2022 is bringing up lots of 10 year anniversaries:
- The London Olympics
- Keeping up with the Kardashians began
- My first blogs for Vet Times
Yes, 10 years ago I was on Twitter as @JaneRVN and was already using #PlanetRVN when a certain digital editor from Vet Times slid into my DMs… before that was even a thing!
He told me Vet Times were looking to trial bloggers from the veterinary world and asked if I would be interested in a three-month paid trial? Well, this was the start of my life pattern “say yes, worry how you’ll do it later”.
I was pretty confident not many people would read what I had written, so thought I may was well have a go. 2012 was a time when blogging was not mainstream, hashtags didn’t command the marketing power they do now, and, essentially, I was an early adopter of social media.
How the world has changed
Somehow, this November will be 10 years of twice-monthly blogs for Vet Times online. A lot has happened in that time; in my world, in the world at large and in veterinary nursing. With that in mind, I hope you will allow me to share some of the back stories to some of my blog posts from the past decade – sharing what did get published, what didn’t and where these blogs have ended up.
I’ve had a bit of a trip down memory lane reading back through the blogs I’ve written. It’s hard to believe my vet nurse career over these 10 years, and I certainly could not have predicted I’d now be writing this heading into my final year of a PhD in veterinary legislative history.
Down memory lane
Where was I 10 years ago? Well, I was in a teaching role, but wanted to get further clinical qualifications. I headed into locuming and had a few lovely years working in places around London I had always wanted to try. I was living in North London and had my first Peke (I know, I know) Wilson. I completed my graduated diploma in clinical and professional vet nursing, and felt I had a great grounding in being a first opinion vet nurse. Soon, my health was to dictate my job roles, but in 2012, fresh from my (first) successful spinal surgery, I was feeling pretty invincible.
More on that soon…
From the early days I was keen to encourage vet nurses to ensure they had a good contract and great working environment. Coming from a non-vet background, some of the terms and conditions for vet nurse roles seemed archaic to me. I refused job roles I knew would burn me out, but knew that if you’d entered the vet profession early in your career, you may not realise how to negotiate for a job role that suits you and doesn’t drain you.
Finances
Now we have vet-specific finance and employment information, but back in 2014, there was very little out there. I have written on some subjects that I hope got people thinking and talking, and maybe even made their working life a little bit better. It started with personal finance for vet nurses.
Brought on partly because my employer at the time was trying to set up a pension scheme, which got cancelled as there were only two of us interested in meeting with the pension advisors. The two of us were me… and the company accountant. If the accountant thinks it’s a good idea, then it probably is.
I was able to access another pension I had, but it did make me think about those who weren’t sure what to do… so this is “Personal finance for the veterinary nurse”.
Pay
After this, I headed into the murky world of contracts and pay. It’s not something we might like to think about, but as our working hours are so flexible, so can our contracts and what our take home pay might be. Ten years on and we might be in the #30kRVN period, but what does that actually mean?
- Does it provide a pay scale for experience, skills and qualifications?
- Are you paid adequately for unsocial hours?
- What are the holiday pay and sick pay benefits?
- Is there a pension, health care plan or gym membership?
These may all count towards a £30k package, but you may not see your take home pay increase. Knowing what you need from a salary in terms of income and supportive schemes can help you make informed decisions about which salary package is right for you.
This package idea is relevant to student vet nurses too, so if you’re an SVN find out more here.
Invoice breakdown
Finally for this month, one of my favourite blogs… It was a collaboration between myself and Nick Marsh (@Lordof1) who was the vet blogger at the time. We got together to dissect a veterinary invoice I had received for Hollie’s surgery.
I was intrigued to see how much we would apportion to the vet or nurse team and, thus, how much of the overall bill should be given to the teams. My idea behind this was to consider the vet nurse income to clinic in the same way as vets roles are remunerated. Skills and tasks are apportioned to a person or team on the invoice, making us visible on the bill for the client and demonstrating our role in clinic.
It staggers me that, 10 years on, there is still little trace of the income an RVN generates. I can’t think of any other team where the income created by significant members of the team is ignored in any business plans.
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