From nurse to manager
In order to go into management, it is important to gain extra qualifications after qualifying as a nurse.
Marion Chapman opened Saturday's management session at the BSAVA Congress with a talk on how veterinary nurses can move into management.
The most important message Marion gave was the importance of gaining extra qualifications once a nurse has qualified. She illustrated this by explaining her own path from nurse to manager which had encompassed working in industry as well as in practice and taking extra qualifications in marketing and management to further her career.
She explained how varied the role of a practice manager can be and how important it is to have a job description. All practice managers may have the same title but this can encompass a multitude of very different roles depending upon the size of the practice, so that lack of a job description can cause considerable misunderstandings as to what a potential manager may or may not have responsibility for in the practice.
A practice manager needs to have lots of different qualities and just some of those mentioned were:
- Efficiency
- Positivity
- Flexibility
- Good problem solver
- Consistent
- Team player
- Firm but fair
Much of the role of a manager is dependant upon good emotional intelligence, so self awareness, the management of feelings, recognising how people feel and building relationships are all vital parts of the manager's toolkit.
Marion gave examples of real-life managers who had started their careers as veterinary nurses and although it was interesting to see that their skills varied and their pathways into management had been very different, they all had one thing in common; the gaining of extra qualifications on top of their nursing qualification to help them move into management.
Some nurses had remained in veterinary practice and worked their way up to a management position while others had moved out of practice spending time mainly in the veterinary industry gaining extra skills before moving back into veterinary practice in a manager's role.
It was encouraging to see how many different pathways there were towards practice management and indeed for some nurses moving then into management outside the industry altogether.
The move up to management roles within a practice can sometimes have its problems and this peer to manager transition has to be made with care and sensitivity. Dynamics change, there can be power struggles and sometimes some difficult conversations with colleagues who used to be working on the same level but are now to be managed. The management role can be lonely and sometimes it is better to move to another practice.
Generally there are more opportunities for management roles in larger practices and often these larger practices are better placed to ensure that the new employee has a mentor and someone to guide them as they start down their new chosen career path.
Nurses planning a career change should be updating their CV, looking for appropriate CPD and training courses to help them gain the qualifications and experience they will need to apply for and carry out practice management roles.
RCVS Knowledge has welcomed Professor Peter Cockcroft as editor-in-chief for Veterinary Evidence. 
