As with any new project, there is no point jumping in head first without preparation. First of all, you'll need to think about the following:

• What sort of Nurses' Clinic are you going to offer?
  You can either target your clinics at specific needs, such as nutrition, dental care, rabbit care, parasite control and geriatric care. Or you can put all of these things, and more, under the umbrella of something like a Pet Healthcare Adviser Service (as we do), or Preventative Healthcare Adviser Service.
   
• What procedures may be undertaken at the clinics and by whom?
   
• When are the clinics to be held? 
  Planning the times of the clinics is vital. The ideal time of day is about 6pm when clients have arrived home from work/have fed the children. Unfortunately, this is not always practical. There may be a double surgery running and therefore no free consulting room. It really is a question of working around what facilities are available and when.
  
  A routine that works at our surgery is to run a clinic from 2pm to 3pm on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays with a different nurse covering each day. This works well as it means that a client visiting once a fortnight on a Monday will usually see the same nurse. This means that each nurse can build up a good rapport with his/her patients and offer the client excellent continuity. 
  
  We also offer Saturday morning appointments and plan to run an evening clinic one day per week for the clients who are unable to attend a daytime appointment. Saturdays tend to be reserved for post-operative checks, dressing changes and suture/staple removal since they get very busy indeed.
  
  The workload for the veterinary surgeons is greatly reduced and we find that instead of over-running, the appointments run to schedule and we get to go home on time!
   
• The duration of the appointments
  This may well vary; claw clipping of a placid animal will only usually take 5 minutes, but a first diet consultation can easily eat up half an hour.
   
• The charges
  We do not charge a consultation fee for our nursing appointments, since we more than cover our costs through sales arising as a direct result of the service. The exceptions to this are behavioural consultations, physiotherapy, blood pressure monitoring and blood glucose measuring, where we charge for the required specialist knowledge and/or equipment.

Every nurse involved in the clinics should be issued with a name badge. Clients like to know who they are dealing with, and are not always confident to ask the name of a member of staff. A smart appearance is essential, and qualified VNs should wear their St Francis.