Veterinary Nursing is a profession made up of highly skilled and experienced individuals, without whom, the Veterinary Profession would come to a stand-still.
So why is it that in the majority of states and countries, the titles of “Veterinary Nurse” and “Veterinary Technician” are not protected?
This month, we’ve already explored the differences in Vet Nurse and Tech naming conventions around the globe, and looked at what vet nurse title protection means.
Now, its time to delve into the complexities of the international title protection debate. In this post, we’ll discuss why title protection is essential for the future of the profession, and touch on how we can begin to take steps to prioritise this issue at a local and national level.
For brevity, I’m going to use the term ‘Vet Nurse’ throughout this article to refer to all qualified veterinary nurses (VNs, RVNs and SVNs), veterinary technicians and technologists (CVTs and LVTs), Animal Health Technicians and equivalent.
Why is it important to protect the title of ‘Veterinary Nurse’?
1) It gives the Profession a Stronger Identity and Credibility
Veterinary Nursing is not a job, its a profession. Its members are trained, up to date and accountable for their work, and with that comes a level of respect that should be equivalent to that of their veterinary surgeon colleagues.
However, in many countries, the role of the vet nurse is seen as somewhat ambiguous by the public. Many clients don’t realise how highly skilled and experienced our nurses are, because untrained nurses and students share the same title. That said, some countries do have secondary titles, like ‘Registered’, ‘Licensed’ or ‘Certified’ to show which nurses have undertaken formal training. However, most members of the public just don’t understand that there is a difference between a vet nurse and a RVN, or a vet tech and an LVT.
Protecting the title is an important step in defining exactly what a trained Vet Nurse does, and doesn’t do. By elevating the role to a protected professional level, you raise public awareness of it. You educate more people that its a skilled and challenging job, and you demonstrate to students that veterinary nursing is a defined profession to aspire to.
2) It Prevents Misrepresentation of the Profession.
Vet Nurses are proud of their profession, and have a strong sense of identity. But this can be diluted when unqualified individuals can simply step into roles of the same title, in some cases, taking the jobs and eroding the salaries of those who are qualified.
If an employer is looking for an inexperienced worker to clean kennels or walk dogs, they should not be advertising for a Veterinary Nurse. And yet, that’s often what they do, taking on unskilled and poorly paid staff, who are then told to identify themselves to clients as vet nurses. It can give the impression that all staff in the clinic have the same role and experience level. There is certainly a role for these workers in the practice, but it should be under a different title, such as animal care assistant or kennel attendant.
It’s also important to reduce the ease of misusing the vet nurse title, by those who pose as a vet nurse to sway public opinion or sell a product. If uninformed people are legally distributing poor advice while calling themselves a vet nurse, its damaging to public perceptions.
Please note, there are plenty of very skilled nurses out there who do not have formal qualifications, just because they may have trained on the job at a time when the vet nursing course was not as accessible as it is now. Many of the most experienced vet nurses are not formally qualified, and new legislation would not be aimed at targeting this group of professionals- but instead, it could look at offering a bridging qualification so that these individuals could share the formal title with their colleagues.
Countries that do not protect the vet nurse title blur the lines between professionals and unskilled workers, and that is damaging and unhelpful to all parties involved.
3) It Raises the Standards of Care
By standardising the qualifications required to use the title of veterinary nurse, you standardise the level care given to our pets. It would be a guarantee that every person working as a vet nurse understood the safety, legal and ethical side of the profession, as well as the technical things they might have learned in practice.
There might be a number of excellent animal carers working in a vet nurse role at present, who would be directly affected if we implemented new legislation protecting the title. This legislation would not devalue their experience, but would encourage them to enrol in formal education courses, bringing them up to date with the relevant techniques and standards.
It would also ensure that all vet nurses would keep up to date with regular continued education to maintain their title, much like RVNs and LVTs do already, raising the relevance and education of the profession across the board.
4) It Encourages Investment in the Profession
One of the big differences between ‘a job’ and ‘a career’ is its longevity. Careers progress and grow with the individual, while a job might just lead to a dead end.
Veterinary Nursing is a career. Those who undertake it start as a student, become a qualified nurse, then may progress to a team leader or manager as their experience grows. Or, they may choose a specialist path, studying to obtain further qualifications in anaesthesia, surgery, internal medicine, behaviour, advanced practice or many more.
By protecting the title, we show that all members of this profession take it seriously. They want opportunities to progress and make this their long-term career.
This would help employers to see the value in investing more in the continued education of their nursing staff, for example by allocating study leave and a CPD budget. And in turn, this financial incentive will drive more educators to invest in providing high quality continued education opportunities aimed at Vet Nurses, and even more opportunities for specialisation.
And with increased skills and education, vet nurses will gain more opportunities for career progression, and with that, salary progression. These factors are central to the elevated rate of experienced nurses leaving the profession for good permanently, so are certainly worth considering.
5) It Builds a Coherent International Identity.
Vet Nurses are proud of their profession, and have a strong sense of identity.
We live in an age of globalisation, where like-minded professionals can connect with ease across countries and continents. We also have fairly free international movement (pre-covid at least!), allowing us to apply our skills in clinics around the world.
But how can you connect with someone within your profession if its known by seven different names in different English-speaking countries?
Having so many terms for similar roles reduces the coherence of professionals who would greatly benefit from working together. For example, if you’re an RVN from the UK, and you really admire an online personality who is an LVT, you might be reluctant to connect with them in the belief that they are much more qualified that you. Or perhaps you’re a Cert IV vet nurse from Australia looking to work in Canada, but you’re discouraged when you find no information online about the Canadian profession (because it turns out, you should have searched for the term ‘Certified Veterinary Technologist’).
What’s more, if you’d like to travel and legally work in countries other than your own, you’re likely to have a difficult time getting your qualifications recognised. There are so many different terminologies and levels of education, its difficult to tell what is equivalent.
For vets, there is a system in place for this, and you’ll find clear instructions online telling you how to have your degree recognised in different countries around the world. But for nurses, the information is just not clear-cut, or in some cases, completely unregulated.
Protecting the Vet Nurse title internationally would bring coherence to an internationally recognised profession, and also, encourage international recognition of their qualification.
How can we support the movement for Title Protection?
Historically, gaining protection for the veterinary nurse title has not been easy. It takes time and money to change the laws, and convince those in power of the importance of this move.
In the US and the UK, there has even been opposition (or apathy) to the move– mainly from those outside of the industry.
So how can we start to make changes that will help the Veterinary Nurse title become protected?
The debate is complex, and the best course of action will depend on where in the world you live and work.
To start with, reach out to your local Veterinary Nursing Association to see what their stance is on the matter, and which steps they have already taken to achieve title protection (see links to National Veterinary Associations below). If they already have a strategy in place, make sure you support it. If your professional association has not begun pushing for title protection, maybe you can be the one who raises the debate.
At a practice level, you could work with your team to educate clients to the importance and training that goes into vet nursing. This could be via a social media campaign, or by encouraging more clients to book vet nurse consultations where they will experience professional care one-on-one.
If you feel its appropriate in your own clinic, you could tactfully encourage management to make a definition between the qualified and unqualified nursing staff (for example with titles on name badges or different scrub colours). This helps the clients to better understand the role of vet nurses, in comparison to those that might be students, animal care assistants or kennel hands. This is not about putting others down or making them feel inadequate! Its about showing that different staff members have different jobs, and educating the public.
For a vets or practice managers, show your vet nurses that they are highly valued professionals! Use your nurses to their full potential- allow them to run consults and puppy clinics (and charge clients appropriately). Encourage your vet nurses to pursue their special interests and use all their CPD budget. Don’t stop them from doing their jobs to tell them to make you a cup of tea, or clean up your mess. And also, pay them appropriately (but that’s a whole other article).
If we can work together to get our veterinary team, our professional associations and the public to recognise the important of protecting the vet nurse title, only then will it be possible to make some real changes for the future of the profession.
But all this said- I am not a vet nurse or tech myself. So if you are, tell me- is it important to have your professional title protected? And how can we vets help you to achieve this?
Further Information.
Want to know more? I encourage you to reach out to your local Vet Nursing board or regulator to find out what their stance is on the issue- you’ll find links to these groups in my previous article Guide to International Vet Nurse Terminology.
Check out my previous article to learn a little more about how different countries are tackling the challenge of protecting the Veterinary Nurse title in the first article in this series.
Or head over to the Global Vet Interviews page to hear more from Veterinary Professionals working in incredible places around the world!
I acknowledge that this is a hot debate in many places around the world- so please contact me to let me know your opinion in the topic, or leave a comment below!
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