For anyone thinking of becoming a vet nursing lecturer this is for you! I’d always loved teaching and was at a junction in my career when I wasn’t really sure what direction I was headed.
I saw the role of a VN lecturer at a local FE college advertised. The FE part is important, further education college, because the means that there is an animal management aspect to think about. I interviewed, and for those thinking of embarking on this role part of the interview may be something called a micro teach. This is a 15-minute session where you will deliver a topic- normally set by them to a group of students. It’s only 15 minutes long but I would recommend a PowerPoint to support you. Reach out to me if you want some help prepping.
It went well and I loved it! September rolled around and before I knew it was a lecturer. And by that, I mean you get a couple of weeks to prep your lessons and then it’s off you go. Enrolment onto the teacher training qualification was automatic and so I also started studying for my Diploma in Education and Training (DET) which used to be called DETLLS.
Vet Nursing Lecturing- the hours
Now here’s the hard truth. I was not prepared for the amount of work involved. So the numbers, contractually I was on a 37.5 hour week- early finish on a Friday because you know well-being is important to them……….. hmmmmm part two will cover that.
My contact hours (time in front of students) were 21 hours. That left me 16.5 hours to prep and teach. Oh, and mark, write exams and do teacher training. Which when you quickly look at it you think oh that’s easy. Except you need to write your lessons or teach from someone else’s PowerPoint. Then you need to actually make sure you know what you’re teaching. Heads up as a VN you’ll be teaching animal management too, and you might be different to me, but I had no clue what a bottom or top feeder was when I had to cover fisheries. Oh yes, covering. I’d nearly forgotten about that. If anyone is poorly then there’s the chance that the hour, you’d identified for prep magically disappears.
So, the hours were pretty rubbish, anyone thinking that teaching will be less time consuming than nursing you might be wrong. I used to start 2 hours early to prep and mark. Holidays were great but school holiday school prices are eye watering. However, even with the excessive hours I adored teaching the Vet Nurses, and I was good at it! Less enthralled with the animal management side of things. Huge class sizes with a heck of lot of marking.
Watching the nurses thrive, learn and just be absolutely incredible was what kept me going. I loved teaching them. Especially when eventually my lessons were deemed outstanding, and the students just kept achieving amazing results. Despite the hours and pressures, combined with varying levels of support I did truly adore it. Being a vet nursing lecturer was hard but oh so rewarding.
And then time went on and the love faded, for many reasons which I’ll share with you in part two.
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