May is Veterinary Nursing Awareness Month, a whole month dedicated to raising awareness of the veterinary nursing profession and the vital role they play in animal care and treatment.
What was started as an awareness day by the British Veterinary Nursing Association (BVNA) in 2005 quickly grew into a week and expanded even further to a month in 2012.
Eliza is a veterinary nurse at Cave Veterinary Specialists and kindly took time out to tell us about life as a vet nurse.
How long have you been a vet nurse and what training did you have to do to achieve your qualifications?
I qualified as a vet nurse in 2017 after completing a 4-year degree in Veterinary Nursing and Bio-veterinary Science at the University of Bristol.
What attracted you to a career as a vet nurse?
I have always had an interest in working with animals and knew from a young age that I needed a career that was practical as I couldn’t bear the thought of being sat down all day in an office! Science was also a favourite subject of mine at school, and I wanted to be able to incorporate it into my career – vet nursing was the perfect opportunity for this.
What are the best things about being a vet nurse?
The feeling at the end of a long and difficult shift that you have made a difference and played a part in saving an animal’s life
What kind of attributes do you need to be a good vet nurse?
I think to be a vet nurse you need to be patient, kind, organised and 100% be able to multitask! You also need to be able to use your initiative and have a keen eye for noticing the small changes in patient behaviour.
What advice would you give someone thinking about a career as a vet nurse?
Vet nursing is rarely about cuddling cute puppies and kittens! You need to be prepared to get your hands dirty and have a keen interest in medicine. The roles you play as a vet nurse are not limited to caring for the inpatients in wards, you are also the anaesthetist, scrub nurse, cleaner etc and the hours can be long and unsociable which is something to prepare for. But it is a very rewarding job!
What are the best things about working at Cave Veterinary Specialists?
The team at Cave is awesome! We eat an obscene amount of cake together and are like one big, happy family! Everyone gets along really well which is rare for such a big team. We also all strive to work at a gold standard level, and everyone is really supportive of others when they want to gain further qualifications to further their knowledge.
For more information on Vet Nurse Awareness Month, visit www.bvna.org.uk/about-us/veterinary-nursing-awareness-month
