What to expect now you are qualified and registered Veterinary Nurse.

What to expect now you are qualified and registered Veterinary Nurse.

Firstly, congratulations from all the team here at Recruit4vets on becoming a qualified and registered veterinary nurse!

We understand the pressures as a veterinary nurse student looking to qualify, and we also understand it is not the typical, easy student life which some people associate graduating with. The great thing about being a veterinary nurse student is that the course is purposely designed to set you up for the hard working life you are about to embark on.

We recently spoke to a few veterinary nurses who talked about their student life;

Juliette, Askham Bryan College 2014 Graduate ‘I travelled 80 miles to and from College every day, it was very hard and tiring along with all my assignments, exams, dissertations and so on, but I knew this is what I wanted to do as a career and I was willing to work endlessly to ensure I graduated as Veterinary Nurse, which I did and I can honestly say, although it wasn’t a walk in the park, it was most definitely worth it’

Now you are qualified here a few simple things to consider to help you get on the right track;

1.      Plan your next move

Think about your future career.  Are you currently working in the type of practice that you want to be in? Are there any career opportunities? Is it a small animal practice, referral practice, hospital practice?  There are a wide range of practices out there and they all come with a range of positions, whether you want to specialise in surgery or neurology; all of these factors should influence where you want to work.

2.      Understand the advantages and disadvantages of locum work.

Locum work can offer excellent opportunities to work in a wide range of practices from small independent practices to advanced referral work. As a locum veterinary nurse you do have to be flexible; usually on location but lots of practices do provide accommodation. Locum work is very well paid and locum nurses are in extremely high demand throughout the UK.  If you have an interest in travelling overseas locum work can provide a high salary and flexibility to allow you to do this. To make things easier recruit4vets also pay towards your CPD! Find out more on CPD funding.

3.      Are you secured with an agency? As a veterinary nurse, your days are long and arduous so it is then the sensible decision to let an agency take on the burden of securing interviews for you.  As a recruitment agency, it is our job to find you the perfect job.  We take an interest in your future career, the type of position you are looking for and are able to organise interviews for you at a convenient time.

Recruit4vets are a trusted and respected veterinary recruitment specialist who has over 13,000 veterinary nurses we work with, we also work with some of the most trusted, well established practices in the UK. We have 100’s of new job roles added each month.

4.      Do you want to further your career?

When working within a practice, there are several options to think about going forward whether it is CPD, taking on extra responsibilities or taking on an extra course outside of practice.  There are a wide range of courses available from ECC, training on becoming a head nurse or if you have a particular interest in exotics, or small animals; there are courses on all of these and these will influence where you will want to work in the future.

5.      Plan ahead.

Once you have a few years’ experience with working in a veterinary practice you will then understand how practices operate and will have developed into a very good veterinary nurse.  You may also have further qualifications and an understanding of where you would like your career to go.  With this level of experience you can really start to specialise your skills and be the ‘go to’ person within your practice or you could start to take on further responsibility with positions like deputy head nurse, or head nurse.

Recruit4vets can help you on your journey, we pride ourselves on being more than a recruitment company, our dedicated team here undertake numerous training development courses and work closely with all our candidates to ensure that we know the veterinary industry as well as our candidates do so that we can relate and understand firstly, what your careers goals are and secondly how to get you there.

For more information, or to discuss how we could help you now you are qualified, please call our experts on 01423 701 321 or email us at info@recruit4vets.co.uk