Hayley Walters speaks to Royal Veterinary College, London

JMICAWE’s veterinary nurse Hayley Walters was requested by rival vet school The Royal Veterinary College, London, to speak to their student veterinary nurses who are close to graduating.

Hayley was delighted to have been personally chosen by the students to talk about the opportunities veterinary nurses have once qualified. Hayley has spent a large portion of her career working overseas in low to middle income countries either in the charity sector or teaching and it was on this that she was talking.

 

Developing countries face many challenges in veterinary education and care and Hayley was keen to ensure that the students understood why these challenges exist in order to better prepare them should they choose to work overseas. Religious, cultural, and economical reasons, plus drug availability all play their part in a  different experience in veterinary education and care and it is important that this is understood in order to not only be helpful when working in overseas projects, but also not to offend anybody. Hayley said -  

“British veterinary nurses are trained to a high standard. Many of our skills are easily transferable to other species and, with a little bit of thinking outside the box when necessary, is valuable in situations where funds and resources may be limited.”

 

Hayley was inundated with questions at the end regarding which charities to choose to work for so stressed that students do their research before going to ensure the charity is legitimate, the charity requests you are a veterinary nurse, and has good standards of animal welfare.