As a consulting RVN I spend a lot of my time in a consult room talking to clients, administrating second vaccinations, emptying anal glands, taking blood pressure measurements and the list goes on. I have absolutely no worries about charging clients for the job that I undertake. When I talk to other nurses that undertake the same clinics, some really do struggle with charging for their skills and expertise. This seems to be a common issue in many practices. Why do so many nurses struggle with charging for their time? I asked this exact question when presenting some CPD on nurse consulting skills recently. Many suggestions came up, these included: clients expect things to be free in a nurse clinic; nurses aren't valued as much as vets by the clients; nurses don't believe in their own worth; nurses are too nice, they feel sorry for the client/pet, and are worried that the owner can't afford the treatment/the clinic and don't want the pet to suffer.
So how can we overcome these issues? If we ask ‘do you feel that RVNs should charge for their expertise’, the answer is always yes; but ask the individual and they often feel that they were able to charge because they didn't know enough or hadn't received enough training on the subject. Is CPD on how to consult the answer? Do RVNs need more support and time in practice in order to perform this role? Reading a journal article or watching a webinar on consultation skills is very different to undertaking a consult. Should the CPD we seek out be more applicable to the skill that we are wanting to learn? After all, if you wanted to learn a surgical technique you would need to undertake the procedure in a hands-on learning format in order to be able to do it in practice.
There are many congresses now being run in various different locations and at different times of year offering CPD; we are also in a digital age with CPD being provided in many different formats online — so, do we as individuals need to start taking a bit more responsibility for identifying our own needs. Can we make sure that the CPD we are undertaking is relevant for the path we wish to follow? The CPD is out there, it just needs to be utilised. In the UK the RCVS has encouraged RVNs to utilise the Professional Development Records as part of our online CPD platform (www.rcvs.org.uk/faqs/what-is-the-professional-development-record-pdr/). Some nurses will use this facility to tailor their CPD requirements to themselves; others are unaware that it is there for their use.
CPD providers are becoming more versatile in the types and formats of CPD that are being provided. Communication skills, consultation skills, increasing compliance, increasing confidence and time keeping are often now offered at many conferences and congresses, and these could be very useful for those running, or thinking of running, their own nurse-led clinics. The opportunity to network with other nurses shouldn't be under estimated. There is huge value in making connections and seeing how other nurses deal with similar issues in practice.
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