new girl - advice please

Re: new girl - advice please

Caro Laithwaite VN — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 19:39:04 GMT

I paid all my own fees as l did not want to be beholden to anyone. I used my holiday as course days as well.

Re: new girl - advice please

Shane — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:08:19 GMT

[quote user="Gillian Mostyn"]

Maria obviously works at a practice where students pay their own fees. At my practice all fees are paid by the practice - enrolment, tuition fees, portfolio costs, exam fees etc. The students themselves pay for nothing. It all depends on the boss!

[/quote]

Which has been established in the past that you are a good boss. lol!

Re: new girl - advice please

Maria Mahon — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 13:14:40 GMT

Yup that's right. Cor you must have very happy employees!

Re: new girl - advice please

Gillian Mostyn — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 12:04:27 GMT

There is no standard pay scale in veterinary nurse training - but on the whole expect to be little above minimum wage if you have no experience. Minimum wage depends on age, and is £4.77 up to age 22 then £5.73 after 22.

Re: new girl - advice please

Gaelle Konak — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 12:01:25 GMT

Thank you both for your answers, much appreciated! I'll send my CVs straight away then and keep fingers crossed!

Re: new girl - advice please

Maria Mahon — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 11:55:07 GMT

Hiya & welcome!

Well first of all, finding a TP does take a lot of time and patience' which I'm sure you'll (have) noticed from various threads of exasperated nurses trying to find work in a TP or even just trying to get their foot on the training ladder. Personally I think I was quite lucky, I was volunteering at what is now 'my' practice and through pure enthusiam and continuing to show keen (along with a couple of nurses leaving) I was offered a place.

I would say send out a CV with a cover letter to as many practices as you know and then maybe follow up with a phone call. Offer yourself as work experience (which is what I did; I gave up a lot of my free time whilst I was still working full-time in another job. It paid off.)

As to fees and wages, I can't give so much advice as I'm still fairly new to the VN world. To enroll with the RCVS as a SVN (in 2009) the fee is £190. I'm about to start college and I won't find out till tommorrow how much the 1st year training fees are, it depends on age and government funding etc. To give you an idea, a fellow work college, 19y/o started in September and she only paid about £200. As regards to wages, I get a salary of £12500 pa (exc. tax, NI deductions). I am 20 y/o and started as a Nurse Auxiliary (Assistant).

Hope some of this has been helpful to you. Good luck with your career and I'm sure you will recieve much more advice from other members on here.

Re: new girl - advice please

helennorth — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 11:52:30 GMT

I think the best way is to write to local practices to ask if they have any posistions for a trainee if not now then will they keep you in mind if one becomes avalible in the future.

Finding a placement is hard as it is quite competitive.If you have previous experience in practice this will be to your advantage.

I think there is a huge varible between different practices and the deal they give trainees so you would need to ask at an interview. Trainees wages are varible I think but don't expect much over the minimum wage, your payment is your training, which costs quite alot but most practices will pay the fees for you. I can't honestly remember the fees if you phoned your local college for course cost and the RCVS for exam fees I am sure they would tell you.

VN training is 2 years completing the case log portfolio and exams at the end of each year. Normally spend one day a week at college.

Hope this helps.