Nurses are often the first point of contact for owners, providing knowledgeable advice about when to monitor pets at home and when to book them for a vet visit. They receive emergency cases at the front door and provide support to emotional owners during hard times. They help to make judgement calls about whether an unwell patient can be squeezed into an already packed schedule (their vote is usually yes!) and juggle a myriad of nursing and administrative tasks to keep the clinic running smoothly. And most importantly, they provide gentle and kind nursing care to our beloved animal patients.

If you agree that veterinary nurses are hard-working, knowledgeable and generous souls who deserve some positive recognition, here are a few things you can do to show your appreciation and help to make their working days a little bit easier:

• Speaking to them kindly and respectfully, even if you’re feeling stressed. Try to remember that as well as assisting you, they probably have multiple tasks on their to-do list (cleaning surgical kits, medicating patients, sorting out medications for Mrs Jones’s cat, checking with the vet about a home visit, running in-clinic laboratory tests, etc.) and are doing their best to help everyone.
• Giving them sufficient notice for jobs, e.g. phoning up to request your animal’s medication several days prior to it running out, so they have time to have the prescription approved by the vet (and ordered to the clinic if necessary).
• Controlling your pet in the waiting room – keeping all dogs on leads and all cats in carriers, so that all animals are safe.

Lastly, we don’t want to pressure you at all, but our nurses also happen to enjoy baked goods or chocolates, and really appreciate it when extra lovely clients drop these into the clinic. Just saying!