What does a veterinary nurse do?

Veterinary nurses work alongside vets, dealing with the day to day care of hospitalised animals and helping with operations, cleaning teeth and taking samples. Veterinary nurses’ work includes:

• getting patients ready for operations
• monitoring a patient’s breathing, heart rate and body temperature during operations
• claw clipping, wound checks and suture removal
• scaling and polishing teeth under general anaesthetic
• making sure that hospitalised animals have food and water
• monitoring anaesthetics (under a vet’s instruction)
• taking samples of blood, skin and urine
• running clinics like puppy socialisation and weight clinics
• triage (assessing patients before a vet sees them)
• stock taking and ordering drugs
• positioning animals to be x-rayed, then developing the films for the vet to look at

How do you get into it

It’s a good idea to work part time or as a volunteer at a vet’s surgery so that you have relevant experience before starting veterinary nurse studies. You could get experience at:

• a veterinary clinic
• a kennels or cattery
• an animal welfare centre
• a Riding stables

Qualifications and training

To become a veterinary nurse you usually need to have 5 GCSEs or Standard Grades (C or above, or grades 1-3). These should normally include English and physics, chemistry or biology. You can also do specialised courses such as a BTEC National Diploma, Certificate in Animal Care or BVNA pre-veterinary nursing course. To be a fully trained nurse you need to take one of the following courses:

• NVQ level 2/3 in veterinary nursing (2 years)
• BSc in veterinary nursing (4 year degree course)

Useful tips

• Veterinary nursing is an interesting job with varied work but it can be poorly paid with long hours or shift work, so you need to be dedicated.
• As well as caring for animal patients, the job involves helping with operations and clinics so you need to keep up to date with current practices.
• It’s a good idea to get as much practical experience as possible before applying for a veterinary nurse course.

Links

• BBCi One Life: www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/onelife
• British Veterinary Nursing Association: www.bvna.org.uk
• Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons: www.rcvs.org.uk
• PDSA: www.pdsa.org.uk

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.