In this blog for Veterinary Nursing Awareness Month, Lyndsay Hughes, BVNA Senior Vice President, discusses how there is something really special about being a veterinary nurse. It’s spending the time caring and supporting the patients we so wonderfully advocate for, the owners we take the time to reassure and comfort, and the role we play within the wider veterinary team, supporting colleagues and helping to ensure the highest standard of care at every stage. It’s a profession built on compassion, but also on skill, resilience, and responsibility.

Find out more about VNAM here, and how you can get involved this year.

This Veterinary Nursing Awareness Month, the veterinary nursing role feels more important than ever. Because our profession is changing. For the first time in a long time, it feels like a profession moving forward. For years, veterinary nursing has operated within the framework of the Veterinary Surgeons Act of 1966, legislation that has not fully reflected how our role has evolved but that is starting to change. The recent Defra consultation on legislative reform has brought the whole veterinary team into focus, signalling a future where veterinary nurses are more clearly recognised within a modernised profession.

At the same time, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigation has challenged the profession to do better, particularly around transparency, communication, and accountability. While that scrutiny can feel uncomfortable, it also creates opportunity. Because many of the proposed changes align with what veterinary nurses already stand for:

• Clear, honest communication
• Advocacy for patients and clients
• Guiding owners through complex and often emotional decisions

Although the CMA review is not about clinical roles directly, it is reshaping the environment in which veterinary teams work and that includes us.

During all of these changes, representation truly matters. I have personally had the privilege of representing members of the British Veterinary Nursing Association (BVNA) during many of these discussions over the last couple of years, often as the only veterinary nurse in the room. These experiences have made one thing abundantly clear to me – veterinary nurses are very much now part of the conversation however we are still not yet proportionately represented within it. If we are shaping the future of the profession, then veterinary nurses must be consistently and meaningfully included at every level. For that to happen, individual veterinary nurses must continue to engage, to speak up, to contribute, and to recognise the value of their voice. Because meaningful representation does not happen by invitation alone – it happens when we step forward and take our place within the profession we are helping to shape.

So why does this moment matter so much to me? This isn’t just about reform – it is about recognition. For far too long, veterinary nurses have taken on growing responsibility without that always being reflected in legislation, visibility, or influence. But now, the profession is being scrutinised and that creates opportunity for veterinary nurses to step forward, to lead, and to help shape what comes next.

So whilst this Veterinary Nurse Awareness Month is about celebrating what we do day-to-day, it is also about recognising what we bring to the team, the clients and our patients, and also about what we still have the potential to become. If we are to realise that potential, we must continue to be part of the conversations shaping the future of our profession. Because if we want to see meaningful change, we have to be involved, we need to speak up, get involved, and ensure our voices are heard. By doing this, we begin to see a more proportionate representation of veterinary nurses within those spaces.

Lyndsay Hughes, BVNA Senior Vice President