This Vet Nurse Awareness Month, we are shining a spotlight on some incredible people behind our mission – our dedicated veterinary nurses and assistants. Their skills, compassion and commitment make life-changing care possible every single day. At WVS, our veterinary nurses and assistants have varied and vast roles, from assisting with sterilisation surgeries in India to supporting with training vets in Ecuador.
In this blog, discover our photo series of WVS nurses and veterinary assistants in different settings around the world – working to ensure every animal can receive the expert care they deserve.
International Training Centres (ITCs)
Our ITCs, located in Asia, Africa, and South America, serve as a foundation for treating thousands of animals. These centres are situated in places where veterinary services are lacking – often with our veterinary team being the only chance an animal will have of receiving care. Like in any clinical setting, high-quality nursing support makes all the difference. And our vet nurses and assistants are a vital part of our teams at our ITCs – delivering the best for every patient that steps through the doors. As well as providing care to animals, our veterinary assistants and nurses update protocols, create guidelines and supporting with training, ensuring that we are providing the highest standard of care.
Head vet nurse Tang at our ITC in Thailand.
Vet assistants Sonali and B Surya at our ITC in Ooty, India.
Outreach campaigns
Our veterinary teams often run outreach clinics in remote areas, offering veterinary treatments, running spay and neuter programmes, and educating owners on how to best care for their animals. By running outreach campaigns, we can bring accessible veterinary care to communities, helping to create healthier and more stable animal populations. Organising and implementing our outreach campaigns are always a massive team effort, and our vet assistants and nurses play a pivotal role in that – from consult support and patient care to training and supporting with surgeries, they juggle multiple tasks during our campaigns.
Taskforce nurse Maya at a mobile clinic in Ecuador.
Taskforce nurse Sadie at a sterilisation campaign in Malawi.
Veterinary training
A core part of our mission is building local capacity through training. Across the globe we are working to increase the standard of care, ensuring that whenever and wherever an animal is in need a trained veterinary professional can provide care. We provide training opportunities to local and international veterinary professionals at our ITCs and organise outreach training projects. Our vet nurses and assistants provide lectures and demonstrations on topics such as anaesthesia, patient preparation, recovery, and much more to participants. Alongside this, they also provide crucial training and refresher courses to our veterinary teams at our ITC from dental care to CPR. This strengthens our clinical capacity and ensures we can provide the best care possible.
Vet Nurse Maya and International Nursing Taskforce Manager, Hannah, training vet assistants in Mumbai, India.
Taskforce nurse Abi training our veterinary team at our centre in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
WVS Taskforce vet assistant, Joshua, training vets during a surgical training course in Assam, India.
Wildlife conservation
The Majete Wildlife Reserve is a protected area in Malawi for key species to thrive. We support African Park Majete with vital conservation efforts, with a veterinary care centre based in the reserve. The field clinic is used to store specialised equipment, treat animals on-site and respond quicker to wildlife emergencies. We have also been assisting with lion population control, through contraceptive implants for females and vasectomies for males. This is part of a broader population-control toolkit, which aims to mirror demographic patterns seen in larger, open systems. Providing veterinary care to wildlife takes an experienced and expert veterinary team, with the WVS Malawi team in Blantyre supporting with this work.
Clinic Operation Manager at WVS Malawi and vet nurse, Courtnie, providing care to a giraffe, who had a snare tightly wrapped around her leg in Majete, Malawi.
Vet nurse Courtnie and Abi assisting with a lion vasectomy in Majete, Malawi.
TVT treatment
Transmissible Venereal Tumour (TVT) is a contagious cancer that spreads between unsterilised dogs, most often affecting those living on the streets or roaming freely. Without treatment, the tumour can grow, ulcerate and bleed causing pain, infection and serious urinary or reproductive complications. It can also spread throughout communities, leaving more dogs to suffer. TVT is highly treatable, with a course of weekly treatment, most dogs can make a full recovery. In Malawi and Cambodia, our veterinary team complete weekly TVT rounds. We travel around to see different patients and administer treatment, bringing this crucial care to communities. This is a vital treatment that ensures dogs can have happier and healthier futures.
Taskforce nurse Amy administering TVT treatment in Malawi.
Mission Rabies
Rabies is a cruel and deadly disease that takes a life every nine minutes. We are working to change this through our flagship project, Mission Rabies. As the majority of human rabies cases come from a dog bite, we complete mass vaccination campaigns to stop rabies at the source. Our teams set up vaccination clinics or travel door-to-door in communities to provide free rabies vaccinations. We aim for a 70% vaccination coverage to stop the disease in its track and protect both dogs and people. Our team of dedicated vets, nurses and assistants all get involved in these campaigns, vaccinating dogs, marking them with an animal friendly paint and in-putting this data into the WVS Data Collection App.
Taskforce nurses Jess and Abi vaccinating dogs in Goa, India.
Are you a veterinary nurse looking to get involved?
We have exciting volunteering opportunities for veterinary nurses to places around the globe where you can make a real difference – from helping to train vets in Ecuador to providing care to animals in Fiji, there is something for everyone.
We will soon be recruiting for our WVS Vet Nurse Taskforce programme, where experienced UK RVNs travel around our ITCs supporting with providing care. Keep a look out on our social media for this opportunity!
