I'm having a bit of a moment, your thoughts?

Re: I'm having a bit of a moment, your thoughts?

kaz84 — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 13:17:23 GMT

ummm i say give it a few more weeks. then the heat will hit !!!!!!!!!!!!! i cant wait, love my summers in QLD :D[quote user="Ozzie Kate"]

Convince him of a bit of a sea change? Australia is beautiful at this time of year... if not slightly hot!

[/quote]

Re: I'm having a bit of a moment, your thoughts?

Ozzie Kate — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 02:49:40 GMT

Convince him of a bit of a sea change? Australia is beautiful at this time of year... if not slightly hot!

Re: I'm having a bit of a moment, your thoughts?

jamie — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:59:33 GMT

that sounds fab! i should have thought of all that before getting myself all attached to someone.... :)

Re: I'm having a bit of a moment, your thoughts?

Ozzie Kate — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:13:52 GMT

I am in a similar boat as Dippy. Unfortunately in Australia we have limited jobs outside nursing and sales when it comes to animals. I jumped between Nursing and riding horses full time both here and in the UK for 10 years before I finally decided that I would like a little more money! I now work for a large animal feed company in sales but I also do one night shift a fortnight at the local emergency center. The day job pays my bills and the nursing gives me a little more spending money and gived me my 'fix' of all things vetty!

Another thing that I did when I was in a bit of a rut was to fly half way across the world and locum for a few months. They say a change is as good as a holiday and it was a great opportunity to see the world and a few different practices (although this may be hard with hubby in tow!) Have you though about locuming? The money is a little better but inconsistant but for me it was great with free accommodation and a different town every month!

Re: I'm having a bit of a moment, your thoughts?

Dippy — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 10:35:07 GMT

The animal charities have good jobs too, not necessarily hand on but still in a related field and making a difference to the cause we all believe in. All the big ones have a jobs page on their websites, RSPCA, Cats' protection, Blue cross, hearing Dogs, Guide Dogs etc but they do get hundreds of applications (I've applied for numerous and didn't get the ones I wanted previously!) and it also depends which ones are in your part of the world. It's another option though.

Re: I'm having a bit of a moment, your thoughts?

Dippy — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 10:32:43 GMT

By absolute fluke/luck and trawling google for animal jobs, dog jobs etc!

Re: I'm having a bit of a moment, your thoughts?

jamie — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 09:05:00 GMT

Thanks for that Dippy!! Good advice and some things I had never thought of. Im thinking of leaving the proffesion after 11years as I just cant simply afford to do this job anymore. Im getting married next year and getting ready to start a life with my husband to be, he has a house luckily as I could never afford one but it needs a lot of work, neither of us earn a fantasic wage. Im interested to see what was out there hadnt even considered dogs homes. How did you come across the coordinator post?

Re: I'm having a bit of a moment, your thoughts?

Dippy — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 23:04:46 GMT

[quote user="vanessa"]

Has anyone here tried repping or know what its really like? What do other ex VNs do now if you know of any?

[/quote]

I left nursing years ago and worked as a rep, firstly for a nutritional company and then for a lab company. I liked the former intially as the role was mainly made up of training, lunch meetings, evening meetings and courses etc and I found that my sales came as a result of the relationships I built up with my practices and the trust they then had in the products and myself but after twelve months we had a new sales manager who was much more business minded and the role became entirely target orientated, which I hated as the pressure to sell in every call just sent me spiralling into depression. I then made the mistake of leaving for the second company who were also all about targets and after a year there, I decided that hard sell type jobs weren't for me (I'm too nice and take the rejection personally!) I then spent three years as manager of a large charity rehoming centre which had good and bad points - the good being the work we did, the animals we helped and the fact that I was still in contact with animals on a daily basis, the bad being the fact that management of over 30 staff was a nightmare (you think 5 nurse rotas are hard to juggle?!), dealing with slackers, health safety and HR paperwork etc - some days I could have been employed in any office, anywhere as i never set foot outside the door. I had a couple of years working for the ambualnce service, using my medical knowledge but within a different environment but missed animal people too much so returned to nursing about 6yrs ago, vowing to appreciate it for what it was, having grown up and got the other stuff out of my system, so I locumed for quite a while to give me chance to have some variety and see a range of types of practice. I finally gave up nursing due to health reasons (possibly for good although never say never!) a few months ago and now work as a regional coordinator for a national dog home baording service, recruiting home carers, doing home checks and promoting the service to dog owners (and I probably have already, or will be, visiting most of your practices if you're anywhere between Birmingham and Blackpool so be nice to me! ) I no longer have the same level of direct animal contact that I did before although also have no pressure to hard sell, spend my time with genuine dog lovers and my previous sales training has definitely stood me in good stead in terms of journey planning, managing my time and having the confidence to promote my product to a wide variety of people, from vets and nurses to pet shops to dog shows to Joe public etc. The only downside really is that it can be quite lonely repping if you're on your own in the car a lot but I'm quite enjoying my own space and not getting any grief from anyone at the moment! I'm also about to go on a training day with another nutritional company in order to be able to do odd days of instore promotional work for them as a top up to my wages.

I guess my advice would be try to think about exactly what you may or may not miss if you leave practice ie are you better in company or as part of a team with whom you work/talk to every day, would you miss animal contact and if so, would you be able to satisfy this by filling it in another way ie voluntary work at a weekend or similar, is money the priority, do you mind being office based as long as it's within an animal environment or could you teach so that you are maintaining your nursing skills?

Longwinded answer to the previous question but hope it gives you something to think about!

Re: I'm having a bit of a moment, your thoughts?

David White — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 22:32:21 GMT

ha ha i feel your pain stuart re: turning 30, we recently taken on a 17 year old and i thought to myself how the hell did i get to 29 without realising it

Re: I'm having a bit of a moment, your thoughts?

vanessa — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:16:06 GMT

I know how you feel as do the other nurses I know. One ex VN now runs a pet shop, another is prob going to start repping, another is hoping to start grooming and another hoping to start a cattery.

The hours with us aren't too bad but I hate it when I have something planned and have to stay on, occasionally letting down friends and family. We've started taking overtime in leiu now due to mostly not getting paid for it and never thanked either. The salary of a VN needs to improve to keep people in the job for life.

Has anyone here tried repping or know what its really like? What do other ex VNs do now if you know of any?

Re: I'm having a bit of a moment, your thoughts?

vanessa — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:14:29 GMT

I know how you feel as do the other nurses I know. One ex VN now runs a pet shop, another is prob going to start repping, another is hoping to start grooming and another hoping to start a cattery.

Has anyone here tried repping or know what its really like? What do other ex VNs do now if you know of any?

Re: I'm having a bit of a moment, your thoughts?

Sal the 1st — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 18:39:57 GMT

[quote user="suzie17"]

i would keep a record of when i leave late if its just all ways you that is leaving late and ask why its always that way. i worked some were once were one person always left on time and everyone else was left cleaning and finishing all the jobs for that day, and leaving late. It was only noticed when we told the head nurse about it and the girl got told.

[/quote]

maybe the rota could be looked at to make sure there is adequate staffing at the end of the day and everybody gets to go home on time if this is the case. Sometimes just a small change on the rota is all that is needed without the need for anybody to clock up overtime.

Re: I'm having a bit of a moment, your thoughts?

suzie17 — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:35:31 GMT

i often feel the same as you. some days i love nursing and could see me doing anything else. other days i just want to do something else, but then don't know what i would do. as i could never work in an office.

Re: I'm having a bit of a moment, your thoughts?

Caro Laithwaite VN — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 08:27:56 GMT

**Patting** Stuart on the head from the lofty heights of 49 it is just as bad for us but others older arent so bad as we were better general knowledge not have all the tv garbage fed us mostly didn't have tv back in the 60s so a better knowledge of things that went before.

Re: I'm having a bit of a moment, your thoughts?

Jables — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 07:12:36 GMT

Thanks you lovely bunch!

I feel a loads less alone now!

xxx

Re: I'm having a bit of a moment, your thoughts?

Stuart McQueen RVN MBVNA — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 06:58:21 GMT

There's plenty you can do with your qualification... potentially...

You could train to teach nursing... Become a rep... erm... ok that's all I got at the minute! It's been a long night!

I've been doing the job 6 years, and do sometimes think - where am I going... I often get freaked out that I'm almost 30 - ALMOST! but not quite, and the nurses that we get starting can now be half my age - and born in the LATE 90s! It upsets me that they don't know stuff I know - I don't mean about nursing - I mean trying to have a conversation and I'll reference a Friends quote or talk about an actor and they just look blankly at me! Makes me feel old! haha

Do you get paid extra for the overtime? You should at least keep a track of the number of hours and bring it up with someone - even if you don't get paid ask for it back as TOIL. Are you the only person that does this? Do the other nurses leave on time? If they do maybe you just have to get tougher as saying no when you're asked to do something when you've finished! I've seen nurses that when their home time comes they do just stop! Even if it means leaving a half mopped floor! Grrr

I do - quite often - moan about veterinary nursing (what nurse doesn't from time to time)... but just remember that when you are qualified it is a skill for life - you can potentially work anywhere in the UK, or even take the qualification abroad... There are always sick animals somewhere! ;-)

Re: I'm having a bit of a moment, your thoughts?

Fuzzyduck — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 22:34:45 GMT

I have been qualified for 11 years now, still love my job and still cant imagine doing anything else. I also want to have children in the very near future as im not getting any younger! Also my other half doesnt have a huge salary but we'll manage somehow.

I want to work part time when we have kids and i know it will be tough finantially but when i was born my dad was made redundant and my mom wasnt working due to having me, when my dad did find a job it was poorly paid and they managed to support me and my sister when she came along on just my dads factory salary.

I know i dont want to do anything else so i guess what im trying to say is you'll cope whatever.

In terms of other careers tho after vet nursing most people go in to teaching or repping, i dont really fancy either of them tho.

Re: I'm having a bit of a moment, your thoughts?

Vickipr — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 16:24:37 GMT

Hi,
How are you doing today? Are you feeling any better about your job?
I have been nursing for 8 years now, and qualified for 5, so I'm still here nursing. I wanted you to know that I have exactly the same fears as you sometimes. I am quite lucky at the moment in that i work in London, so the salaries ar ehigher here due to the london living allowance and london weighting topping up the salary. However, I am not from this area and have no wish to live here indefinitely, in fact my husband and I are hoping to move next year so's when we have have children we can bring them up in the countryside.

I often worry about the money side, as he is not a particularly high earner either. I love my job too, well most days anyway, sometimes I think I hate it! Those days aside however, I do enjoy the job, and I like being a general nurse, and I have no wish to become a head nurse, I am more a follower than a leader, so where do I go from here? I don't know really, I don't think I want to nurse forever, but I also have no idea what else I would want to do, I definitely don't want an office job either.

This probably isn't much help to you at all, I just wanted you to know that you are not alone with your thoughts, and I think it's a common thought accross the profession!

Is it possible for you to have a chat with your boss about your hours? I know it goes with the job to have odd working hours, but you really shouldn't be expected to do overtime every day. Maybe you could have a practice meeting to discuss a rota of taking it in turns to stay late, or the possiblity of employing another member of staff, this doesn't have to be a vet nurse, maybe an ANA to help with the cleaning / walking animals side of things to take the pressure off of the VNs?

Also, once you have qulaified you could consider becoming a clinical coach to the next student, I am a CC in my current job, and find it gives me more job satisfaction, also, it also comes with a small pay-rise which helps!

I hope this has been some help for you!

Vicki x