Veterinary Nurse Awareness Month

Veterinary Nurses are essential members of our veterinary practice.

A Veterinary Nurse or VN works as a member of the veterinary team, providing expert nursing care for sick animals. They work in close partnership with the vets.

They also play a significant role in the education of owners about maintaining the health of
their pets.

At Oak House we use our nurses to give specific advice about caring for your new puppy or kitten, they run clinics for example to help support owners get their pets to lose weight, or demonstrate how to look after your pet’s teeth by brushing.

They carry out technical work and are skilled in undertaking a range of diagnostic tests, medical treatments and minor surgical procedures, under veterinary direction.

Our nurses are trained to be able to take blood tests and place patients on intravenous drips, they can redress wounds and alongside the vet, monitor & maintain the anaesthetics during your pet’s surgery.

We have a busy in-house laboratory which is led by the nursing team. We are able to run full blood tests which we can obtain results within an hour – essential when we are trying to diagnose why your pet is ill.

Nurses also look at urine and skin samples under the microscope to help with diagnosis.

Another major part of the VN’s role is to look after inpatients and patients recovering after surgery – these animals need extra special care and our nurses also give that extra love & care to help make the pets feel more at ease.

To train to be a vet nurse you either do a vocational course within a practice or enroll at
college and do a full time degree course.

After qualification you are eligible to be enrolled onto the RCVS list of registered Veterinary Nurses.

As well as working in practice – with small, exotic, equine and large animal patients; VNs can also work in industry, research and education roles, locally Nottingham Trent Uni and Bottle Green training at Mebourne both run nursing courses.

Increasingly there are more male as well as female VNs and if you are interested in learning more about the Nursing profession then look up the Royal College Of Veterinary Surgeons or British Veterinary Nursing Association for more information.