I am considering doing Veterinary Nursing as I love animals but is that enough when I really want to make a difference to people? I wish I had the nerves to do Human Nursing but am scared how I would cope as I have had depression, but I do enjoy first aid which I know is different. I thought about doing Psychology/Counselling or Education but am so unsure! I really want to go back to uni and retrain now having worked in IT and I want to get it right now! Serious advice only please! Vet nursing is a very rewarding career, for the right person.
I think if you are interested in this type of work, you should contact some local veterinary practices and see if you can do a bit of voluntary work there, just to see how you get on. It is one of those jobs where lots of people are interested, but find that when they start it's not what they expect.
It is very caring orientated, obviously, but there are other skills involved. You will need to be good at prioritising your work, be able to perform practical tasks that may be difficult, such as placing a catheter and drip into a wriggly kitten's leg, you need to be observent, so that when you are looking after a full kennels full of sick patients, and the vet asks you for progress reports, you can poing out any changes in their condition quickly.
You need to be methodical and good at keeping records and organising things. You need to be good at communicating with owners that may be anxious or upset, or even angry about their pet 's illness. You also may have to face clients that are abusive or rude, for example if they don't want to pay their bills. You will need to be able to keep calm and not loose your temper with them. Sometimes pet owners can make you very upset, for example if you know they have left their pet ill for days before bringing it in, or have not followed advice and their pets have got worse. You need to be able to hold your tongue and not have a go at them, and keep a professional attitude.
You will need to be compassionate to people that may have pets that have to be put to sleep, and you will be required to be able to put pets to sleep, without becoming to involved or upset in front of the owners.
You must be able to work well under pressure as well. And be able to cope with working very closely with people that may get very stressed at work. The veterianry proffession is very stressful, vets get vet angry and may shout at the nurses, so you need to be a strong person and not take it too much to heart.
You will also need to be motivated to go to college and willing to learn. The course can be very demanding and takes up a lot of your time at home, revising for exams and compiling a portfolio of animals you have cared for.
You need to be able to multi task, as you may have to do several things at once, and you will need to be able to remember to do things on time, for example, a dog may be hospitalised for a glucose curve, where you have to remember to take blood samples every hour to check glucose levels, as well as look after all the other inpatients, and answer the phone, and run blood samples, and help in theatre etc.
You need to have a strong stomach and be willing to get your hands dirty. A large proportion of the work is cleaning up blood/faeces/urine/vomit etc. You must be prepared to start at the bottome as a trainee and then work your way up the ladder.
I hope I have not put you off this job, I have been a vet nurse now for 10 years and I don't think any other job would give me as much satisfaction. I am only telling it how it is, as I have seen a hell of a lot of people start it and not finish, because of the demands of being a nurse.
On the plus side, you get a job that's varied, and different every day. Unlike human nurses, who specialise in one particular area , ie; cardiology, theatre etc., we do everything, so one day you're on kennels medicating patients, next day you're taking xrays and doing dentistry, next day you might be doing minor procedures like lump removals and stitching up wounds, next day you might be an anaesthetist, then you do lab work, reception work, go on house visits to see pets at home, train junior staff, and use compluter databases. You also need to be responsible as you will be in charge of important tasks, and have animal's lives in your hands, for example, if a vet asks you to give a patient some medication, you need to make sure you give the right dose and drug, as many drugs are given in very tiny amounts and it can be easy to mix up drugs with similar long names.
Some practices even allow their nurses to do extra duties, for example, the practice in which I work run work experience placements for schools, which I am responsible for organising, I visit local primary schools and take in animals to show the children and tell them about working with animals, hold nurse clinics and do consultations, run fundraising events for drug companies, and organise puppy party classes an for new owners, where they bring their puppies in to a type of 'playgroup', mainfly for puppy socialisation, and we talk to the ownes about puppy care. We had 11 puppies at our last class, so being able to speak to large groups of people can be and advantage. You will go home each day knowing tha your have made people happy and taht you have seen animals get better, sometimes a pet taht hs been coming in for weeks gets better and goes home for the final time, and you know it has all been worth while.
Get some work experience and see how you get on. Best of luck, I hope you do well. xx I could think of gezillions of worse things
please be a vet they need all the help they can get
and are so less demanding/threatening
we have sorely hurt them and they need people like you if you like in UK phone, (st johns ambulance and do first aid part time) If you are helping people's pets, you'll be helping people, so it should meet your criteria of making a difference. That said, working in a vet's office can be stressful too - people are very stressed when their animals are sick and it's hard to see animals in pain and sometimes die. So if human nursing is hard for you, working with animals may have its challenges too. Just something to think about.
I have also had a few friends of mine go into psychology or counseling and it often seemed they unconciously did it because they were searching for answers for their own issues. That's OK, but none of them have lasted long in the profession because it too involves dealing with people with serious human problems and they did not have the emotional stength themselves to cope with it for a long period of time.
Your motives are all the right ones and very honorable. But it pays to look deep into yourself and ask yourself what you are looking for and why. Resolving the core reasons for your depression may be as important as going back to school so that you will be both intellectually prepared and emotionally prepared for whatever path you choose. Good luck. Being a veterinary technician (I think this is what you mean by veterinary nursing) can be a very rewarding job. Helping a beloved pet makes a huge difference to people. As a vet tech, you have a lot of contact with people and will likely be responsible for teaching them how to help their four legged companions. Here in the US (at least Ohio) you need a 2 year associates degree to be a vet tech.
Having said all this you should know some of the downsides: You get paid very little. Sometimes you run into very stupid people who have no clue and don't want to learn about what it means to be a good pet parent. Other times you run into people who (in my mind) are just cruel to their pets. For instance, a cat spraying in the house because he has a urinary infection is not a reason to euthanize them!!! Leaving a dog tied out on a chain 24/7 is just cruel -- they by nature are very social animals and truly need interaction. Some people think an injury doesn't hurt an animal as much as it does us -- wrong, wrong, wrong! Their nature is to hide their pain because in the wild, to be sick is to be killed and eaten.
OK, so I've been on my soapbox for a while. Most people who bring their pets to the vet love them very deeply. Helping them keep their pet healthy or consoling them when they pass is very rewarding, although sometimes heartbreaking. Only you can answer if you will be able to handle it emotionally.
My suggestion would be to find people who are doing the jobs you are interested in and ask them about it. In some cases, they might be able to let you observe them at work.
Also, universities typically have counselors who can give you aptitude and interest tests which might help you. I live in the US, and i am a Licensed Veterinary Technician, which would be the same as a Veterinary Nurse. I love my job, but i got into it because i LOVE helping Animals. When i started actually working in the field, i was amazed at how much human interaction there was. I was expecting to be working more with animals, but the MAIN part of the job is working with people. While i like working with animals, and thought that i wouldn't enjoy working with people, i love it. I have opened up, i used to be so shy. But you form bonds with the people. They are so appreciative of what you do for their pet. And when you are helping the pet, you are usually helping the owners more. When you do something like taking off a lump from a dog's leg, the dog really doesn't care if it is there or not, but their owners see a remarkable difference, and really appreciate the care you gave their dog. Good Luck, i hope you make the right decision for your career. I LOVE being a LVT. But i think if you really love helping people, psychology would also be an Excellent choice. Good Luck!!!! yes go for the vet nurse it has to more careing than most other jobs, id love to i just havent got round to it yet xx yes, go for it. I am a people nurse and thought about veterinary nursing - -but over - protective owners would drive me nuts. If you're strong enough go for it but think of witnessing an animal to put to sleep, very distressing scene. Definitely help animals they are much more deserving than us humans. If you suffer from depression, I would think again. Working with animals is emotionally draining if you truly love them. You may not cope. |
