96 | 2025 wrapped! Using our skills as veterinary nurses, being paid for our time, the CMA and veterinary surgeons act, and a big old life update…
Hello hello, and welcome back to the Medical Nursing Podcast, and welcome to the final episode of 2025. And honestly, what a year it has been.
Today is our unofficial 2025 Wrapped: a look back at what’s happened across the profession this year, what the evidence about our role and skills is telling us, what it actually means for us as veterinary nurses and technicians, and why I’m ending this year feeling more hopeful about our role and more determined for our future than ever.
And yes… we’ll also have a little life update at the end because honestly? 2025 has been a lot, but in the best possible way. So let’s waste no time and get stuck in.
If I had to sum up 2025 in one sentence, it’d be this:
2025 was the year we collectively decided that we’d had enough of underutilisation, burnout, and the ‘just a nurse’ energy that has been plaguing our profession for far too long.
Between the recently-published RCVS exit survey results, the CMA investigation stirring conversations about responsibilities and time, and what feels like every conference, journal and VN news articles highlighting the same themes around retention, utilisation, and valuing VNs, it finally feels like momentum is shifting.
And over the past few years, this year especially, the evidence has really spoken for itself.
From the RCVS exit survey (which showed that 54% of RVNs leaving the register move to another field; with pay, chronic stress, workload, lack of autonomy, responsibility disproportionate to a lack of control and pay, and burnout) to multiple papers showing that nearly all these issues connect directly back to utilisation, we know this:
Veterinary nurses are not leaving the profession because we’ve lost passion for what we do or we don’t care.
We’re leaving because we care without being given the structure, opportunity or autonomy to match the passion, knowledge and skills we have.
This data might be a little depressing (and I promise it’s not my intention to make this a negative podcast!) but in reality it’s a good thing. Because now we know this, we can start (collectively, as a profession) making even more changes to increase our utilisation, value and retention.
We also know what happens when we utilise our nurses properly - and unsurprisingly, the evidence is overwhelmingly positive.
Now many of you will know I’ve spent a lot of this month deep in the data around utilisation, especially after listening to some really great discussions on this at London Vet Show last month, and while putting together this month’s Evidence Files: Live! Webinar on VN utilisation.
So let me highlight a few big stats that should make all of us feel incredibly proud, safe in the knowledge that our value is justified, and like pushing for us to do more in practice is well and truly worth it.
Let’s start by looking at the evidence around our impact on practice finances.
Studies have shown that hiring additional credentialed technicians/nurses increases practice revenue tens-to-hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Some studies show figures like +$80-93k per additional credentialed technician, $300k+ increases in clinic revenue when technicians were utilised, and increased revenue when clinics paid their techs/nurses higher salaries.
The studies also showed that when vets spent more time performing tasks that could be delegated to nurses/technicians, clinics made less money - which really speaks for itself!
Utilisation isn’t just about financial returns, though - the evidence shows it has a monumental impact on patient care and education.
When nurses and technicians are involved in patient appointments and contribute to shared decision-making in care, the quality of care increases significantly. On top of this, caregiver education improves, caregiver wishes are integrated into care plans more effectively, and adherence to treatment plans increases.
Access to care also improves - and caregivers have said the same thing, including in one study that highlighted veterinary treatment could be saught earlier if more patients were able to see (in person or via telemedicine) veterinary nurses and technicians.
On top of this, there are tons of areas where our specialised training and interest improves patient care - because allowing us to collaborate with our vets (within the limits of our professional code of conduct and legal boundaries) only makes things better.
An area where that was especially highlighted this year was with anaesthesia planning. The team at veterinary anaesthesia nerds put out a fantastic article (linked in the show notes for you) on our role in collaborative anaesthesia planning, and the improvements in things like patient safety, balanced anaesthesia plans, improved analgesia and increased use of local anaesthetics when we’re able to take an active, collaborative role in patient management.
And ultimately, when we’re utilised, everyone benefits. Including us.
Studies looking at occupational burnout and risk factors and management strategies showed that veterinary nurses and technicians have double the burnout levels of the general population, and that underutilisation is one of the strongest risk factors for this (alongside other factors linked to this, like workload, pay, staffing, etc).
Utilising our skills and us feeling valued, respected and able to work with a degree of autonomy decreases burnout and improves retention.
It isn’t a lack of passion or skill contributing to this. It’s so much more than long hours and lack of breaks (though that certainly factors in too!). You can get burnout working your normal hours in your normal job, if you’re not being given the opportunity to use your skills in a meaningful way.
‘Retention’ and ‘utilisation’ are NOT just buzzwords this year. They’re fundamental issues we need to address if we want to keep progressing, advancing care, and keeping nurses in the profession - and that starts with us making people aware of just how much we can do (and what happens when we’re allowed to do it).
There was also a LOT of noise this year about things like the CMA investigation and the Veterinary Surgeon’s Act reform (as well as our title protection).
These topics have dominated conversations this year. Sometimes they’ve been helpful, sometimes they’ve been confusing, often they’ve made me want to hide from the internet for long periods of time. But all in all, they are bringing about positive change. Here’s what I want you to take from the online noise this year:
We are moving in the right direction. There is more recognition of nursing skill, more appropriate delegation, and more conversation about regulation of our role - not less. So even if it feels impossible, there are organisations and professional bodies out there working FOR our progression - we just need to engage with them and help make that a reality.
This is honestly a moment for us to step forwards, take up space, pull seats up at tables we’d never have been allowed at previously, and not shrink back. Because we’re allowed to have a voice, and the data proves what happens when we use it.
When our skills are used fully, patient care improves.
When they’re not, practices lose money.
When we’re overlooked, retention suffers (and so do our teams, patients and the profession).
When we lead, workflow becomes more efficient, care becomes more streamlined, and patient outcomes improve.
To do this, we need to keep pushing - and working with the organisations helping to push us forward.
The BVNA, for example, released guidance on how our role can be maximised under current legislation.
VN futures are continuing to push for utilisation and running fantastic events on how we can make this a reality.
Specialty organisations and education providers are running more and more advanced nursing courses and encouraging us to keep progressing our skills.
Organisations are pushing for increased recognition of clinic culture, psychological safety and communication, and the role these play in care - not because it’s a ‘nice to have’ but because it’s one of the key factors improving utilisation, retention, burnout risk, and care.
This year, I’ve really felt, perhaps for the first time, that all of our organisations are coming together with the same message: we can’t keep ignoring our nurses. And that’s a really powerful thing.
Things really are starting to shift, and more and more of us are carving out our own paths.
This year in my community there really has been a theme - and that theme has been a quiet, slow, behind-the-scenes revolution. A shift towards boundary-setting, expecting to be fairly paid for our time, creating diversified careers and stepping into locum, consultancy, self-employed or education work.
It honestly makes me so happy to see, because the last thing I thought I’d ever be doing as a younger RVN was putting myself first or feeling like I had a voice.
But we’re finally valuing our expertise and experience and not just quietly valuing it, but shouting it from the rooftops. The taboo about us being ‘less than’ is dissolving and that makes me SO happy because honestly it REALLY needed to.
Because if there’s one message I want to hammer home as we wrap up 2025, it’s this: You are not ‘just’ anything.
You are a skilled professional whose work is proven to improve outcomes, revenue, patient safety, caregiver understanding and team wellbeing.
A couple of weeks ago, I delivered an evidence-based presentation on what happens when nurses and technicians get to use their skills (and if you want to tune in to the recording for free, you still can - I’ll leave the link in the show notes for you).
And we know from that data that, when nurses are allowed to do their job properly, everyone wins. The patients, caregivers, vets, nurses, clinics, and the entire profession.
Across financial studies, patient-care studies, burnout research, and UK utilisation surveys, all roads lead back to one message. Utilisation increases revenue, retention and patient outcomes, and decreases burnout.
This isn’t an opinion anymore. It’s fact. It’s a path we NEED to follow, and if I’m honest (and maybe sassy Laura is going to come out a little bit here, but…) it’s a challenge to every clinic still stuck in ‘but we’ve always done it this way’.
A veterinary internal medicine nursing 2025 wrapped… and a big thank you from me!
I wanted to round this episode out with something I rarely do - a life update. You guys will know I am usually all clinical business here, but with almost 100 episodes recorded and all clinically-focused, I thought I’d take a second to do a little VIMN and life round-up, and let you in on what’s been going on behind the scenes.
2025 was absolutely ridiculous in the best possible way.
I won the Bright Minds Award, which I’m slowly learning to embrace the influencer ‘ick’ and be ok with what having an online platform ‘looks like’ - a HUGE thank you for all of your votes; they allowed me to put on this month’s webinar for you all for free to say thanks!
I lectured, travelled, taught, learned, had fun making new webinars, grew the Academy, said yes to too many things at times, and most importantly enjoyed watching the academy students do truly AWESOME things.
And personally, I also got married in Las Vegas which is, to be honest, the most on-brand plot twist of my life.
But the thing I’m proudest of this year isn’t any award, or any launch, or any milestone. It’s all of us.
It’s the way we show up for our patients, advocate for their needs, ask to use our skills, learn more, push things forward, and turn up every single day with the same focus: to show everyone what we can do, and give AMAZING, collaborative patient care.
So from me, I want to leave you with a huge thank you for all of your support this year. For tuning in to the podcast, for attending a webinar, for reading a post, for having a conversation about a case at work, all of it. And for being part of this community of medical nursing nerds who genuinely just want veterinary nursing to be better than it was yesterday.
If you take one thing from this episode, let it be this:
Pick one skill you want to do more of in 2026 - one area where your expertise isn’t being recognised yet - and commit to doing that next year.
Then research it, use the data, talk to your team, pitch it and trial it.
Because that’s what it takes to get us using more skills in practice, and our teams to recognise just what we can really do to help them.
We are the generation of veterinary nurses and technicians who are going to redefine what this role looks like, and I cannot wait to see what you do.
Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you in 2026.
Did you enjoy this episode? If so, I’d love to hear what you think. Take a screenshot and tag me on Instagram (@vetinternalmedicinenursing) so I can give you a shout-out and share it with a colleague who’d find it helpful!
Thanks for learning with me this week, and I’ll see you next time!
References and Further Reading
Boursiquot, N. et al. 2023. AAHA Technician Utilization Guidelines [Online] AAHA. Available from: https://www.aaha.org/resources/2023-aaha-technician-utilization-guidelines/
BVNA, 2024. Maximising the RVN role under current legislation [Online] BVNA. Available from: https://bvna.org.uk/blog/bvna-releases-guidance-on-maximising-the-rvn-role-under-current-legislation/
Chapman, AJ. et al. 2025. Workplace Strategies to Reduce Burnout in Veterinary Nurses and Technicians: A Delphi Study. Animals, 1257 (15), pp. 1-37.
Cital, S. et al. 2025. Are there benefits to using a team-based approach to developing balanced anesthesia drug protocols in veterinary practice? Part 1. JAVMA, 263(52), pp. 577-580.
Gerrard, E. 2024. Delegating to veterinary nurses [Online] InFocus. Available from: https://www.veterinary-practice.com/article/delegating-to-veterinary-nurses
Janke, N. et al. 2022. Veterinary technicians contribute to shared decision-making during companion animal veterinary appointments. JAVMA, 260(15), pp. 1993-2000.
Jeffery, A. and Taylor, E. 2022. Veterinary nursing in the United Kingdom: Identifying the factors that influence retention within the profession. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, doi: 10.3389/fvets.2022.927499
Kogan, LR. et al. 2020. Veterinary technicians and occupational burnout. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, doi: 10.3389/fvets.2020.00328
Niemiec, R. et al. 2024. Veterinary and pet owner perspectives on addressing access to veterinary care and workforce challenges. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1419295
Ouedraogo, FB. et al. 2022. Nonveterinarian staff increase revenue and improve veterinarian productivity in mixed and companion animal veterinary practices in the United States. JAVMA, 260(8), pp. 916-922.
RCVS, 2025. Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Exit Survey 2022-2024 [Online] RCVS. Available from: https://www.rcvs.org.uk/news-and-views/our-consultations/exit-survey-2022-2024/
Shock, DA. et al. 2020. The economic impact that registered veterinary technicians have on Ontario veterinary practices. CVJ, 61, pp. 505-511.
Vet Med Today, 2010. Contribution of veterinary technicians to veterinary business revenue, 2007. JAVMA, 236(8), p. 846.
Vivian, SR. et al. 2022. Veterinary nurse skill utilisation in small animal practice. The Veterinary Nurse, 13(6), pp. 283-287.
