The Abbey Veterinary Centre in Grimsby is the only general practice in the UK ever to have been officially approved by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons to run its own College-equivalent, full-time, fully in-house VN training course (as opposed to being approved only as an ATAC or VNAC). To give some idea of the effectiveness of their training, the very first student nurse trained at the Abbey Veterinary Centre won the Veterinary Surgeons' Wives Prize for the highest aggregate marks in her two-year course. A group of four second-year students won two of the fourteen credits awarded out of about two hundred and eighty passes in the finals that year.

Jacqueline Buck, BVM&S, MRCVS, VN, won the William Dick Gold Medal as the best veterinary student in her year at Edinburgh University and went on to win the First Fitzwygram Prize that year as best veterinary student in the UK. Due to difficulties in obtaining accurate information about the practical nursing examinations without actually having attended one, she enrolled for VN training in September 1997, passing Part 1 in November and Part 2 in July 1998. Jacqueline is currently the Principal of the Abbey Veterinary Centre.

Charles Ross, BVMS, MRCVS, retired as Principal of the Abbey Veterinary Centre several years ago to work as a freelance veterinary surgeon. He also edits an aviation magazine and is Chairman of the Royal Air Force Heraldry Trust and of the Lightning Association. Charles is dedicated to keeping veterinary nurse training solidly based in general practice and under the control of general practitioners, with a minimum of interference from professional educators who know nothing about veterinary nursing in the real world.

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