The Veterinary Nursing Golden Jubilee Award

The VN Golden Jubilee Award was introduced in 2011 to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the first veterinary nurse training course.

The Award is aimed at veterinary nurses who have had a sustained and distinguished career, who can demonstrate a leadership role within the profession and who can act as an ambassador for the value of veterinary nurses and their work.

Nominees must be RVNs (excluding current VN Council members) but nominators can be RVNs or MRCVS, also excluding current RCVS Council and VN Council members. 

The nomination period for the 2025 RCVS Honours & Awards is now open. Nominations close at 5pm on Friday 13 December 2024. To nominate somebody for the Veterinary Nursing Golden Jubilee Award, please download the nomination form at the bottom of this page.

Please note, to fill out the form you will need to open it using Adobe Acrobat, edit it, then save it, and send it back to us. If you experience any issues with the form, please send the information requested on the form in a word document instead, to Antalena Alexandre, Executive Assistant to the CEO, on [email protected].

Successful nominees for RCVS Honours & Awards will be announced in March 2025 and invited to attend Royal College Day in July 2025.

Previous award recipients

2024: Andrea Jeffery RVN, an educationalist, VN pioneer and former Chair of the RCVS Veterinary Nurses Council. She was the first veterinary nurse to chair RCVS VN Council as well as being the first to sit as a member of RCVS Council, representing the University of Bristol Veterinary School. As VN Council Chair, Andrea oversaw the creation of the first Code of Professional Conduct for Veterinary Nurses. In 2007, along with fellow former VN Council member Hilary Orpet RVN, Andrea developed the ‘Orpet and Jeffery Ability Model’, the first model of veterinary nursing care which helped to provide a standardised approach to veterinary care. Latterly, Andrea worked as Chief Nursing Officer for Linnaeus with responsibility for more than 2,000 nursing staff.

2022 & 2023: The Golden Jubilee was not awarded these years.

2021: Kirsty Cavill RVN, a trained animal physiotherapist who has used her skills and knowledge to help older dogs with canine arthritis and train and advise others on therapeutic techniques. Her nominator Lynsey Tindall RVN, praised her passionate for nursing and as "an educational leader in her field who strongly feels that volunteering is a great way to give back to her profession, patients and colleagues."

2020: Not awarded

2019: Jane Devaney RVN, Head Nurse at the Philip Leverhulme Equine Hospital at the University of Liverpool, for her dedication to the veterinary nursing profession and tireless work to make make veterinary nursing a specialism equal to any other branch of equine veterinary practice, cementing the incredible value of veterinary nurses as part of the veterinary team.

2018: Not awarded

2017: Kathy Kissick RVN for her contribution to veterinary education as former Head of Veterinary Nursing and Myerscough College and her championing of the profession as Chair of VN Council.

2016: Louise O’Dwyer RVN for her leadership role in the profession as a clinical director for a veterinary group, her advocacy on behalf on the profession and her research work into antimicrobial resistance.

2015: Dot Creighton RVN for her pioneering awareness raising on behalf of the profession as a President of the British Veterinary Nursing Association including founding what would become VN Awareness Month.

2014: Hayley Myfanwy Walters RVN for her clinical, education and international outreach work as an Anaesthesia and Welfare Veterinary Nurse at the University of Edinburgh Hospital for Small Animals and the Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies.