Background to the project

Originally, the ‘Veterinary Futures’ project aimed to address the future of the veterinary and veterinary nursing professions as a single project. However, it became clear that the challenges and solutions for the veterinary nursing profession are very different to those for vets, and so Veterinary Futures became two separate projects run in parallel: ‘Vet Futures’ and ‘VN Futures’.

VN Futures is a joint initiative from the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) and the British Veterinary Nursing Association (BVNA). Both parties sit on the VN Futures Board and have an input into the work of the project. Each party have their own key areas of work that best fit with their organisation’s remit, and there are also areas where RCVS and BVNA work together.

The profession is ever-evolving and new initatives are constantly being developeding. Veterinary nurses are demanding more of their careers and the opportunities available to them, and new challenges and demands on the profession need to be responded to.

We aim to keep the project as dynamic as possible – looking to the future and imagining how the profession will look in the years to come, but also considering how ongoing, and sometimes unforeseen, challenges can best be addressed.

VN Futures is a hybrid project. There are clear ambitions which the project aims to meet, with numerous actions underpinning each ambition.

The backbone of the project is a collaboration between RCVS and BVNA, with several other organisations and initatives providing support. These include working alongside the RCVS Mind Matters Initiative (MMI), to help address wellbeing and mental health in the veterinary nursing profession, having an input to the RCVS Leadership Initiative through promotion of the online Leadership course, inputting into the Leadership Library by collaborating with STEM to support VN School Ambassadors, and working with a project to provide a ‘Vet-Team-in-a-Box’ toolkit for careers advice.