How is your personal branding looking?
It is important to reflect honestly, to embrace, to share and to learn from our mistakes.
In a refreshingly open session at the BVNA Congress, VN Council chairman, Liz Cox, took delegates through the subject of 'Accountability – managing your professional persona'.
Her first top tip was for nurses to download the RCVS Code of Professional Conduct app. This code should not be viewed as a set of rules, but rather as guidance.
"Accountability is not only about being responsible – but also answerable – for your actions," said Liz. "Responsibility can be delegated, accountability can not."
It is important to reflect honestly, to embrace, to share and to learn from our mistakes; and it is certainly worth subscribing to the growing culture of using check lists to try and prevent problems occurring in the first place, suggested Liz.
"Our professional persona can best be summarised as our 'personal branding', which is made up of our professional competence and our social skills." Items falling negatively into the latter category include 'over-sharing' of our personal life, the inappropriate use of social media, hygiene issues, gossiping and having our 'favourites'.
We do not work in a vacuum but as part of a practice team; so although professional competence is critical, effective team work is about more than just getting the job done.
The key to the whole subject of accountability is trust. Veterinary nurses are trusted by vets to carry out clinical tasks as agreed and clients trust them with the care and welfare of their animals. This trust can easily be undermined by unprofessional appearance and inappropriate behaviour, both at work and in our private lives.
Veterinary practices are being urged to help owners safely dispose of any unused and expired pet medicines - not just antibiotics - during November's Animal Medicines Amnesty. 
