Vet Nurse Day 14th October 2016
Photo: VGStockstudio/shutterstock.com
Vet Nurse Day is a Veterinary Nurses Council of Australia (VNCA) initiative to raise awareness of the importance of veterinary nurses to both the public and to the veterinary industry.
It is a day to celebrate and recognise the contributions of veterinary nurses to the Australian veterinary team.
The aim of Vet Nurse Day is:
- To educate the public about this vital member of the veterinary medical team
- To reinforce the value and professionalism of veterinary nurses to veterinarians and the public
- To provide an opportunity for veterinary nurses to acknowledge one another for excellent performance in their work.
What is a veterinary nurse?
The VNCA defines a “Veterinary Nurse” as one who holds a formally recognised veterinary nursing qualification and maintains their currency of knowledge and skills within the veterinary nursing profession. The current Australian national qualification for Veterinary Nursing is Certificate IV in Veterinary Nursing with additional qualifications in Diploma of Veterinary Nursing General Practice, Emergency and Critical Care, Surgery and Dentistry as per the Animal Care and Management Training Package (ACM40112).
In Australia the Certificate IV Veterinary Nurse is the minimum qualification for a person who is to provide competent support to a Veterinary Practice.
Veterinary nurses that have qualified at Certificate IV have been competency trained and assessed. During training, veterinary nurses are assessed for their competence of prescribed performance criteria by qualified workplace assessors.
