Creating a nurse rota

An important part of managing veterinary nurses is ensuring that there are an appropriate number of nurses in all of the different areas, at all times, within the practice. A good rota will help to ensure a smooth running and efficient practice and also maintain staff morale, especially if the rota is fair.

As Garrett (2008) explains, ‘A survey carried out by the management analysis indices (MAI) team in March 2008 found that the typical management time taken for creating staff rotas for vets, nurses and receptionists can be over 600 management hours per year in larger practices (those with over 30 staff)’. Therefore the more information and help obtained with compiling rotas, hopefully the less time will be spent producing them.

Veterinary nurses are increasingly becoming ‘fee’ earners within practices, with many practices now running very effective nurse clinics and nurse consultations. If a practice uses veterinary nurses to conduct clinics and consultations they very often monitor the nurses’ performances and some practices base remuneration and bonuses on the turnover that nurses generate from the clinics and consultations. If pay and performance is reviewed it is imperative that the veterinary nurse rota is fair, allowing all nurses who take part in the clinics an equal amount of time in the consultation and clinic areas. By having the same amount of time it gives the nurses an equal proportion of the clients available, enabling them to generate even amounts of turnover. From a client perspective it is good to have a pattern as to which nurses run which clinics on particular days as most clients like to build a relationship with the nurse and will prefer to make appointments with the same nurse each time they visit. This can be particularly important in weight clinics, where the nurse can follow the patient's progress from start to finish.