Cat is Hollybank’s head RVN and has been working with us since 2012! Alicia is Winnington’s lead RVN but you will still see her at the Sandiway practice too!

Cat

When I joined Hollybank in 2012 we had a small nursing team, at times it was only me! We now have a team of 8 RVNs across Sandiway & Winnington, with 24 hour nursing care available 365 days of the year.

Over those years we have seen so many new faces join us. Some have stayed a long time, Alicia & Aimee celebrate their 10 year Hollybank anniversary this summer, others have moved on to different aspects of nursing or new ventures in other fields. It’s so good to see our team grow and learn from all of our members past & present. 

Over the 13 years I have been at Hollybank our RVNs have supported 24 SVNs through their university placements and NPL and we have two more lined up for summer 2025-2026!

As well as becoming clinical coaches & training our SVNs, we have progressed as an RVN team with further qualifications and ongoing CPD. Myself, Alicia & Aimee have all completed their emergency & critical care certificates, I also have an advanced diploma in veterinary nursing and I am fully trained & assessed in cat & dog CPR.

We have nursing clinic champions who undertake area specific CPD to help us create nurse clinics that support your pets with preventative healthcare, and all of our RVNs have completed CPD in oral care so can help the vets with scaling & polishing their teeth under general anaesthetic. 

Evidence based nursing sits at the forefront of everything we do and our team’s combined learning means we will always strive to be offering the most up to date and effective care to your pets whether they are coming for an appointment, surgery or staying with us as an inpatient.

Alicia

I joined Hollybank in 2015, so in July this year I will have been part of the team for ten years! I started here as a new grad from university, so I have progressed myself and with Hollybank over the years.

I have gained knowledge through experience of nursing different patients, conditions and procedures and have also completed further qualifications in Emergency and Critical Care, Oral Care, and Anaesthesia.

I also became a clinical coach in 2017 and have guided a number of our student nurses through their placement training at Hollybank.

In 2021, I progressed to Deputy Head Nurse, and we opened our Winnington practice in addition to our Sandiway hospital, where I became Lead Nurse to assist with getting it up and running. Since then, I have mainly been based at Winnington leading the nurse team there and helping to keep it running smoothly and continue the high standard of care we provide at Sandiway.

I feel there are always ways to progress in Veterinary Nursing and I’m looking forward to doing so throughout the rest of my career.