National Veterinary Nurse Awareness Month is a good time to focus on what our large team of nurses do to help care for your pet.

Outside of the consulting room, most of the attention and medical care your pet receives is at the hands of a veterinary nurse. It is this we celebrate each May, as Veterinary Nursing Awareness Month (VNAM) and gives us an opportunity to talk about our role in caring for your pets. 

In any given day a veterinary nurse may find themselves taking x-rays, medicating patients, doing consults, maintaining equipment, monitoring anaesthetics, dressing wounds, answering phones, and the list goes on! 

The title “Veterinary Nurse” is not yet protected in law (meaning anyone can use it), but it is advised by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons that it should be taken to mean only Registered Veterinary Nurses (RVNs). 

RVNs have undertaken a rigorous training programme, sit examinations, and are subject to a Code of Conduct, which includes a disciplinary process if a grievance should arise. We continue to study, and log professional development hours to maintain our Registration throughout our careers. Some RVNs undertake specialist training in a range of topics, especially the care of exotic pets, feline medicine, emergency & critical care, anaesthesia and dentistry. There are several different routes to becoming a veterinary nurse, for more information visit our careers page (click here).

The British Veterinary Nursing Association (BVNA) represents RVNs and promotes responsible pet care to the general public through Veterinary Nursing Awareness Month (VNAM).  Ask about what your RVNs do, and their special interests the next time you bring your pet to us! Our RVNs have pets themselves, and love to talk about them just as you do! 

The RCVS have launched a short film animation to coincide with VN Awareness Month and help raise awareness among the general public of the vital role played by veterinary nurses in animal care and treatment.  To view this on You Tube click here.

Visit our own image gallery, click here, and see what our RVNs and nursing staff are getting up to.