Dear Reader

Well, what an adventure I have been on, two years as your BVNA president and it all comes to a close after BVNA congress! I feel so lucky and honoured to have completed this journey and will always remember this time. I have had the opportunity to truly be involved in part of the RVN history and I am sure I will continue to bore people with tales of Westminster and VNFutures.

VNFutures continues into its second year and it has evolved into an amazing project. There are nine working parties each with their own chair. These are working on actions such as increasing the number of training practices, established a VN school’s council, post-registration qualifications and leadership, looking after our current workforce, promoting the VN profession as a career, mind matters and One Heath. We have continued to spread the word about this project at both BSAVA Congress in April and at AVSPNI, Northern Ireland in May.

Our own National VN Month was a huge success this year, attracting lots of social media interest across the country. I was so touched to see a number of practices taking the time and effort to create videos and pictures telling the public how amazing their RVN’s are.

During this year BVNA has been at the heart of discussion with the RCVS about some developments that may be affecting our profession, proving us the opportunity to bring your voice to the meetings. These include the Schedule 3 working party, Exemptions Orders working party and the Veterinary Surgeons Act review working party. This is still the heart of what BVNA can do for its members, be that representative voice.

Due to me staying on as president for the second year I was again honoured to be able to pick BVNA’s charity of the year, and after the success last year with The British Hen Welfare Trust I decided this year to focus on BVNA’s own charity, The Daphne Shipman Benevolent Fund.

Part of the new structure for BVNA was how the president is elected, BVNA is now in the advantageous position of having a strong succession plan with a line of amazing presidents to be! I am very proud of them all!

This year also seen record high numbers of candidates standing for BVNA Council, it brought happy tears to my eyes to read through each manifesto and be able to vote (although I wanted to vote for them all!). I am now coming to the end of my time on BVNA Council, staying on for a final year as Senior Vice President before stepping down completely. Although I am sad that my time involved with such a fantastic organisation is nearing an end, I am also so excited about the future of BVNA, with both its new council members and with Wendy taking over your representative body is truly the best it can be.

Author

Sam Morgan DipAVN (Med & Surg) RVN

BVNA President

VOL 32 • September 2017 • Veterinary Nursing Journal