Nicole qualified as a registered veterinary nurse (RVN) from Harper Adams University in October 2019. She currently works in one of the UK’s leading charity hospitals while studying for her graduate certificate in anaesthesia. Eventually, once she has gained her two graduate certificates, Nicole wants to study for a master’s degree in Veterinary Nursing.
Meet Nicole:
My journey studying for the veterinary nursing foundation degree (FdSc) began in September 2016 at Harper Adams University. Uni life got off to a great start! I was there for freshers’ week and met a bunch of people who are now life-long friends.
I had a pretty good insight into what to expect as a vet nurse after seeing practice for three years in a veterinary clinic. During the degree course, I learned how to provide a high standard of care to animals. This included learning physiology, professional skills, anaesthesia and surgery, medical nursing, diagnostic imaging and disease diagnosis. The course was intense but achievable.
The higher education route provided a good balance of classroom-based theory and practical work in practice placements. I acquired intellectual skills on completion of placement blocks as well as working alongside a team of vets and nurses at Gilmore Veterinary Surgery.
In May 2018 while on my final uni practice placement block, I decided that once I had completed my degree and before starting a full-time job, I would like to travel.
Unlike your typical travelling adventure, I still wanted the opportunity to work together with field vets and assist in providing veterinary care to a wide range of animal species. This is known as a vet externship course and offers insight and hands-on experience into veterinary wildlife.
I researched several different projects and finally found one through The Great Projects. I went through these guys after reading positive reviews from past volunteers. A uni friend and I picked the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre in Malawi, Africa and we booked a trip for July 2019 for four weeks.
They also had availability on a vet externship course allowing me to have the full experience that I craved. My uni friend and I were both very excited to have the chance to complete this course which meant working alongside a team of vets, nurses and other volunteers within a completely different veterinary environment.
We were required to have multiple vaccines before our trip, which included hepatitis A and B, rabies, diphtheria and tetanus. The price of this trip, including the course, was £2,340. The flight cost from London Heathrow to Johannesburg and then on to Malawi was an extra £1,000. A month-long visa was roughly £75. It was worth it!
Once my final year at uni and the stress of the OSCE (objective structured clinical examination) assessments were over, it was time for Africa!
After several flights and a total of 16.5 hours of travelling, we finally arrived in Malawi. The first day was overwhelming. I was in a country where I had never been before, meeting new people whom I would live together with for the next four weeks. The hardest thing was to adapt to new routines, like filtering water and shopping at markets.
Seeing the way other people live was a massive cultural shock and made me truly appreciate what I have in my life. However, the warm welcome we received from the lovely team of vets, volunteer coordinators and volunteers put my mind at ease. I couldn’t wait to see what the next four weeks would bring.
The following day we had an introduction to the type of work we would be involved with. Each year the wildlife centre rescues around a hundred animals, which is why the volunteers play a critical role in the rehabilitation process.
To become a volunteer you do not need experience, however, you do need a strong work ethic and a passion for wildlife. For the vet externship course, you don’t need any veterinary qualifications.
I had the privilege to take part in the rehabilitation of vervet and blue monkeys, baboons, serval cats, antelopes and a variety of reptile and bird species.
As a volunteer, I was involved with the following:
- Orphan care – feeding started at six in the morning and sometimes included hand-rearing.
- Husbandry – cleaning enclosures, food/water bowls, food prep area and washing bedding and towels.
- Enrichment – collecting big twigs and branches for climbing or offering frozen treats for physical and mental stimulation.
- Vet clinic observations – observing the vet, helping clean theatre, feeding the in-patients and assisting in emergency cases.
During my time on the vet externship course, I got involved with a variety of clinical cases. On the first day, a health check was scheduled on a yellow baboon called Hugo. He was sedated for the health check and I assisted by monitoring his heart rate, respiration rate and temperature.
On another day a porcupine was brought into the clinic. She had suffered some serious wounds and damage to her skull after being caught in a snare. I provided help during the procedure by cleaning her wounds, assisting the vet in passing the necessary equipment and drawing up medication. My favourite part of this experience was helping release her back into the wild a week later.
I assisted in another emergency case concerning a vervet monkey. She had fallen into a river from a tree. The vet on site was able to retrieve her from the water and bring her straight to the clinic. She was immediately warmed to prevent hypothermia.
On close examination, it was noted that she had sustained several wounds and hemiparesis (paralysis down one side). Her wounds were flushed and sutured and she was closely monitored and nursed before being released three weeks later.
Other parts of the vet externship course included undertaking improvised laboratory techniques both in sampling and testing. For example, taking blood samples for external laboratory testing and performing faecal flotation tests to identify worms.
It was quite surreal taking blood from a baboon when you are so used to taking blood samples from cats and dogs. He had insane saphenous veins (if you know, you know!).
The final part of the vet externship course involved darting practice with a blowpipe and a darting gun (at targets of course). There I learnt the technique and achieved precision on how to administer drug immobilisation to wild animals.
This is necessary for a variety of reasons, including tracking and identification purposes, relocation from dangerous or overpopulated areas and veterinary treatment.
During my time in Africa, I and the rest of the volunteers were able to venture out to three other national parks, including a four-hour drive to Liwonde National Park.
Liwonde National Park is the home of incredible wildlife translocations and reintroductions, which has seen predators restored to the park for the first time in two decades
African Parks
It was there that I had an amazing experience of seeing a wild elephant in its natural habitat while on a boat safari. I cried. We also saw many hippopotami swimming and popping their heads out of the water.
One particular hippo decided to launch himself at our boat; it’s all about that wild adventure after all. We also got to ride in a real safari truck and see warthogs, antelopes and a wide range of other wild species roaming free.
The second game park we visited was the Kuti Wildlife Reserve. I was there for one week and took part in giraffe and zebra tracking. Zebra tracking and identification was a huge part of this trip and I got to understand the importance of this task in depth. It was interesting to learn that every zebra has its own, individual stripe pattern like our fingerprints.
During this task, multiple photos were taken of different zebras for identification. Photo identification allows monitoring health issues, such as injury or disease; notifies of missing zebras, due to poaching, for example; and collects population, research and capture-release data.
While we were there, we also got to visit Lake Malawi. The lake was very beautiful and the perfect place to spend the day sunbathing, swimming, drinking and having fun.
The last place I visited was the Majete Wildlife Park. Only my uni friend and I went on this trip as we had earned ourselves a long weekend off. There we encountered even more wildlife during a boat safari and a game drive. We stayed in a treetop cabin for two nights and got to enjoy the quiet solitude around us.
At the end of the trip, I had the honour of visiting a university in Malawi as part of the community outreach project. At the time, the university was still being built so lectures were taking place in portacabins. But they made it work.
I got to spend the day with third-year vet students carrying out laboratory tasks such as smears and blood work. I also got to learn different ways to hide medication in the food of certain animals. It was a joy to see the students’ enthusiasm for veterinary medicine and their career towards providing care and treatment to wildlife in Africa.
All our meals were freshly prepared. Our cook at Lilongwe was really good, however, all the dishes were vegetarian. For breakfast, we have either toast or cereal. And for lunch and tea, we had a mixture of rice, salads and bread. Once I was back in the UK, I ran straight to KFC!
Being so close to these astonishing animals and working alongside a variety of people was very rewarding. Each person had a passion for wildlife medicine and welfare. Africa, you have stolen my heart!
Once my African adventure had finished, it was time to jump into working life and my first job as a qualified vet nurse. I found out there was a job available as a part-time RVN at the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) and decided to go for it.
The interview process was formal and I felt prepared for the questions they asked me. But it was still very nerve-wracking as it was my first interview as a qualified nurse. I was aware that this particular hospital was one of the busiest hospitals in the country. I knew that working there would give me the experience I would need to develop my nursing skills in a clinical environment as a newly qualified vet nurse.
I also wanted to work somewhere that was going to give me a wide range of experience but also give me a good level of support. Fortunately, I was offered the job a day later! And to top it off, I would be working alongside my best friend.
The PDSA is the UK’s leading veterinary charity, providing free and low-cost treatment to pets that are in need. This organisation is well known for its busy, fast-paced working life while treating over 2.7 million pets across the UK.
One year on, I couldn’t love my job more than I already do. I work with an amazing team of vets, nurses, vet care assistants (VCAs) and receptionists who have been unbelievably supportive through this time.
My current role is as a stand-in team leader for the VCAs. I enjoy providing instruction, direction and guidance to the team, as well as building morale and achieving goals. I wanted to work at a practice that was going to give me the most satisfying and fulfilling experience, and the PDSA ticks both of these.
As well as working full-time, I’m also studying for my graduate certificate in advanced veterinary nursing (anaesthesia) at Harper Adams University. So far this has involved looking at the anatomy of anaesthesia through different assessment types such as appraising literature on the online forum, a written assignment and an open book exam due to Covid-19 restrictions. I was happy to have passed this first module. I am now completing my second module: anaesthetic science.
I was going to return to university to complete a bachelor of science degree (BSc) before starting my first job. However, I found out that I could work towards a master’s degree through distance learning. For this, I would need to gain enough credits to be accepted into the course.
I already have a foundation degree in veterinary nursing, which means that I only need to obtain another graduate certificate to gain enough credits. I would eventually be able to do my master’s degree without the need to return to university full-time to complete the top-up course.
Ultimately, I would like to use my certificate to its full potential at a referral hospital and put the knowledge I have learned into practice. And maybe one day, I will return to Africa.
You can connect with me on IG: personal and vet nursing accounts.
Hi, I’m Sophie!
I had the pleasure of working with Nicole at one of PDSA’s hospitals, in Merseyside.
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