One of the UK’s best-known referral centres is celebrating a remarkable success in its academy for training vet nurses for the future. Dick White Academy (DWA), which is part of Linnaeus-owned Dick White Referrals, near Newmarket, is celebrating a 94 percent first-time pass rate for students sitting the VetSkill L3 VN diploma exams, way above the national average of 75 percent.
Academy Principal Ali Heywood said it was an amazing achievement, especially as the majority of students were taught in lockdown.
She said: “We’re specifically set up to provide one of the best training facilities in the country and these results are absolutely fantastic. We offer excellent levels of support to the learners and teach in smaller class sizes than a lot of other providers.
“All of our team are experienced nurses as well as being trained OSCE examiners, so the students are being taught the most up-to-date methods and trust the fact that they are being tutored by people who truly understand the exam process.
“We also spend a full term preparing students for both their professional discussion and their OSCE examinations with lots of mock exams so hopefully muscle memory takes over when it comes to the real exam.”
Dick White Academy’s success is already sparking conversations about expanding the courses on offer and training vet nurses to an even higher level.
Ali added: “We are looking to start an online L5 diploma in general practice nursing but we are also mindful of not diluting the quality of the provision that we already offer.
“The ultimate aim is to grow, though, and be able to regularly generate highly-skilled and resilient vet nurses to help support not just Dick White Referrals, but the wider veterinary profession too.”
Dick White Referrals offers specialist-led care in anaesthesia and analgesia, cardiology, dermatology, diagnostic imaging, diagnostic pathology, emergency and critical care, internal medicine, interventional radiology, neurology and neurosurgery, oncology, ophthalmology, orthopaedics, physiotherapy and soft tissue surgery.
For more information visit their website or search for Dick White Referrals on social media.
