Jess Parkes
RVN, CertVNECC
Core role Features
quick fire overview.
salary
£31 - 35k
travel & flexibility
Visit to the office about once a month. Very occasional training day/team building event.
Values
Independence, confidence in your knowledge and skills, ability to think on your feet and solve issues quickly.
region/location
UK
essential skills
RVN or VS with great communication, ability to think on your feet and to work autonomously and as part of a team.
contact
I started out as a Student Veterinary Nurse at a large 24 hour hospital – properly thrown in the deep end and I loved it! Once I qualified I left that hospital and became a locum, and I was a locum until I left clinical work in 2020.
After years of nursing and not feeling properly fulfilled within nursing, I travelled and volunteered as an RVN at various animal charities around the world. When I got back, I decided to take a risk and leave nursing for my first sales role. I ended up not liking sales very much – I’m not a natural sales woman!
All my company asks is that you have a Veterinary background, so ideally a Veterinary Nurse or Veterinary Surgeon. Most of us are Veterinary Nurses with lots of experience in practice.
“When it feels scary to jump, that is exactly when you jump, otherwise you end up staying in the same place your whole life, and that I can’t do. ”
— Abel Morales
The work/life balance compared to clinical work, working from home with my partner and my dog has completely changed our life for the better. One major downside is that I feel that I am losing some of my clinical knowledge, but as long as you keep up with CPD that part is fine.
I’m on the Diagnostics team so I receive calls and emails from clinical staff about their machines which might be playing up, or discussing discrepancies in blood results, that sort of thing.
Anyone who is after a good work/life balance, lots of autonomy and the chance to work from home full time.
It’s fully remote working and an office job – that was a huge change for me. I welcomed it after the horrors of nursing during the pandemic, but it still took some getting used to when you’re usually on your feet all day.
Know your worth! We are very skilled people and we need to own that. Apply for roles even if you think you’re not qualified enough, you’ll be surprised how quickly you start being offered interviews.
I think sometimes RVNs can feel pushed out of some roles as we’re maybe not as qualified as a VS. Once we push past that frame of mind and realise we have such a varied set of skills that we need to shout about, we realise there are so many roles that are suitable for us and the world really is our oyster!