How to Manage the Nursing Team

After years of training, both at college and on the job, veterinary nurses are qualified to undertake many routine procedures unsupervised. Responsibility is what a nurse trains hard to achieve, and yet so many appear to be undervalued by their practices, given roles made up entirely of advising rather than doing. Vets need to learn to delegate more tasks to their nursing team, trusting that there are many areas where their experience and skill is perfect for the job in hand.

Trust enough to delegate
Enlightened equine practices up and down the country are realising that giving nurses bookable appointments and real responsibility benefits everyone:

• Utilising available skills across the team more effectively.

• Boosting nurses’ morale.

• Retaining skill levels (use it or lose it).

• Clearing space in the vets’ diaries to see more clients, and to undertake the more complex procedures they are trained for.

• Allowing longer appointments so that clients can discuss other issues and concerns.

• Improving the customer experience for clients.

• Increasing word-of-mouth recommendations from delighted clients.

• Bringing more paying customers into the practice.

• Creating happier staff, doing a job they love.

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