Student vet nurse position wanted!

Re: Student vet nurse position wanted!

Gillian Mostyn — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 08:26:57 GMT

It was me - and I do own my own practice (a TP).

Hmmm....I wish it was only 1K to train a student! That is just the tuition fee!

OK - I love teaching, and get a lot of satisfaction seeing newly qualified VNs flourish - but, the costs aren't obvious to a lot of nurses so here goes: (And I do pay all my student's costs - I suppose not all practices do...)

Initial registrtion as a TP - approx £2,000 with fees and time
Annual inspection -approx £500 per year
tuition fees - ours are approx £600 I think
BVNA enrolment
textbooks
exam fees
IV visits (usually 2-3 per year) - £200 per visit
portfolio interim checks - £50
portfolio final submission - £100?
paying student 1 day/week for 2 years when they are at college
paying other staff overtime to cover the staff member being off one day/week
Assessor training costs and time off for meetings
Assesor's time - what could a vet/nurse be earning in the minimum of 3 hours they spend with their student?
Student's time - time in practice being trained
there are probably more....but my hubbie pays the bills and he's at work!!!! Earning the money to pay them!

It would take quite a while to work it all out - espcially the staff hours - but it certainly adds up eh?

As I said, it is a worthwhile cause! But I do think there is a lack of awareness by a lot of nuses just what practice is comitting to. Incidentally I also pay a 'normal' wage during training - not the minimum wage I believe a lot of practices do. But training has to be a priviledge, not a right. I don't know many other professions where such high training costs are paid directly by their boss - do you?

Re: Student vet nurse position wanted!

Fleabee99 — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 11:33:03 GMT

i got that figure from a vet on here who i think (and i emphasize think) runs her own practice but yeh theres tuition fees every year, exams fees, inspections which are apparently 250-400 a pop every 3 months!

so i would imagine it all adds up!!

the vet is called gillian, best to ask her

Re: Student vet nurse position wanted!

Freckle — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 01:06:49 GMT

hi sarah

is it really £10k to train a nurse? i thought it was much less, like 800-1k for a years tuition, plus exam & enrollment

i'm shocked at that-no wonder vets put clauses in contracts about qvn's staying on!

freckle x

Re: Student vet nurse position wanted!

Fleabee99 — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 23:28:05 GMT

sorry but to be frank but i have seen a post similar to this on another occasion and just some advice dont whatever you do tell practices or write on your CV that you have a place at a college already as most practices find it very ignorant and will see you as someone who doesnt understand that a practice has to hire you because THEY want to not because you have a place, if a practice wants you to go to college they will get you a place, your job is to find a practice that will hire you baring in mind that its choosing you out of a posiible 50/100 people and please bare in mind that for a practice to take you on they are looking at paying around 10,000 to train you so its not just somewhere to work while your not a college

just a few notes as i am currently looking for a trainee position and have all the gcses, my alevels and 4 years voluntary exp and im finding the search hard, be prepared for a rough time finding somewhere because by no means is it easy

hope this helps and sorry i hope you wont take this a negative just better me telling you than a potential practice because of your attitude

good luck!

Re: Student vet nurse position wanted!

Abi Cronin — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:46:41 GMT

Hey!! I live in thanet, I Have sent cv's out around here and to deal, dover, hernebay i have had a few replies but not with the answer i was hoping for. I proberly sent a cv to the vets you work at then lol. Yer i should try that hehe ;) thanks for your help :D!!

Re: Student vet nurse position wanted!

albatross — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:16:26 GMT

unless there's another Hadlow I assume you live in North Kent. Like other colleges places on VN courses are easy to obtain because the college places aren't often taken up.
As others mention it's like putting the cart before the horse - I've done that and always have a place at Canterbury offered but it only means that they know you or like you and think your curent qualifications are enough to start some form of education. The reality is that you MUST have a place at a TP. If you want to specifically go to one particular college it is even more limited as only a few TP's use Hadlow and they aren't necessarily in a 30 mile radius of the college either. For instance my own practice (where my insured animals and the chinchillas go, not the two I work in while I am trying to get a SVN placement), is in Dover and uses both Canterbury and more recently CAW (and so people living local to the practice have a 100 mile trip to the VNAC).
Places in TP's in Kent are rarer than rocking horse poo. I've been trying for 3 years and there' s others on here that have been trying over 1 year, let alone people all round the country.
Think about :
moving
doing the degree to become a VN rather than the NVQ route (although it's unpaid work and you still may have to find your own TP)
doing work experience in one or more TP's
writing to every practice that is a TP in Kent - camp out on their doorstep, ring them up (cos they never reply to your emails or posted CV's anyway)
applying for unqualified jobs and deciding not to bother
going to college to do other animal qualifications while you wait
trying to find non-TP's to allow you to do the ANA (must have xray and laboratory though so rules out most charity or tiny clinics) or VCA (this one is mostly distance learning) qualification while you wait

or how about my latest theory - bumping off a SVN in a practice then stepping into the newly available place

good luck - may meet you at interview for a place one day.....

Re: Student vet nurse position wanted!

Caro Laithwaite VN — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:16:35 GMT

http://www.vetnurse.co.uk/forums/t/1962.aspx I have a lot of links on there which explains everything in many posts.

As has been explained in those links, even if you got in at a training practice they are not likely to send you onto a course for up to a year so they know that you fit in and will be ok and that they are not wasting money.

Re: Student vet nurse position wanted!

Nick Shackleton — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:34:28 GMT

I'm affraid that I also agree wiv the above comments.

Re: Student vet nurse position wanted!

Sandra Taylor RVN, MBVNA — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:06:43 GMT

Hi Abi,

If you havbe a good look on the forum you will find probably hundreds of thereads asking pretty much the same thing.

Student nurse positions within a practice are like gold dust, and some people spend years looking for a position.

I hope you get one in time, but will say as I have said before on here to would be students, Why do you sign up for courses without first finding a practice?? The reason I ask is, you will have to give up your place if you dont find a practice to train you.

I also dont understand the places who offer placement to people who dont have a training practice, they should know better than most that it is hard and unlikely that the student will find a place in time.

Please dont take this the wrong way, it is not said to offend you, but make you realise that you are in for an upward struggle to find a place.