I've personally been involved with student training since I qualified and have seen over 40 students pass through training practices that I have worked in. It makes me feel exceptionally proud that knowledge I have passed on to my students has helped them to succeed in their chosen career as a veterinary nurse or technician. Student training is vital in creating the next generation of nurses/technicians and we should all take some responsibility in the creation of these people and the standard of nursing ability that we impart on to them.
With an almost constant message of ‘where are all the nurses/technicians’, should we all be asking ourselves ‘are we playing a big enough role in the recruitment and training of new candidates into the profession’? Training of students is not a mandatory element of veterinary practice life, but it does have many benefits, though it can also have some negatives. Some colleges have a shortage of training practices, and those that are used can vary in their quality. Would your practice make a welcome addition to the practices available?
Training of student nurses/technicians/veterinary surgeons has many positive effects on all of those involved in the process. Training of others provides a prompt to ensure that your own knowledge is current and correct. Skills that the student learns elsewhere may be brought back in to the practice, and new ideas and protocols should be readily received, and discussed within the practice to see where these new elements can be utilised. Encouraging students to participate in clinical audits ensures that the student gains the support from the practice that they require in order to complete their research project or dissertation, but also helps the practice to show that clinical audits have been completed.
Adapting a culture of learning helps to establish an environment within the veterinary practice that is always evolving and moving forwards. This within itself aids in staff retention. You are also ensuring that the staff you are training are trained to a standard that you require in your practice. It is exceptionally good practice that all staff that undertake any CE or CPD come back with a few bullet points that can be presented back into the practice. Regular staff meetings that include an update on students, new CE/CPD ideas and training provide an opportunity for staff to discuss new ideas that they might have, again, helping with staff retention; as many surveys on staff retention all quote practices that don't listen to their staff or or that are not allowing their staff to utilise new ideas or techniques in practice have problems with staff retention.
By training students the practice is providing itself with a constant supply of new nurses/technicians. Training is really a win-win, and something that all veterinary practices should be looking to; supporting students helps to safeguard the number of new nurses/technicians coming into the profession. The culture of learning and teaching needs to be adopted, not just by nurses/technicians, but also by employers. If we don't actively encourage and support the current students we won't have any staff for the future.
We hope you enjoy this issue of The Veterinary Nurse. Have a wonderful Christmas break!