Vets to Nurses Ratio in General Practice

Re: Vets to Nurses Ratio in General Practice

FINNIGAN — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 09:33:31 GMT

4 vets 2 full time nurses both trainees and 2 part time qualifieds , bit of a joke really!!!

Re: Vets to Nurses Ratio in General Practice

sarahpearce81 — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 20:28:27 GMT

Thank you for all your replies. I was just interested to see what other practices ratios of VN vs VS are, compared to ours!

Re: Vets to Nurses Ratio in General Practice

Susan Jackson — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 16:52:16 GMT

I'm in a practice which opened last September, it's 1 vet and 1 nurse (me). This works fine for now but I rely on the reception staff to do all the admin stuff and assist by cleaning rooms, empting bins, and washing floors. It does mean I'm not there for some hours of the week but we have a set up and I stay and do extra sometimes. The Vet has said that as we get busy it would be a nurse he needs not another Vet.

It does work very well but we all kinda help each other out, my Vet does help me set up for ops, it's never complete but appreciate any help really.

Re: Vets to Nurses Ratio in General Practice

Laura James — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 13:19:36 GMT

We are a mixed practice with our main hospital, 3 branches (one is only open in the afternoons and no nurses there). The other 2 branches have a nurse there one day a week and we have 11 vets and 6 Q/RVNs, 5 SVNs, 1 ANA and a kennel assistant. Our main hospital covers our OOH, so at least 2 nurses are not there during the day.

Re: Vets to Nurses Ratio in General Practice

shelly jefferies — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 12:36:03 GMT

We are a mixed practice with 12 vets, there are always 4-5 vets on small animal at one time and we have 4 qualified vn's, one 2nd yr trainee and a kennel person.

Re: Vets to Nurses Ratio in General Practice

Nick Shackleton — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 21:06:57 GMT

[quote user="Phrin Vernon"]

[quote user="BengalcatRVN"]

1 nurse per vet + 1 extra are my thoughts....which makes it interesting when you have 4 vets and 2 nurses! I usually end up pulling my hair out as they all want me (I'm usually on with a non-qualified), but I'm busy...lol, few times told a vet to "pretend" to be a nurse to help another vet. I mean, I know our jobs are harder.... Only jokin'!

[/quote]

I think that for a smallish practice (say up to 5 vets or so), then 1 nurse per vet, plus 1 extra is ideal, but as you get into bigger practices, you probably need more nurses than that. I've never been involved in staffing levels though, just an observation that there are a lot more nurses than vets in the big hospitals I've worked in, and everyone is busy!

Bengal - Sometimes our vets have to 'be nurses' too. Oh dear lol! Bless 'em but they can't set up for a GA, never know which circuit to choose, and once the animal is asleep they forget about monitoring and stand peering over the op site

[/quote]

unless they have a Cert VA or Dip ECVAA then I think you'll find they know what they doing at the head end rather than the op end of the patient

Re: Vets to Nurses Ratio in General Practice

Phrin Vernon RVN — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 21:04:35 GMT

[quote user="BengalcatRVN"]

[/quote]

Re: Vets to Nurses Ratio in General Practice

BengalcatRVN — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:31:02 GMT

Re: Vets to Nurses Ratio in General Practice

Celine — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 09:56:25 GMT

I feel really strongly that you need at least 1.5 nursing staff to 1 vet - 2 to 1 is better though! It depends slightly on hours and schedules and tasks the vets are doing a bit though - If one of them will be out on farm visits etc half the time then you could get away with a lower ratio. And I say nursing staff as I mean anyone able to help restrain for a blood sample, start centrifuging something, or setting up the x-ray room, etc (So ANAs I'd include there) To be honest its simply more efficient (and will make them more money!) as then 2 VNs can work together doing things like glucose curves, conscious X-rays, bandage changes, etc, and there is still someone around to help when BOTH vets appear at the same time and want to knock something out / take bloods, etc. I'm working in a practice where there aren't enough nurses at present and it's just causing grumpy vets, or else they try to help by setting up and forget something vital (ET tube anyone?) ;P I realise you're practice is just starting up so you may not be as busy as all that to start with, but keep it in mind for when you are ready to increase your workload.

Re: Vets to Nurses Ratio in General Practice

Sally Seddon — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 07:46:59 GMT

We have 3 vets, but 2 job share so i guess its a 2 vet practice. We have 3 rvns (again 2 job share), one svn (me) and 2 receptionists/admin asst.

Our main hospital does our ooh. We open 8-7pm mon - thurs, 8-6pm fri and 8.30 - 12 sat. We all do 1 in 6 sat mornings.

Re: Vets to Nurses Ratio in General Practice

Juliet Drummond DAVN (med) RVN D32/33 — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 07:17:56 GMT

hi, we have a main hospital, we do our own ooh cover 24/7, we have one small branch.

we currently have 4 vets, 4 rvns and 4 svns.

all staff rotate between the main hospital and the branch.

hospital open 8am to 7.30pm mon-fri, 8am to 4pm sat, and 10.30 to 12pm sunday. branch open 8.30am to 11am, and 4 to 6pm mon-fri, and open in am only on sat.

hope this is useful.