Regulation and connectedness with our community

With the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons' new Royal Charter coming into place last month, the whole veterinary nursing profession in the UK is now regulated. Under this new Charter, all those VNs who were previously on the list, have been moved to the Register and we see yet another important development in our journey to full professional status. Regulation of all veterinary nurses continues to bring better protection for our patients, the public, and personnel working in veterinary environments. For many of us, regulation is validation, enforcing the way we have been practicing for years and ensuring that those who fail to uphold minimum standards of practice will be subject to serious consequences which will affect their ability to practice in future. However, regulation also brings with it new complications that we may have never considered and it highlights challenges in the way that we as a profession support our professional community to uphold high standards of care.