At its May meeting, the VN Council (VNC) recognised the hard work of Jacqui Molyneux, who steps down as chairman of the Awarding Body. Jacqui led the development of the Level 3 Diploma in Veterinary Nursing, which came into effect last autumn, against a tight timetable set by government. The VNC also thanked two of its appointed veterinary surgeon members, Helen Torrington and Alan Hughes, who had served for three and seven years respectively. Their contributions have been much appreciated. 

Jacqui Molyneux 

Letters of note

Also at its May meeting, VN Council decided that postnominals for veterinary nurses will be simplified.

Introduced last autumn, the new Level 3 Diploma in Veterinary Nursing is a single qualification with multiple pathways (currently small animal and equine, with a mixed pathway coming soon), as opposed to the NVQ system, under which there were separate small animal and equine qualifications. Those achieving the Level 3 Diploma will, therefore, be given the postnominals RVN only, with no variations.

The ongoing use of REVN and EVN will be limited to those who have qualified by the equine NVQ route and those achieving the Level 3 Diploma via the transitional pathway. 

Edinburgh’s Telford College

We were pleased to hear that the veterinary nursing course at Edinburgh's Telford College (ETC), which was under serious threat of closure, has received a reprieve, and the course will definitely run this autumn.

"The hiatus has had some positive benefits," says head of veterinary nursing, Libby Earle. "It forced an objective review of this long-standing and very successful course that will lead to improvements and the collaboration of the two Scottish veterinary schools (at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh) in providing practical experience for students."

However, there are continuing concerns more generally about the low uptake of VN training in Scotland and the ratio of nurses to vets – one of the lowest in the UK. The problem appears not to be lack of student demand – ETC had over 250 applicants for 20 places this year – it is more a shortage of practices willing to support student VNs.

The VN Council will be working to raise awareness of the situation and potential for Scottish practices over the coming months. The introduction of the Auxiliary Training Practice (aTP) status – which enables those without a full enough case load to offer complete training to a VN to work together with other training practices to fill the gap – has already made it easier for practices to get involved with VN training.

For more information on becoming a training practice or auxiliary training practice, please contact vetnursing@rcvs.org.uk

Veterinary Nursing Journal • VOL 26 • July 2011 •