Any Veterinary Nurses about?

[Mujician]

I just wondered what the hours of work are like? Can you pick and choose, and do you choose if you want to do night shifts? Any other insider info on the job would be greatly appreciated. Especially on what a head nurse would look for in a trainee VN. Many thanks, Ben

[vetdebbie]

Not a nurse! But can help a bit. In my opinion my lovely nurses work hard for relatively rubbish money. And mine are paid well! they do a 35 hour week with no night duties, 1 in 3 weekends. Nurses can often do more hours for the same money, plus nights. It varies from practise to practise. If you think even in our area where there are ?10 surgeries, may be 15, in an easily commutable distance, of which not all will be able to take trainee nurses, and of those only some will be recruiting, if they do their own night work, you will HAVE to do nights, no choice. There will also be an element of 'shift' work - my guys do 8-4 or 11.30-7.30 shifts.

What is a head nurse (or vet) looking for in an applicant? Someone who is happy to work hard, get stuck into the dirty jobs (literally), have a practical attitude to what we do whilst maintaining empathy with the animals and their owners and (not most importantly but it is a consideration!) have half a chance of passing their exams - after all we're the ones paying for them!

(Just spent a month recruiting - can you tell?)

(By the way, still looking for a qualified nurse to work in Christchurch is anyone is interested )

[twinklu]

Hours and details of work are decided by the practice on their own requirements, if a practice offers a 24h service then it's going to need its staff to work rota's covering the whole 24h, if a practice closes its doors after 7pm and passes its phonecalls to an out of hours service then it may only need part of the day covering by its staff, a veterinary nurses job doesn't tend to be 9 while 5.