New BVNA president calls for ‘more on pay’ during congress

The new BVNA president has called for renewed efforts to improve salaries within the profession as she set out her aims in office.

Lyndsay Hughes took up the role during an annual meeting held as part of the organisation’s 50th congress in Telford on 8 October.

She told members the theme of her presidential year would be “progression”, both for individuals developing their own careers and for the profession as a whole.

Own experience

She also praised the work of the profession’s Diversity Inclusion and Widening Participation working group, drawing on her own experience of living with a chronic health condition.

On her own experience of not being accommodated in practice she said: “[That] always made me want to look and see what I can do to make sure others don’t have to face those same struggles”.

But one specific area where further advances are now set to be sought is that of staff pay, as Mrs Hughes revealed the association is planning to release a toolkit to help members approach questions about their remuneration.

She said: “There has been progression with regard to salary but much more still needs to be done.”

Equal rewards

Meanwhile, in his discussion of how to support leaders in veterinary practice, Vetlife president James Russell said there was a need for equal reward structures, encompassing other issues as well as pay, amid a broader effort to remove barriers to senior positions. The pay issue was highlighted amid the event’s broader theme of empowerment, which placed the enduring topics of recruitment and retention at the heart of the agenda.

In her address on how VNs can empower both themselves and others, VetLed research and development director Helen Silver-MacMahon said nurses who feel empowered in their roles stay in the profession for much longer than those who do not.

She added: “My greatest wish for every veterinary nurse is that you feel you can do absolutely anything you want to do.”

Earlier in the congress, during her address on the retention issue, Linnaeus chief nursing officer Andrea Jeffery said current figures, showing there are more than 23,000 registered veterinary nurses in the UK with only 2% not renewing their registration each year, could be interpreted to mean there was not a major problem at all.

But Brexit, the COVID pandemic, rising pet populations, the current cost of living crisis and ownership changes were among the suggested factors contributing to the current lack of available staff.

‘Not enough staff’

Dr Jeffrey said: “What we can sense is what we all sense, that there are not enough staff to service all those patients, those clients who want us to treat their animals. The landscape has changed.”

She said that, while age and education did not appear to be significant factors in retention, respectful colleagues, supportive employers and a clear career framework were important influences, while autonomy and being able to work under one’s own initiative were also important to maintaining job satisfaction.

But other speakers at the congress, including Mrs Hughes, argued that the ability to offer flexible working was particularly important in helping practices to retain the staff they need.

Lecture

In her own lecture on development of the nursing team, she warned that a lack of training for nurses moving into senior positions risked “setting them up to fail” and flexibility should be extended to people in senior roles, to make it easier for them to work through issues with colleagues at a similar level.

She added: “If we don’t allow flexible working, we’ll lose good nurses from the profession and your teams go stale.”

Meanwhile, responding to a comment calling for improved management of maternity leave, Mr Russell said the issue was one that affects the entirety of a sector that he believed should be “welcoming” flexible working.