Veterinary Nursing

[Lmagic]

Have many of your daughters got into veterinary nursing quite easily? Its the next course my daughter is wanting to do at a university but there's so few places at some.

I am a veterinary surgeon who is also a degree placement clinical coach for veterinary nurses.
There are a large number of places on the veterinary nursing degree most providers run a foundation and an honours degree course that run together for at lesser the first 2.5 years and then the foundation splits and finishes after three years the honours finished after four.
Getting the place on the degree is not a problem if you have the grades it is the placements that are tricky for the in practice training.
I take students from Harper Adams, Hartpury, Sparsholt and the RVC.

My Friends DD did it at Bristol. She did have AAA at A level though and did Veterinary Nursing and Biovetinary Science. She couldn’t get a vet course anywhere after 2 rounds of UCAS but was successful getting on to this course. It is a tough course but she had no problems with placements. There are other courses at Bristol that might be of interest.

Thanks for all the info it's very helpful.

I'm not feeling very confident that my daughter will get in straight away onto the veterinary nursing course as her grades are not brilliant, will have to wait and see. I'm thinking she will probably have to go down the foundation route first if she can then onwards to the 3 year course of not 4 years. Xx

I tried to become a vet but didn't get in, I could have been a vet nurse but tbh you're going to work bloody hard and the salary isn't going to be huge. I did marine biology instead and now work in real estate...

Oh that must have been so very disappointing for you when you couldn't get in to be a vet. Was it just the salary that put you off being a vet nurse?
What do you do in your job now? Xx

The Bristol course I mentioned is 4 years without a foundation. However, courses and universities that offer a foundation may well be the way ahead. Look at all possibilities. The money for vet nursing isn’t great though.

@Lmagic nothing related but I loved my degree and I'm glad I did it. Most of my peers became teachers, a lucky couple work on research boats. Yes, it was mainly the salty that out me off vet nursing, depends what you are happy with though.

I've no idea what the salary is for a veterinary nurse, can you give me an idea please it's for my daughter. Xx

Just parking myself here as interested too.....

The salary is variable depending on position in practice and size of practice.
RVN in small practice 19K
Head of nursing in large tertiary referral hospital probably 40K.

Wow that's such a big difference in salary isn't it, at least it gives us an idea of what you can get. Xx

Sorry this is blunt but it’s Nuts to do Vet nursing as a degree

I’m a qualified VN. Gave up the job in my late 20’s.

The money is TERRIBLE. It’s back breaking
Many vets treat you like crap.

I was a trainee on the job and did a day release college course. The fact it’s uni now is ridiculous. You will never earn enough to make it worthwhile. The only thing it did for me was get me into large pharma. But that was 25 years ago. I expect that wouldn’t happen now either.

If she’s bright I’d look at alternative careers.

I think if you need a foundation year, you are not overly academic. Bristol wants BBC at A level for the course I mentioned but it does attract students who didn’t get on a vet Ned course and have igher grades than the standard offer.

As in many walks of life, the degree holders that have trained in a veterinary school may well get the higher paid posts. No one will start on £40,000. That’s essentially a managerial position and salary. If you were a teacher, you might start on £23,000 but a Head of a primary school can earn £70,000 plus. Most jobs have a salary range.

OP the two routes to vet nursing are described here, a degree is not required as there is also a vocational training route:
animalowners.rcvs.org.uk/veterinary-careers/i-want-to-be-a-veterinary-nurse/training-routes/

Vet nursing can be a varied career with work in practice, charities, academia and research as well as industries such as pharmaceuticals,however as with any job a degree is more likely to open doors.

Yes vet nursing can be hard and nurses are often under appreciated but there’s a huge variety and scope within the vet nursing profession