As RCVS Awards will be closed by the end of this year, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) is taking the opportunity to review and reduce the number of required skills in order to make it more relevant to clinical practice.
The current Day-One Skills document was developed by RCVS Awards in 2010, and provides a list of those skills student veterinary nurses are expected to have gained by the end of their training, and to be competent and confident in when they first go into practice.
Julie Dugmore, Head of Veterinary Nursing, explains: “The current document was developed from an awarding body perspective and not that of the regulator, so it specifies a large number of non-clinical skills, for example, handling and moving equipment safely, which, while important, are somewhat out of our regulatory remit.
“Given the wide variety of veterinary practice settings, it is important that we, as the industry regulator need to review the skills list to ensure consistency, that it reflects current practice, and that it only includes those skills deemed necessary for registration purposes.
“A clearer focus on safe and effective clinical skills would support our primary regulatory role: that of protecting animal welfare and the public interest.”
The consultation sets out the proposed Day-One Skills, and asks for feedback on their relevance, accuracy and completeness. Comments would be welcomed from higher education institutions, awarding organisations, centres, and training practices, as well as veterinary nurses and veterinary surgeons.
The consultation is available via the RCVS website. Deadline for responses is 5pm on 29th July 2015.