School & work in the UK

Re: School & work in the UK

KimW — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 20:31:57 GMT

I am a qualified vet nurse from Canada - I would have to agree with the posts already on....nurses are allowed to do more in North America, depending on the practice you are in. The training obtained in North America can vary from distance learning (which doesn't give you any qualifications) to 2 year (or longer) degrees from approved colleges. I have tried to join the register here and they are requiring me to complete the NVQ 3, which I will not be able to do. Mainly for the fact that I am employed in a Vet Practice full time - and to complete NVQ 3 (and 2) you have to be in a training practice.....which like someone else said - spaces are rarer than hens teeth!

I would go for the grooming option! You can still take a distance course here on Animal Health and be up on alot of things that way!!

Good Luck!!

Re: School & work in the UK

Anneke Kuipers — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 16:06:41 GMT

I have seen Groomers 'team up' with vets (I think it was in Holland but still the idea is good!) where the groomers have their salon in the same building or nearby.

I think it is a good concept as a groomer might spot that the animal needs veterinary attention and can send them to them and vets might see that an animal needs some professional grooming attention and can send them to the groomer

About your qualification: contact Ben Myring at the RCVS, he goes about overseas qualiications and will most likely be able to tell you if your qualification will be recognised in the UK

Re: School & work in the UK

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 23:30:53 GMT

Indeed. I mainly wanted the Veterinary skills for two reasons: 1-to know as much about the animals as possible in case of emergency and to spot problems and 2- to have a secondarly option should my grooming career not work out as I like. I am planning to take classes in grooming for sure, there is also a groomer nearby who is friends with my mother that has offered in the past to let me apprentince under her. So I hope to talk to her soon as well. Im glad to get some advice and get to know other people who have advice and love of animals :) Cheers!!

Re: School & work in the UK

Caro Laithwaite VN — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 23:16:27 GMT

As far as l know so long as you have scissors you can clip dogs, but there is a lot of courses here from cheap to expensive to do if you want to do one.
And with how hard it is to get into a training practice in UK for veterinary nurse training l would not waste time coming over to try and get into one. They are rarer than hens teeth and the money is lousy.

Having said that you do really need to decide if you want to groom or do veterinary nursing because l doubt you will be able to do both until you are qualified. The shifts and learning needed are very time consuming. I would say from your comments you are more wanting to do grooming and would be wiser to stick to that, more money in it anyhow l recon.

Re: School & work in the UK

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 23:08:24 GMT

Hmm this is very worrying to me. I just might HAVE to go to school in England then. Look like another scramble for finding education funds, ugh!

What about restrictions for grooming animals? are there any funky laws about that? do you need a special certificate of any kind or special registration? The rules in the UK seem to be alot stricter then they are over here so I need to fnd out as much as possible. Better to be safe then sorry.

I'm wondering if I should start to pull my hair out!

Re: School & work in the UK

albatross — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:47:33 GMT

I was told recently by my vet that VN's qualifications outside of the UK are not recognised in practices over here, except for those in South Africa (I was running out of ideas to get a training practice place over here and joked that I'd go abroad, and this was the answer).

Re: School & work in the UK

Shane — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:07:19 GMT

I was trained based on the US Vet Tech system, we were allowed to do so much more than even schedule 3 nurses in this country!

Re: School & work in the UK

Rachel Jayne — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 03:16:41 GMT

Have you checked out the British Veterinary Nursing Association?
They're web address is www.bvna.org.uk, you should find plenty of info there about training etc.
Have a look around the forums here, you can learn a lot from what people talk about!

I imagine there's probably quite a lot that's different about practice in the US to the UK, for example, of US Vet tech's I've seen on TV, in the US, it appears you're allowed to do more than us UK VN's are in certain situations, I didn't explain that very well, maybe it's just the way the programmes I have seen portray the work of VT's.

As for Worcestershire, it's a big area!! There's a job section on here you can look at,
which usually has lots of adverts. Lots of jobs in the UK are advertised in magazines called the Veterinary Times/Veterinary Nursing Times. I'm not sure how you'd get a copy or check out their recruitment section though...

Um, sorry if this seems like a bit of a ramble, hope I've put some useful information in!

Good luck!