Clinical coaches inevitably must wear many ‘hats’ in their work – continuing their role of providing clinical support, whilst having to develop new skills as a leader, a coach, a mentor, an educator. Often, clinical coaches supporting multiple learners will also have to navigate multiple training routes; whether their learners are HE or FE, or completing their training with different awarding organisations. It’s no wonder that, while this role can feel incredibly rewarding, it can also feel a little overwhelming!

At BVNA, we’ve been developing an opportunity for clinical coaches to collaborate, share ideas, and feel supported in their role. We have developed this toolkit to provide useful resources to support you, as you support the next generation of veterinary nurses. Containing blogs, webinars and podcasts, we’ll help you to form the best possible working partnership with your student, feel more informed about the assessments your student will undertake including the NPL/CSL/E-portfolio, and we’ll also provide helpful advice for managing the workload whilst supporting your own mental wellbeing. Whichever training route your student is completing, there will be support and resources for you – and we’ve included some equine nursing specific content too.

Online and In-Person Meetings

Alongside this toolkit, BVNA’s clinical coach network project will also include bi-annual in-person or virtual meetings to provide opportunities to come together and discuss current training issues.

The first of these in-person meetings will take place during BVNA Congress 2024:

  • Saturday 12th October, 10:15 – 11:15
  • Ryton Suite, Telford International Centre

If you wish to be involved in these meetings in future, please complete this form.

Supporting Yourself

  • Empowering Clinical Coaches: Join BVNA President Lyndsay Hughes and BVNA Council Member Steph Worsley, as they introduce the toolkit and discuss the importance of the clinical coach role. They also discuss some steps which practice teams can implement to ensure their clinical coaches feel supported and equipped with the time to support their students.

Webinar series by Roo Davies, The Mojo Coach

This series of short webinars is designed to provide you with support in manageable chunks of time. Feel as though providing support for yourself can end up lower on the priority list? Take just 15 minutes to learn some new strategies to feel more in control of your day.

BVNA Mental Health Toolkit

We recently released a mental health toolkit, available free of charge to the whole profession.

Supporting Your Student

  • The Student Perspective – Join Lyndsay Hughes, BVNA President, with past and present BVNA Student Council Members Bronwyn Bailey and Macauly Gatenby.

Clinical Supervising in Equine Practice

Clinical supervising in equine practice presents a unique set of challenges and rewards for both mentors and mentees.

In this blog, we will present some hints, tips, and common challenges encountered by clinical supervisors in equine practice. Many of the hints, tips and challenges faced in equine practice are the same as those faced in small animal practice.

Learning Styles for Clinical Coaches

We naturally find it easier to teach in the style we find the most beneficial, but what if our students have a different learning style?

In this blog, we look at various individual learning styles and how we can change our coaching to include a range of things to help different styles of learners.

Webinar series by Roo Davies, The Mojo Coach

In this second series of short webinars, Roo guides us through some of the fundamental skills we need when coaching students, including how to be an effective mentor, and keeping students on track with their goals.

Assessments

NPL/CSL/E-Portfolio

Depending on your student’s training route, you may need to navigate a variety of different tools for monitoring their practical training – and if you have multiple students, this may mean juggling them at the same time!

Thanks to Alanna Willis, Eve Loftus and Sam Morgan for providing these webinars to give you a guide for working with each.

Professional Discussion

The professional discussion is a structured two-way discussion between the end-point assessor and the learner, with key questions asked and responses recorded and graded. It is performed as a video conference so it can be completed in the workplace or college under examination conditions. The aim is to allow the examiner to probe and explore the depth of the student’s knowledge.

How can I help my students to prepare for the professional discussion?

As clinical coaches, most of us will not have sat the professional discussion examination as part of our training as it is a relatively new aspect. So, how can we support our student veterinary nurses with their preparation? Find out more in this blog.

End point assessment – Sitting the professional discussion

As a third year student, Hannah discusses how she found preparing for her professional discussion challenging, as it wasn’t something that her clinical coach had to do in order to qualify. She also gives advice to any students sitting their professional discussion. Find out more in this blog.

Professional discussion and what I would tell my student self to do differently

In this blog, Hayley discusses sitting her professional discussion at college, what she would tell her student self to do differently and gives advice to students preparing to sit the professional discussion.

We hope you have found this toolkit useful, we will continue to add resources over time.

Anything else you’d like to see here? Please feel free to contact us at bvna@bvna.co.uk with any ideas you may have.