Schedule 3: Where are we now?

5 May 2025

The current and future capabilities of what nurses can and cannot do under Schedule 3 of the Veterinary Surgeons Act was up for discussion at BSAVA Congress and Expo 2025.

The consensus from the delegates was that nurses should be allowed to more fully exercise their abilities as highly skilled professionals, but many vets and vet nurses remain unclear about what is allowed. BVA President, Liz Mullineaux, expressed the frustrations felt by many vets of ‘just wanting a list’ so that delegation can be made clearer, but this was expressly felt by the nurses present to have unintended consequences, putting everyone in ‘little boxes’ and ultimately hampering the prospects of nurse career progression.

Chair of the BSAVA Congress Committee and Clinical Director, Andy Green, described the issues around Schedule 3 as being “fundamentally a cultural conundrum”, where so many practices are stuck in the ‘busy trap’ where only the person who can do things fastest is the one who gets to do it.

Having intentional and consistent opportunities for nurses to be allowed to learn and practice new skills are essential, and one attendee reported how additional training had greatly increased confidence from her veterinary team in what she was now routinely delegated to do.

Many nurses feel frustrated with having to prove again and again to new vets coming in that they are capable, something that clearly visible skills matrices were suggested as a solution to. Remembering that all members of the practice team have different skill sets is vitally important and all would do well to ensure that their confidence matches their competence. Curious conversations to establish each team members strengths and capabilities should create a supportive atmosphere where confidence can be built (not destroyed), and it is vital that vets do not see Schedule 3 as an opportunity to abdicate responsibility of cases. Nurse to vet referrals when limits of capabilities are reached will remain vital to any changes moving forwards.

Andy Green acknowledged the elephant in the room that “frankly nurses are better at a lot of things than vets” and that many a new graduate vet (or more experienced vet) has been saved by timely advice from their nursing colleagues. Chair of the discussion, Matthew Rendle, reminded the room that nurses can give as much guidance to veterinary surgeons as they like, but final decisions legally lie with vets because they have overall governance.  The frustration with this current legal framework was voiced by panel member Belinda Andrews-Jones, as “if a human nurse can do it, why can’t we?”. There was much appetite within the room for advanced practitioner pathways to be made more widely available to nurses under any future legislation, as is widely now available within the NHS and readily accepted by the public.

The question over whether the public would accept paying the same for procedures performed by nurses created a sense of general indignation in the room, arguing that it is the skill of the procedure performed that matters and not the person who does it; for example, a new graduate vet is not charging less than the practice owner. One delegate reported that her practice had had to reduce nurse procedure prices to create a caseload, whereas others reported that suitable phrasing on consent forms was enough to circumvent this issue.

A great session left all feeling a common sense of pride and confidence in the abilities of veterinary nurses, but as with all matters relating to a theoretical new Veterinary Surgeons Act, the details are far more nuanced than at first sight and will take much further discussion to pin down.

Schedule 3 in Companion

Wound Management

Veterinary nurses play a crucial role in the management of wounds – from simple surgical wounds to more severe, open wounds. In this article, we look at the tasks that nurses can undertake governed by the Schedule 3 legislation. Access it here.

Veterinary nurses and dentistry

Veterinary nurses are essential to delivering high-quality dental care in practice. In this article, we explore the dental procedures they can perform and how these are regulated under Schedule 3 legislation. Access it here.