Dear Reader

Hi everyone and welcome to the May edition of the VNJ. This is the first time I have written the Dear Reader section but as Chair of the Veterinary Nursing Awareness Month Committee, and as seeing it is May, I thought it seemed like a good idea! I am Wendy Nevins and I joined BVNA Council in October 2016. When I realised there was a vacancy on the VNAM Committee I jumped at the chance to be part of it.

Veterinary Nursing Awareness Month is our chance to reach out to a wider public audience and to educate people on what it is we do. We all want recognition for our profession so let’s get out there and make it happen, it’s never too late to join in.

Check out our Facebook page to see what other RVNs are doing if you need any inspiration. You can also find out how to enter our competition – and remember to use #whatvnsdo on any social media posts.

We have updated the competition categories this year and they include Best display, Best Event/Social Media Event and Best Pet Selfie/Social Media post quoting #whatvnsdo.

It is down to us as RVNs to increase awareness of what we do. We need to be pro-active this month in engaging more with the wider public. It does not have to be a huge event or practice open day – if you have a social media account just share the daily posts from our VNAM Facebook page. We will be posting daily detailing the different roles we carry out. I think social media can be a powerful tool to help us get our message out, not just to our veterinary friends but to a wider audience.

If you are not overly familiar with social media here are a few tips.

If sharing on Facebook please make sure your post is ‘public’ and not just shared with your own friends.

Please try to remember to use #whatvnsdo on your posts, on all social media.

Please share as many posts about VNAM as you can – the more we share and spread the message the better.

You can get more information on how to enter at the following link: http://www.localhost:10018/about-us/competition-details

I would also like to mention and thank our sponsors of VNAM, Anigene Medimark, Avid, Hills, Millpledge Veterinary, Pet Plan, VN Times.

The VNAM team are attending the National Pet Show at Excel on 6th & 7th May and we will be engaging with as many people as we can, trying to educate them on what being an RVN means.

Did you know that 14th May is National Dance like a chicken day? May 12th is International Nurses day, why not incorporate these into your VNAM events?

I really look forward to seeing the competition entries.

Here’s to a fantastic VNAM 2017!

Author

Wendy Nevins RVN

BVNA Junior Vice President & Chair of VNAM Committee

VOL 32 • May 2017 • Veterinary Nursing Journal