Cat: When I thought about progression as a theme I thought about our personal progression within our careers as well as the progress we see with our patients. It is mandatory that RVNs complete 15 hours of CPD per year, and the subject areas must be relevant to our day to day work. In recent years, possibly as a link following on from the pandemic restrictions, I feel we have been seeing more pets that are wary of coming into the practice and are less willing to be examined and treated.

We always aim for fear free visits for both cats and dogs. I’ve always had an interest in cat behaviour but lately I’ve felt I could improve my knowledge of dog behaviour. I have chosen to complete some CPD in this area this year and hopefully using this knowledge will help our nursing team make fear free visits more achievable for our patients. It’s so lovely to see the progress some of your pets have made when they have been coming for socialisation and confidence building clinics. I can think of some dogs who wouldn’t even walk through the door without trembling who now feel at ease enough to play, take treats and follow commands.

Alicia: Over the years in practice, I feel like I have progressed a lot in educating our clients. When we start out as a nurse, we have a good basic knowledge of pet care but over time we keep learning and pick up lots of valuable information that we can share with you. It can be daunting when first starting out to talk through advice, but my confidence has grown during my time as a nurse and now I feel comfortable talking to our lovely clients and helping them give their pets the best care.

Holly: I feel I have made progress with in-patient care. When I came to Hollybank, I had never worked in a Veterinary hospital before so a lot of the medications that were given to in-patients were foreign to me. It’s a great feeling to be able to easily understand what is expected of me when, given the same task a year ago, I would have panicked.