In house nurse training, what is it?

Re: In house nurse training, what is it?

Katie B — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 12:18:08 GMT

Will give them a call this afternoon but not sure I coulod do it until I have done my VCA. Not even sure they will pay but will find out soon. Also had a training practice invite me for an interview for my voluntary placement. I take it this is because it is a training practice?

Re: In house nurse training, what is it?

Sal the 1st — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:41:30 GMT

[quote user="Phrin Vernon"]

[quote user="Sal the 1st"]

[quote user="Phrin Vernon"]

I read 'In House Training as we will train you to do all the practical stuff, but we won't send you to college to get RVN.

It has it's plusses and minuses..

Personally, well, Hmmmm......

[/quote]

meaning what exactly?

[/quote]

.... they train them 'in house', but vets are not trained in nursing...

[/quote]

Yes I see this but some of the stuff being taught on recognised courses just isnt of use to the practices.

Instead of making it harder for practices to train nurses and putting them off it needs to be made easier. The current VN qualification is rated at NVQ equivalent 2/3 but when you look at the reality of the qualification it is actually closer to an NVQ 4. Now if practices are employing people to train with the expectation of them training to a 2/3 level and they are coming out of this with more then this leads to a lot of disatisfaction from both sides

The practice may never have heard of some of the stuff their student has learnt let alone understand it. The trainee may get frustrated because what they are being taught means that what they see everyday in practice is 'wrong' or 'old fashioned' or 'nobody does it like that anymore' - and how many times on this forum do we hear people saying my practice is doing things wrong and I know the right way to do it but they wont listen or when I qualify I want to go work in referal practice and the practice may equally be thinking that this training they have paid for has created some big headed smart arsed monster. So nobody is happy!

The training as it is now is probably spot on for a new start in referal practice but is letting down those practices that are not fancy high falutin state of the art - it doesnt necessarily mean that what these practices are doing is wrong it just means they dont fit in exactly with the standard of training - and should they have to in every case? Shouldnt the standard of training be fitting in more with the practices that are paying their fees?

When you look in the job ads how many referral practices train their nursing staff from scratch? - actually very few they prefer them to come in having already gained their VN qualification. So you end up with the small general practices investing in staff training so that they can lose their nursing staff to referal practices and then have to invest more money in training the next bunch

the referal practices that mostly have very little investment in the initial VN qualification you bet they are happy with this but your small general practices - well you can see where they get the bum deal.

I am not saying dumb down the qualification I am just saying make it more relevant, that way you may get more practices wanting to train? Lets get back to basics and stop looking at ways to further complicate it. Increase the number of the levels in the qualification if needs be and then trainees and practices have more choice about the level they need for their training and practices wanting a higher level of knowledge then let them fund it.

and I know I have said this before but I am going to repeat it.

Instead of viewing the cost of training a nurse as a negative - it could quite easily be turned into a positive. If those practices that dont train nurses had to pay an opt out fee to not train their nurses this could then be used to subsidise training nurses in practices that do want to train them - theres nothing like a cash incentive to get people interested.

Re: In house nurse training, what is it?

Phrin Vernon RVN — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 23:36:51 GMT

[quote user="Sal the 1st"]

[quote user="Phrin Vernon"]

I read 'In House Training as we will train you to do all the practical stuff, but we won't send you to college to get RVN.

It has it's plusses and minuses..

Personally, well, Hmmmm......

[/quote]

meaning what exactly?

[/quote]

That all knowledge is good, but there are some practices out there that employ people with no prior experince, with no intention of helping them gain VN status.... they train them 'in house', but vets are not trained in nursing...

Re: In house nurse training, what is it?

Tracy Windler RVN — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 23:19:25 GMT

If you can get a position that will "train" you and give you paid, full time employment in the veterinary field, even if they don't give you a recognised qualification, I would seriously think about it. Its a great stepping stone. Once you have done his for a year
+, you will be in a much better position than you are now, even if you do the ACA via voluntary route (??is that the course you're starting?).

But definitely find out more about this "in house" scheme.

Re: In house nurse training, what is it?

Sal the 1st — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 23:15:22 GMT

[quote user="Phrin Vernon"]

I read 'In House Training as we will train you to do all the practical stuff, but we won't send you to college to get RVN.

It has it's plusses and minuses..

Personally, well, Hmmmm......

[/quote]

meaning what exactly?

Re: In house nurse training, what is it?

Nick Shackleton — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 23:12:38 GMT

[quote user="Phrin Vernon"]

I read 'In House Training as we will train you to do all the practical stuff, but we won't send you to college to get RVN.

It has it's plusses and minuses..

Personally, well, Hmmmm......

[/quote]

As I have said on another thread I think in'house training has its palce, although personally I think you need some sort of formal training as well, ie the under pinning knowledge not just how to do a task but also why your doing a certain way.

Best to phone up and find out.

I used to work at a practice that had several SVNs at once and a teacher used to come in and teach for half a day, in fact I taught them anaesthesia at one point (and yes they passed lol)

Re: In house nurse training, what is it?

Phrin Vernon RVN — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 23:09:06 GMT

I read 'In House Training as we will train you to do all the practical stuff, but we won't send you to college to get RVN.

It has it's plusses and minuses..

Personally, well, Hmmmm......

Re: In house nurse training, what is it?

Amy McSheffrey — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 22:32:24 GMT

Was the letter from a medivet practice? If yes, then the in-house training does lead to a full RCVS VN qualification, its the new RCVS level 3 diploma course the same as the one offered at any other college. The course is, i think, two and a half years at the moment, running, again i think, 12pm-8pm one day a week. The college is based in Watford, and has a good team there. I do not go there myself as the college is too far away from my medivet practice, so they enrolled me in my local college. It is the proper rcvs training though :-) Im not sure about any other companies courses, so if the letter wasnt from medivet, then all the above wont have helped one bit, sorry!! Its good to get a placement, and good luck with your training :-))

Re: In house nurse training, what is it?

Sal the 1st — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 19:30:10 GMT

when things were a lot simpler and easier to get into re training practices ( ie before training practices got pissed off by the bureaucracy involved in training these days they did in house training - some of them very good and some of them maybe not so good using the green book to record tasks completed and competency) Some nurses never set foot in a college anywhere until they sat the actual exams. Now if you got a good practice and the training was good this was a perfectly adequate way of doing things but could be a bit hit and miss if the practice wasnt interested in you sitting an exam because then you were only taught what they wanted you to know. If this happened fair does you learnt what you needed to know but when it came to changing jobs you had no formal qualification so no record of any transferable skills.

So it was a bit hit and miss - but really no worse than what I have seen happening now where practices really cannot be bothered to train anymore because it means jumping through hoops to satisfy training requirements that may not bear any relevance to what they want or need in practice.

I started in practice fulltime in 1984 and didnt qualify until 96 - much of my time was spent in non training practice. I feel the in house training I received even when it wasnt in a recognised training practice was still very valuable, and really there is no reason why once you are in a practice you cant knuckle down and learn things for yourself . Even if its not a gold plated sprinkled with glitter 'official' training practice you dont have to wait for training to be given theres loads of ways these days of finding out for yourself different ways of doing things.

Any paid position in practice is worth considering - its certainly better than nothing and I would recommend this route over working for free at a tp hoping that one day they might decide to train you which is what is happening in many places I have heard of.

Could you give the Head Nurse a ring and ask if she can clarify this for you

Re: In house nurse training, what is it?

Caro Laithwaite VN — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 16:38:35 GMT

Only place l know is Chestergates that has a tie in with myerscough college

Re: In house nurse training, what is it?

Charlotte Fitzgerald — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 16:33:59 GMT

I think some of the larger corporate practices have their own training college, however I'm not sure that it is a qualification recognised by the RCVS.

Re: In house nurse training, what is it?

Steph Phillips — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 15:53:54 GMT

I'm not sure... sounds like they teach you what they want you to learn, but don't think it's a qualification, and def don't think you'd qualify as a VN.. hope i'm wrong though, as that kind of job would suit me lol x