When I decided to seriously look into veterinary nursing as a career, I was told by someone “you won’t be on great money” and that someone, who didn’t even work within the veterinary profession, was right.
However, having a job which paid thousands was never a priority of mine; it was more about having a job which I enjoyed. And working with animals was the dream!
I cannot remember how much I was paid as a student veterinary nurse back in 2008. But I can vividly picture the day in 2011 when I was told how much my wage would be now that I was a qualified veterinary nurse.
It came as a pleasant surprise that my practice manager announced my wage would increase to £15,000 per year.
That was way more than I expected and my manager noted my excitement. “Ohhh, is this too much? We can lower it down if you want,” she said.
What an odd thing to say, I thought and merely shrugged it off as I agreed to the following: average working week of 36 hours, one out of four Saturday mornings (1:4), mostly sole charge, and five weeks annual leave including bank holidays. Nursing duties were sparsely carried out; I was more of a receptionist/glorified cleaner for the most part.
For my next job in 2012 at a charity hospital, my wage jumped to £18,500 with annual increments. I was contracted to work 38 hours per week, 1:9 full weekends, and no sole charge.
The benefits included five weeks annual leave including bank holidays, Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) fees paid for, continuing professional development (CPD) encouraged and funded, and a pension. Nursing duties were greatly varied and challenging.
When I locummed in 2017 for one year, I charged £15-£16/hour during weekdays and £20/hour for weekends.
The knowledge and practical nursing skills I developed during my time at my previous practice, gave me the confidence to charge these rates.
But I still used to cringe after submitting my rates to the locum agencies. Why?! If anything, we vet nurses are worth SO much more.
I personally know many vet nurses working two jobs or quitting nursing altogether because of the low pay.
At the time of writing this article, in late 2020, I collected data from recent job advertisements for first opinion practices across the UK, excluding London (soz!). They range from small practices to large hospitals.
*CPD – continuing professional development
*RCVS – Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons
*VDS – Veterinary Defence Society
*BVNA – British Veterinary Nursing Association
Every practice had a wage range depending on experience and qualification; a few practices offered a higher wage for a degree vet nurse.
It took me a few hours to collect the “wage” part of this data as a lot of practices used the “competitive salary” card instead of stating a figure, which is a shame. What does competitive salary even mean?! This needs to end.
I think the question you have to ask yourself when deciding which vet nurse job to take is what is it that attracts you — the wage, the hours or the benefits?
For those of you thinking of vet nursing as a career, don’t be put off by the wage; caring for the animals certainly makes the job worthwhile.
Plus there are good opportunities to earn a higher wage, e.g. managing, locumming and specialising.
I am optimistic that vet nurses’ wages will in time increase to a respectable number. Vet nurses have come a long way from Joe Public carrying out nursing duties to registered vet nurses being accountable for their conduct.
However, we do need to stop saying we are “just” nurses and know our worth.
Veterinary Blog 