 11.10am)

·         Council meeting to approve President, Vice-Presidents and Treasurer

·         Address from RCVS CEO Lizzie Lockett

·         Address from outgoing VN Council Chair Racheal Marshall

·         Investiture of new Chair and Vice-Chair of VN Council [TBC]

·         New VNC Chair’s remarks

·         Address from outgoing RCVS President Dr Niall Connell

·         Investiture of new President and Vice-Presidents

·         New President’s remarks

·         AGM closes (approximately 12 noon)

In normal circumstances, the AGM and Council meeting are followed by an Awards Ceremony in which guests and Members are given the opportunity to recognise and celebrate veterinary achievement, including via the RCVS programme of Awards & Honours. However, due to the pandemic, this part of the occasion has been separated from the Council business of RCVS Day and postponed until later in the summer.

Niall Connell, RCVS President, said: “This will certainly be a different kind of AGM from previous years and, while it is a shame that we will not be having our usual Awards Ceremony at the same time, I look forward to marking the achievements of our amazing professions in due course.

“I would, however, like to extend an invitation to all members of the RCVS and our veterinary nursing colleagues to ‘attend’ the event online, as there will still be plenty of interest taking place, including speeches and addresses highlighting the key achievements and milestones of the past year. We will also still be able to answer Members’ questions on the Annual Report & Statement of Accounts that have been submitted in advance.

“I am also particularly proud and delighted that I will be handing over my presidency to Mandisa, who will become the College’s first black President, making it a truly historic occasion.”

Veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses who wish to attend the AGM can do so by registering at the following webpage: www.rcvs.org.uk/agm2020

Questions from Members about the RCVS Annual Report and Financial Statements 2019 (available to view at www.rcvs.org.uk/publications) should be submitted in advance to Deborah Rowlanes at d.rowlanes@rcvs.org.uk, no later than 5pm on Monday, 6 July 2020.

Only questions directly related to the Annual Report and its contents can be answered at the AGM. Answers to similar questions may be collated on the day due to time limitations, however, individual answers to all questions will be published on the RCVS website following the AGM via www.rcvs.org.uk/agm2020.

Today Tuesday, 7 July 7