Has anyone transferred their vet nursing skills to human patients?

RE: Has anyone transferred their vet nursing skills to human patients?

fiona eldridge — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 08:23:48 GMT

After 20 years I decided to retrain as an ODP (operating department practitioner) with the NHS. I found it interesting. Learnt a lot. Qualified..... and then decided the NHS wasn't for me! So I'm still in vet nursing!

RE: Has anyone transferred their vet nursing skills to human patients?

sjcafi — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 19:45:01 GMT

Will let you know.

RE: Has anyone transferred their vet nursing skills to human patients?

Nick Shackleton — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 17:26:47 GMT

Rhiannon Thomas good luck with the studies. My ultimate goal when I joined the NHS was to qualify as a radiographer and return to veterinary. Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford to return to full time university, which was the only option when I was in the NHS. There are likely to be more and more opportunities for you in the veterinary industry as the use of radiotherapy expands. Just like with advanced imaging.

RE: Has anyone transferred their vet nursing skills to human patients?

Rhiannon Thomas — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 17:00:31 GMT

I’m currently retraining as a therapeutic radiographer with the NHS. I worked as a oncology RVN including in radiotherapy and wanted to upskill. There’s no vet route to take so I’m doing PgDip with humans. I get some NHS funding and work as a locum RVN on weekends. My clinical skill has been really transferable. Ultimately I plan to come back to veterinary but I’d like a good human foundation first.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

RE: Has anyone transferred their vet nursing skills to human patients?

Arlo Guthrie — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 16:53:41 GMT

Nick Shackleton Thanks for that, really helpful. And sjcafi and HomerRVN (and Nick) hope you've subscribed to the new email digest of questions ... https://www.vetnurse.co.uk/questions.

Really want to build this into the biggest and best place for VNs to get authoritative, helpful answers like this, and for that, we all need to be subscribed to get the questions!

RE: Has anyone transferred their vet nursing skills to human patients?

Nick Shackleton — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 16:25:41 GMT

Usually phlebotomy is an on the job training. I did cannulation as part of my job in the NHS. I did a ttwo dat theory and practical training session followed by 10 supervised correctly placed iv cannulas on patients and was re certified every year. I would assume it would be similar for phlebotomy.

RE: Has anyone transferred their vet nursing skills to human patients?

HomerRVN — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 16:19:41 GMT

I too thought of this as a career move, but finding a Phlebotomy training course run by the NHS with vacancies was my issue. If you find any please can you le me know? Good luck

RE: Wanting to use transferable skills, NZ

Nick Shackleton — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 18:50:29 GMT

I took a career break for 7.5 years. I worked for the NHS as an Assistant Practitioner working in radiography. I really enjoyed my time in the NHS and gained valuable experience, skills and knowledge. I’m now back working full time in veterinary medicine using those skills and knowledge to undertake CT & MRI scans of dogs and cats. My veterinary qualifications and experience definitely helped in particularly gaining entrance onto a foundation degree qualification. I know of nurses who have gone into phlebotomy as well as other areas of the NHS. So there are definately the opportunities out there.