Many veterinary practices in Australia are feeling the pinch of the manpower shortage, putting vets under more pressure and contributing to dissatisfaction with work life balance and mental health problems.

So, maybe you need a Vet Tech at your clinic.

Veterinary Nursing qualification

In Australia, the current Australian national qualification for vet nursing is Certificate IV in Veterinary Nursing, which takes from 18 months to 2 years to complete. The Diploma in Veterinary Nursing is then an additional qualification following on from the Cert IV, for 12 months, in 3 different streams, General Practice, Surgical, and Emergency & Critical Care

Veterinary Technology qualification

Veterinary Technology is a Bachelor’s degree taking 3 years (full time), which can incorporate and extend the Cert IV in Vet Nursing. It’s offered by Charles Sturt University,   The University of Queensland,  and the University of Adelaide, (and by Massey University in New Zealand, however, this isn’t yet included in the list of Vet Tech degrees eligible for the new Australian Veterinary Nurse and Technician (AVNAT) Registration Scheme)

Information provided by CSU and the University of Queensland about their Veterinary Technology degrees suggest there is more development of skills in critical thinking and problem solving, preparation for supervisory and management roles, as well as knowledge of a wider range of animal species and knowledge and professional skills in animal management, technology and welfare that can be used beyond the clinical setting. However, extended clinical support procedures are also taught. The first cohort from CSU graduated at the end of 2018.

The University of Adelaide degree will commence with its first intake in 2020. Information provided by the University suggests the program will have a strong practical component with students performing almost 500 hours of hands-on clinical experience in a veterinary workplace and in the University’s on-site clinics and diagnostic laboratories, and could equip students with specialist expertise in one or more areas including small animals; anaesthesia; imaging; equine; farming; or practice management.

How could employing a Vet Tech help?

Some clinics, emergency and critical care hospitals, and specialist centres in Australia are already using a very effective tiered system of support staff, from kennel hands and specific customer support staff/receptionists, through trainee veterinary nurses, veterinary nurses, diploma qualified VNs, degree qualified veterinary technicians, and practice managers. This means that Veterinary Surgeons gain the time to do the work that only they are qualified for.

This tiered system can also provide a structured career path for support staff, which can improve job satisfaction. Whilst attention is finally becoming focussed on the challenges for vets surrounding mental health awareness, life balance, burnout, compassion fatigue, job satisfaction, and decisions to quit the profession, we mustn’t forget there are similar challenges for our support staff.

So, rather than trying to employ another Vet in a very tight market, could this be a solution for some clinics?

1. Employing a Veterinary Technician to help alleviate the heavy workload on vets, allowing vets to manage their Veterinary Surgeon duties more effectively
2. Which may lead to happier vets and better retention of vets in your practice
3. And even allow a pay rise for your vets, further contributing to better retention of vets

References:

Charles Sturt University
https://futurestudents.csu.edu.au/courses/animal-vet-sciences/bachelor-veterinary-technology

University of Queensland
https://future-students.uq.edu.au/study/program/Bachelor-of-Veterinary-Technology-2387

University of Adelaide
https://www.adelaide.edu.au/degree-finder/bvt_bvettech.html

Massey University
http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/learning/programme-course/programme.cfm?prog_id=93432

Veterinary Nurses Council of Australia
https://www.vnca.asn.au/membership/recognised-qualifications/

Author:
Wendy Nathan
Kookaburra Veterinary Employment
updated 30th July 2019

This information includes the views and opinions of Kookaburra Veterinary Employment and is of a general nature only. Factual information is believed to be correct at the time of writing, however, should not be relied upon and any person should confirm details with the relevant authorities and through their own research prior to acting on any of the suggestions in this article.

Thank you to all the vets who participated in this year’s Salary Survey. There was a total of 285 respondents, which was disappointing compared to 595 respondents in 2019. We’ve been unable to use some of the information, in particular, location related, as there was insufficient data for a representative sample.

Minimum pay rates and conditions are set in the Animal Care and Veterinary Services Award 2020, which you can find using Google, or at https://awardviewer.fwo.gov.au/award/show/ma000118

You can download a printable pdf version of this report here Kookaburra Salary Survey 2022

Methodology

The pool of vets was contacted by direct emailing the main clinic email for all the clinics in Australia in the Kookaburra database & the vets currently registered as job seekers with Kookaburra (2.000 total), and by including advertising banners with a direct link to the survey on the Australian pages of the websites www.kookaburravets.com and www.vetsuppliersdirectory.com.au , and on all the correspondence sent out from Kookaburra during the survey period. We also asked the HR departments of the major Australian corporates to assist by distributing the link to the survey to their veterinary associates, however, in contrast to previous years where they have been happy to help, none agreed to participate this year. In addition, it was posted on Facebook on one of the Australian Veterinarian network closed group pages, on the Kookaburra Facebook pages, and on Linkedin. We’d like to thank The Lincoln Institute, who distributed the link to the survey to their members.

The survey was open from June 12^th to November 7^th 2022. It was hosted on Survey Monkey and analysis of results was carried out in Survey Monkey and using Microsoft Excel Office 365. The survey was anonymous, and no IP data was collected. There was a total of 34 questions.

For a Key to the box and whisker plots used, and a summary list of charts, please see the Key

Summary

Summary and links to Charts and Diagrams

1. Key to Box and Whiskers Plot
2. Hourly Pay Rates vs Years’ Experience
3. Hourly Pay Rates vs self-assessed experience level
4. Hourly Pay Rates for different General Practice Types (Small Animal vs Mixed vs Equine) for numbers of years since graduation
5. Hourly Pay Rates – comparing all Practice Types
6. Annualised pay rate for all full time, part time, and casual respondents
7. Actual annual pay rate for all full time, part time, and casual respondents using their actual hours worked per week
8. Paid Hours worked per week – comparing full time, part time, and casual
9. Paid Hours worked compared to Unpaid hours
10. Owners/Partners compared to Associates pay rate
11. Further Qualifications – effect on pay rate
12. Further Qualifications – proportions of respondents with additional qualifications
13. Locums – hourly pay vs experience
14. Locums – casuals vs. locums/short term
15. Locums – comparison of corporate & non-corporate pay rates
16. Happiness
17. 5 year Plans
18. Happiness and owner/partner vs. associate status
19. Happiness and corporate vs. non-corporate jobs
20. Satisfaction with pay rates
21. Preferred pay rate increase
22. Discussion
23. 2019 / 2022 comparison of job classifcations
24. 2019 / 2022 comparison of pay rates

Vets working as Casuals, Part-time, or Full-time

There were a total of 239 responses in this section – some vets gave data for more than one job, and each job was included as a separate data set.

Respondents were asked to self-assess their experience level for the job they were currently answering questions for, on a sliding scale from 1 (Basic Competency) through 5 (Confident and Competent) to 10 (Highly Skilled)

Locums

For data on Locums, we combined the data for jobs classified as Casual with those who answered ‘yes’ to the question “Are you currently working as a locum / doing short term contracts (under 6 months in length)”. There was a total of 51 respondents in these 2 categories.

Happiness and Future Plans

We asked “What do you think you should be paid for this job?” and the choices were “I don’t know”, “My current rate is fair” , or “My preferred hourly rate would be ….” – and the respondent could then nominate an amount (no-one nominated less than they were currently being paid!!)

Discussion

The amount of data collected in this survey was small, therefore it’s hard to discuss the results in a meaningful way. Kookaburra collected the data in order to make it available to vets and their practices in Australia. At Kookaburra, we are interested in the differences between this survey (2022) and our previous one, before COVID, in 2019.

Are more vets moving to working part time and casual?

Have pay rates gone up?

Pay rates have increased by above 30% for locums and casuals, and around 30% for part time and full time vets, between 2019 (pre-COVID) and 2022 (3 years).

© Copyright Kookaburra Veterinary Employment

29th November 2022