BVNA Protect the Title - Preliminary Results Feb 2023

Summary of preliminary results The British Veterinary Nursing Association (BVNA) have released preliminary results from recent surveys in support of our campaign for statutory protection of the title ‘veterinary nurse’. The surveys, which were open between 26th September and 31st December 2022, sought to provide an overview of how those within the veterinary profession feel about this issue, plus how it may or may not affect them, their patients and the public. Members of the public were also surveyed, to provide more detail on the current understanding of the role of the veterinary nurse amongst the general public, and how they feel about the potential use of unqualified staff.

The preliminary results can be found below; following further analysis of textual responses, a full report of results will be published by BVNA and submitted to DEFRA later in 2023.

Thank you to everyone who participated in these surveys.

BVNA comment Charlotte Pace RVN, BVNA President commented on the response to these surveys: “The response to our Protect the Title campaign has been fantastic! This shows that there is a lot of interest and support for legislative change from both the veterinary profession and the public. At BVNA, we will continue to push for the highest quality nursing, with full accountability. Thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out our survey, or shared it with friends and family.”

Alex Taylor RVN, BVNA Senior Vice President also said: “The response and results of this survey just highlight how important protection of the title 'veterinary nurse' is, not just to the veterinary nursing profession, but to other veterinary professionals and the public themselves, who would assume that someone who calls themselves a veterinary nurse is fully trained and properly regulated. The BVNA will be assessing the responses and submitting them to DEFRA, which will help to support this as an important part of legislative change. The BVNA would like to thank every single person who filled in this survey, you really have made a difference.”

Response from the veterinary profession Number of responses: 8,302

Response from the public Number of responses: 3,926