About
If you love animals and are passionate about improving their health and welfare, it’s well worth considering a career in veterinary nursing.
As a highly skilled professional. you’ll work alongside veterinary surgeons to deliver medical care to animals. You’ll be involved in the care of a wide range of patients and help to inform and support their owners. It’s a profession which is practical, challenging and hugely rewarding.
We set up our specialist Centre of Veterinary Nursing at Reaseheath over six years ago and it has gone from strength to strength. Our industry trained staff work in partnership with over 70 training practices within a 50 mile radius of our campus and we record a very high level of academic success .
We currently have 120 students all of whom are employed or carrying out work placements at veterinary practices, depending on the level of their course. During their time at college they learn vital clinical and employability skills to take back into their practice. Students on our Veterinary Care Assistants course can also improve their GCSE grades in maths and English if necessary.
Courses
Student Success
Katie Ford
Level 2 Diploma for Veterinary Care Assistants; City & Guilds Medal for Excellence 2018
Veterinary Care Assistant, Alsager Vet Centre (part of The Willows Veterinary Group)
“I thoroughly recommend the Level 2 course. It gives you a real insight into the industry and sets you up for a great career. As for vet nursing – I love learning and I get a lot of satisfaction from caring for the patients who come in with a wide variety of health issues. Pets mean a lot to people and owners are so grateful when they collect a happy, healthy pet from us.”
Find out more
Why study Veterinary Nursing at Reaseheath?
Gain recognised qualifications which will help you progress your career.
Chance to get hands-on with a wide range of exotic species in our licensed zoo collection.
You’ll experience a varied learning environment – as well as learning in the classroom, you’ll enjoy practical sessions and benefit from online study.
Learn from experienced lecturers who have a background in veterinary medicine and science.
Meet and learn from peers employed in a wide range of practices.
You’ll have a dedicated work placement officer who will be on hand to support you throughout your course.
Where could your career take you?
Veterinary nursing offers an excellent professional pathway into management or further specialisation. The opportunities are varied and exciting, particularly if you enjoy biology and other sciences.
You could join a practice which delivers routine or emergency healthcare, a referral practice specialising in orthopaedics, oncology or ophthalmology or even work in a multi-million pound teaching hospital at the forefront of animal science, clinical procedures and genetics.
The vet nursing qualification is so well respected that it can help you find an animal related career even if you don’t go down the veterinary route.
Here are just some of the choices waiting for you:
- Veterinary nurse
- Practice manager
- Head nurse
- Nursing team leader
- Clinical coach
- Anaesthetist
- Specialist veterinary nurse
- Nursing assistant
- Animal welfare and rescue centre manager
- Animal behaviourist
- Animal rehabilitator
- Boarding kennels / catteries / livery stables manager
- Pet store advisor
- Grooming parlour owner
- Pharmaceuticals rep
- Nutritionist
- Researcher
- Lecturer
- Member of the armed forces
Your Reaseheath Experience
Although you’re only at college for part of the week you’ll feel very much at home on our rural campus with its commercial farm, equestrian centre, licensed zoo and kennels. During your breaks you can relax by our lake, eat in one of our food outlets or pay a visit to our well stocked library and quiet study areas.
Where you’ll be studying
You’ll be based at our newly developed dedicated veterinary nursing department with specialist practical study areas including clinical skills suite, diagnostic imaging suite and modern laboratories. Working with our industry-standard anaesthetic, radiography and theatre equipment, as well as kennel, ultrasound imaging, endoscopy and prep facilities, you’ll gain a variety of practical skills, especially as the rooms reflect real veterinary practice.
You’ll also have access to our Animal Centre with its licensed zoo collection of exotic, park and companion animals. We have over 1,000 animals in our zoo including a tapir, meerkats, cotton-top tamarins, Eurasian short clawed otters, birds of prey and a wide range of reptiles, amphibians and fish. We have our own vet clinic on-site and you could be invited to observe interesting clinical cases involving exotic animals.
Our popular canine department houses a new block of hospital kennels along with day boarding kennels for the dogs of staff members, some of which are used for student training.
Your placement
To enrol onto our Veterinary Nursing course, you will need to secure a placement as an apprentice Student Veterinary Nurse in an approved Training Practice. Throughout your training, you will have a Clinical Coach in practice, and you will have regular visits from our Veterinary Nursing Training Practice Liaison/Assessor.
Industry view
“I started the National Diploma in Animal Care at Reaseheath many moons ago, and then got my first job in Veterinary Nursing so I had to leave. When I first entered the veterinary world 14 years ago I never thought I would be able to become a practice partner. But fast forward to today and I am running my own surgery with a friend and we have a staff of ten plus a locum vet.
“We have had a number of level 2 students from Reaseheath come to us for work experience and we always put our trainee nurses through the college’s level 3 programme.
“I only have positive things to say about Reaseheath. The whole team there are very supportive. The clinical coach courses are well led and directed on a level that newcomers can understand, while also keeping existing clinical coaches up to date with curriculum changes.”
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Higher Education: 01270 613284
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