At Willows we pride ourselves on being Veterinary industry trailblazers and we are delighted to announce the launch of the World’s first nursing residency to offer Registered Veterinary Nurses (RVNs) specialist training.
We will welcome our first intake of Veterinary Nursing Residents to begin a three-year, industry-leading programme in September ’20.
To launch this unique training scheme, we are offering positions for experienced veterinary nurses in the specialisms of Emergency and Critical Care and Internal Medicine.
This pioneering programme will be run from, and based at, our state-of-the-art small animal hospital in Solihull, allowing successful candidates an unrivalled opportunity to train alongside our World-leading Specialists, highly-trained and experienced specialist RVNs.
Tracey Morley Jewkes, Managing Director at Willows, said the innovative development programme would lead the way for progression of veterinary nurses within the industry.
She said: “We intend this to be a professionally-rounded training programme which offers opportunities not only to work alongside the world-renowned specialist vets and highly-skilled referral nurses here at Willows but to also cover areas such as public speaking development and article writing.”
Tom Reilly, Head of Clinical Support Services, spearheaded the design of the residency programme and is hoping this will help to provide much-needed pathways of professional progression for RVNs and retention of talent within veterinary nursing.
Tom said: “This residency is a three-year programme which follows a similar pattern to the veterinary surgeons’ specialist residency programme.
“Each resident nurse will have a specialist vet or nurse mentor and will spend the first year working solely in the area of their chosen discipline.
“The second year will see our resident nurses undergo Specialist training mastering the skills that they have worked on whilst benefiting from the volume and complexity of cases within the working environment at Willows.
“In the final year, once they have successfully passed the designated requirements of the Specialist academies , our residents will attend an international conference in the US in their area of specialism where they will also sit their internationally recognised exams to complete their residency.
“The residency will also provide tutoring support for writing veterinary articles for publication, and public speaking skills, with residents encouraged to share their specialist training with their industry peers.”
