About me
My name is Alison Langridge-James. I am a registered veterinary nurse (RVN), clinical educator, Internal Quality Assessor (IQA) and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).
I have spent the past sixteen years in academia, primarily teaching and supporting undergraduate veterinary medicine and veterinary nursing students. During that time, I have written, developed, assessed and supervised hundreds of assignments, work-based projects, literature reviews and dissertations.
What I have consistently found, over all of those years, are students who are frustrated because they have lost vital marks on their academic writing skills, even when their subject knowledge is excellent. Key aspects of academic writing such as formal academic tone, conciseness, critical analysis, as well as punctuation, structure and attention to detail in referencing formatting, can all feed into that final grade.
After feedback from many students, I was inspired to create my academic writing resources, aimed at helping students develop their academic skills in a calm, confident manner.
Alison Langridge-James
BA(Hons) PGCert PGDip MScVetEd APVN(Avian, Herp & Small Mammal) RVN FHEA
My beginnings
My original undergraduate degree was not in veterinary nursing, but in Linguistics. I was particularly interested in language acquisition, code-switching, and the effects of brain injury on speech and language. However, after graduating, I realised that I still really wanted to work with animals, so I started work as an veterinary care assistant, before commencing my training and qualifying as an RVN. I then spent just over a decade in small animal, mixed and charity clinical practice before moving to my first post in academia.
My academic career
During my twelve years as a Teaching Fellow in Veterinary Clinical Skills at the Royal Veterinary College in London, I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to follow my two areas of interest, namely rabbit nursing and interprofessional education.
Whilst working full-time, I achieved my postgraduate certificate, diploma and finally, master's degree, in Veterinary Education in 2014. My research project explored whether teaching veterinary medicine and veterinary nursing undergraduates together changed their perception of each other.
I completed my Level 5 certificate in Coaching and Mentoring, with the Chartered Management Institute in 2020, and between 2020 and 2023, completed three Level 5 advanced nursing certificates.
Pandemic career move
Like many during the pandemic, I found that I worked productively at home, and at the time, home-working suited my situation. I was fortunate to find another degree teaching role which was 100% online, teaching final year BSc nursing undergraduates and Top Up degree students.
During this time, I ran the Work-Based Project, Evidence-Based Veterinary Nursing, Education and Professional Development, and Nursing Exotics and Wildlife elective modules for just over three years.
I left full-time academia in 2025 to set up The WordFlow Coach.
Professional services
- RVN member of the RCVS Ethics Review Panel
- Internal Quality Assessor for the Veterinary Management Group
- Study Skills Tutor for Clarity Professional Ltd
- Veterinary Liaison Officer for the Bedlington Terrier Rescue Foundation
- Founder of The Rabbit RVN.
The Rabbit RVN is is an educational platform aimed at promoting the health and welfare of rabbits through owner education. Two brand new courses are launching there soon and you can find me on Instagram and Facebook via the website.
Research
I am passionate about being involved with, and encouraging veterinary nurses to become involved with, research projects. Currently I am a research associate on a joint project between the Royal Veterinary College and London South Bank University, exploring mental health in student and registered veterinary nurses.
An open access copy of our 2024 scoping review is HERE
