Equine vet nurse

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Hi everyone!!

I am looking at a career in equine veterinary nursing. It seems to be quite hard to get into but would be a dream. Does anyone have any advice/experience or any tips?

Thanks so much!
 
yes thats what I thought. It looks fairly simple. However you have to get work experience at an equine hospital and sit in on a surgery and clean the tools and the surfaces afterwards. This work experience needs to be done before you get accepted. Apparently there are very long wait lists for the work experience but I'll make sure I get it done.
 
yes wok experience is key I think, contact as many vet practices as you can, volunteer etc even working in admin roles at vets would be good experience to get you in, a friends daughter worked on reception at a vets for a while before she was able to do vet nursing experience. Fingers crossed for you!
 
I believe there was a top up course available somewhere if you study as an all purpose RVN first (3-4 years) and then specialise in equine. In theory it could take longer but may give you more confidence if you ever want to tweak your career to small animal - equine vet nursing is much more physical and outdoors, do you want to be doing that when you’re older?, and your schedule 3 is limited. This will also open up your university and college choices massively.

Remember you can also qualify as an RVN via the apprenticeship route but I chose university as it proved I could work to degree level. This has ultimately led to me (some time later!) getting some interesting jobs in the veterinary industry. So if you’re academically inclined and can get a loan I’d go down that route.

Volunteering wise unsure if they have specific requirements but alongside your vet practice minimum try and do some interesting work experience to stand out - volunteering on a large race or stud yard where vets attend almost daily allows you to witness another of the industry, which drives a lot of the equine veterinary advancements, and you can talk about this. Also being an RVN involves people skills too. I volunteered at my local RDA which showed how I used my equine knowledge to help others and work with a variety of people.

Vet nursing is tough, emotional and underpaid. But most of my jobs have involved working or talking about animals all day and I wouldn’t change that!

Happy for you to PM me if you have any further questions
 
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