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Veterinary Nurses
 There are currently 15 qualified veterinary nurses (VNs) employed by The Veterinary Hospital Group, some of whom work part-time and some full-time. Three of the qualified VNs are employed at the branch surgeries, 4 of them work as part of the night duty team and the remainder as nurses within The Veterinary Hospital itself. The nursing team is headed up by Kathryn Dixon (Senior Surgical Nurse) and Nicola Ackerman (Senior Medical Nurse).
The qualified Veterinary Nurses are an invaluable component of the team having trained as highly skilled and knowledgeable para-professionals of the Veterinary Profession. Many of the veterinary nurses are Registered Veterinary Nurses (RVN), which means that they are a regulated profession, culpable for their own actions. They assist the Veterinary Surgeons at the hospital in many ways, for example, performing blood sampling, monitoring anaesthesia, applying dressings, surgical assistance during operations, dispensing and administering treatments as prescribed by the veterinary surgeons, and undertaking medical, surgical and critical care nursing procedures of the inpatients at the hospital.
There are a number of qualified nurses at the hospital who have undertaken additional training in order to specialize in the areas in which they work. There is a team of Veterinary Health Advisors that perform clinics for preventative health care issues, and medical issues. Some of the qualified veterinary nurses also undertake training of the Student Veterinary Nurses and the Animal Nursing Assistants; this is important to ensure that they too develop into capable and efficient members of the team.
Staff training and continuing professional development is seen as a priority at all levels and is undertaken by everyone in The Veterinary Hospital Group. Five of the VNs have undertaken further training and are fully qualified NVQ assessors.
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