Has anybody’s child done a vet nursing degree or is anybody's child applying for one?

[1yer]

Thoughts?

DD wants to do the degree route as feels it will give more opportunities. I’m not sure.

Which are supposed to be good courses or are they all the same?

Bumping as you haven't had any replies yet. I looked into it for myself a while ago and it was so low waged it wasn't worth me retraining. Would she really want to take on all of the debt of a degree for a job that generally starts at or just above minimum wage? Appreciate it might start higher if she has a delegate and associated experience.

lMy thoughts would be the same. It’s an awful lot of debt and time for a minimum wage job that isn’t even guaranteed.

There is NO debt if you earn minimum wage. Repayments are based on salary so it could be a very cheap degree!

Looking at Bristol - they have great employment stats for vet nursing so the work is there. Plus it’s not just a vet nursing degree, it’s broader. If she would like to do a degree, do it. There are better jobs available to degree holders I think. My friend’s DD did the bio vet science and nursing course Bristol used to offer. They don’t now but other vet schools might. She had good enough A levels for vet science but couldn’t get a place, so did this instead.

I have a close relative who started doing a vet nursing degree but found the course so badly organised that she gave up after a term. Instead she got a job at a vet's (had been volunteering at local vets for years) and went the apprentice route attending college for one day a week. At her practice only one vet nurse could do the training at a time so when one qualified another could start training.

She's now been qualified for nearly 10 years and has always found it easy to get jobs at other practices and absolutely loves her career and obviously only has student debt for the one term that she attended.

If all you want is to be a veterinary nurse, I reckon the apprentice route is the way to go but if you may want to change career at some point (or even go into research) maybe having a degree would be more useful?

@Sweetpeasaremadeforbees Only the RVC and Bristol train vets and also vet nurses. If the CUG is accurate. Bristol wants 112 UCAS points, so BBC at A level. Many other courses are available but I would expect places like Bristol to offer a great experience. Apprentices probably won’t get to go to either of these.

I mean, it's incredibly badly paid - is it really worth the years of study rather than a more practical course and training on the job?

I say this especially as I know a fair few uni aged kids training to be solicitors and accountants on the job, and one bio-chemist - they're all doing this as they feel the costs of university aren't justified as there is another route, and all of their earning potential is way beyond that of a vet nurse.

Apprentices probably won’t get to go to either of these.

It's not a degree apprenticeship, it's what in my day we would call day release, you work at a vet practice for 4 days, go to an FE college for 1 day to study for a diploma. Once you pass your exams you become a RVN.

But I agree, vet nursing is badly paid and personally if I wanted to be a vet nurse I wouldn't go the degree route. Even if you never end up paying back any of your loan (unlikely seeing as the government seem keen to lower the payback threshold) you're still going to have to top up the maintenance loan because it's not enough to live on in a lot of cities. Why sign up to that when there's a perfectly sensible alternative route that won't leave you saddled with a huge debt?

Only the RVC and Bristol train vets and also vet nurses.

I think Harper Adams/Keele also do both. Not sure about any others.

Vet nurse here, 12 years qualified.

I started the degree route and hated it, it was very poorly organised. One aspect they need to consider is unpaid placements - I was offered a job when on placement and thought why do this for free if I can be paid? So I left the degree and worked in the practice for a year and then enrolled as a student vet nurse again via the college route on block release. This was absolutely wonderful and I really loved my time at college.
The profession has changed hugely since I qualified and vet nurses are now better paid and have much better routes of advancement. I self funded a further qualification to become an ‘advanced’ RVN which is held in higher regard in the profession than the degree.
However. It’s not a sustainable career choice. I am in my mid 30’s with children now and I will be leaving the profession as the wage is so low, hours so long and expectations frankly ridiculous.
I loved my job but it came with a lot of negativity too and if I’m honest, it was not worth it.
Feel free to message me to discuss - ultimately if they want to be a vet nurse, a degree is a better route out of the profession. Which is a sad thing to say!

That is a good point about a degree helping you change profession later.

I think RVC and Bristol are much more established vet schools though. Harper and Keele are joint as you say and Keele is more recently established.

Yes I think the first vet medicine students graduated this year but Harper Adams has been offering vet nursing degrees for a few years now. My relative mentioned above applied probably about 10 years ago to HA but decided that it was too far from home.

I do think it's interesting that the pp above, like my relative, found the vet nursing degree a bit crap. It sounds like they were both starting out at roughly the same time and maybe the degree route was in its infancy. Hopefully now it's an established degree it's more organised everywhere.

As someone who has hosted vet nursing placements from a variety of colleges the experience varies with institution and student.
For I found the students from Hartpury to be the ones most consistently work ready when they arrived on placement. The RVC has been running the degree in some format for 25 years.
Equally the FE route is not for the faint hearted you have to do all the same professional exams and assignments as the degree whilst holding down a full time job. For example in practice this week our final year student worked the morning, sat her professional discussion exam on line and then completed her shift. Last week she went to college did her mock oSCE exam and then came back and completed the late shift on Friday as it was her weekend to work. You are writing assignments after you have completed a full days work.
There almost certainly will be a new veterinary surgeons act after the CMA report is published and the role of the vet nurse will almost certainly change and we are highly likely to see a nurse parctioner status be introduced which hopefully should increase the career progression and pay of vet nurses. But vet nurse pay is no where close to NhS nurse pay. Head nurses who can be managing a team bigger than an NHS ward team are earning around £10k less than a senior sister.
Vet nursing in the right team can be a really rewarding career.

I guess expectations differ. If my DC wanted to work in related fields but didn’t have vet grades at 18 then ru md this is a good option

I am a vet and have trained many vet nurses over the years, via the old diploma course and the degree course. Im in Scotland, so things may be a bit different.
The degree seems to be the only course here now, apart from the modern apprenticeship, which I have no experience of (I get student vet nurses for "free " with the degree course, but spend hours each week on training) I've employed a fair number of my ex- students, so its a win/ win.
The degree does make it easier to transition out of vet nursing. The wages are pretty poor, but so is everything animal related (newsflash: vets don't earn the money people think we do!) It is a career you want to do, and its not about money. But then we are all idealistic when young, then later trying to get/ pay a mortgage, support a family....
I HATE this idea that if you can't be a vet , be a vet nurse!! They are 2 very very different jobs. I have so much respect for my nurses. They do a very different job from me. Its not a second best job, its different.

@ThePlatypusAlwaysTriumphs Vets and nurses work directly with animals. I know someone who did do vet nursing/vet bio because she never got a single offer for vet med. So it was nursing or what - to work in a vet practice? Working with animals is usually poorly paid. There are other avenues and Bristol offers animal behaviour snd there’s zoology but that’s not being a vet or vet nursing. I’m not sure what alternatives there are that pay the bills!