Masters degrees in Veterinary Nursing train postgraduates in the advanced practical skills needed to care for a range of sick and injured animals.
Typically aimed at qualified veterinary nurses, these courses aim to build on and improve the existing knowledge of nursing techniques and approaches for ill animals. As such, you’ll usually need an undergraduate degree in a veterinary science to satisfy the entry requirements. Programmes usually award a few different kinds of degree, such as an MSc, a PGDip and a PGCert.
The Graduate Diploma in Professional and Clinical Veterinary Nursing is a unique distance-learning, advanced veterinary nursing qualification for practicing registered veterinary nurses.
If you are employed in clinical practice and looking to study part-time from home, the diploma will help you develop valuable knowledge and skills to take you to the next level of your career.
The Graduate Diploma is managed and taught by leading veterinary professionals who are recognised by employers both within the UK and internationally. The course focuses on developing critical thinking, using both theory and its practical application, enabling you to become better equipped to care for your patients.
Our learners come from a wide range of veterinary practices around the world. Whether you work in a first-opinion practice, a charity clinic or a large specialist referral practice, you will share an ambition to excel in the veterinary field and a desire to improve animal health and welfare.
The Graduate Diploma in Professional and Clinical Veterinary Nursing can lead to more recognition and responsibility in your field. The flexible award is designed to be completed over a period of 29 months (part-time) and is delivered almost entirely online via the RVC’s online Virtual Learning Environment.
During the programme you will:
In addition, your practice will benefit from your motivation and ability to make an enhanced contribution to the workplace.
The Graduate Diploma is delivered through flexible online learning via the RVC’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) – ‘Learn’ and is predominately an online distance-learning course. We aim to keep attendance days to a minimum because we appreciate the challenges of taking time off work and family commitments.
There are some compulsory attendance days at our Hawkshead Campus during the course:
Year One: Orientation Week (normally in June), one exam day at the end of two of the core modules (normally in April)
Year Two: one exam day at the end of your studies (normally in early September)
There are also some optional days throughout the course where you may book into our small animal teaching hospital for clinical enhancement days and two optional exam practice days. As a student of the RVC, you are also welcome to spend time in the library or clinical skills centre.
Our introductory Orientation Week (compulsory attendance days, usually in early June) will help ensure that you are confident in using modern learning technologies throughout the programme, and is an essential part of the first pre-requisite bridging short-course, Contemporary Study Skills.
This is a part-time programme and modules split into credit-rated units. The credit-rated units relate to an average number of hours that you are expected to spend on each module. For each 15 credits, you will have spent, on average, 150 hours. This means in a typical week you will need to commit approximately 12-15 hours to your studies. Your time should be spent on reading the weekly course materials, additional reading, partaking in discussion forum activities, and preparing for all of your assessment activities.
Each module has a subject specialist assigned as module leader. They act as your personal tutor, helping you navigate through the module and setting a series of collaborative tasks, assignments and online discussion activities. The programme is led by:
Perdi Welsh BSc (Hons), DipAVN (Surg), CertEd, RVN
Course Director for Graduate Diploma in Professional and Clinical Veterinary Nursing, and Lecturer in Veterinary Nursing
Hayley Carne BSc (Hons) GradDipVN, PGCertVetEd, FHEA, RVN
Deputy Course Director for Graduate Diploma in Professional and Clinical Veterinary Nursing, and Lecturer in Veterinary Nursing
You will be assessed throughout your course by online assignments. The estimated breakdown of assessment for your final grade is:
There are no work placements for this course, but you must be employed in, or have agreed access to placement in a suitable veterinary clinical environment.
As a guide, suitable clinical environments are veterinary practices which can demonstrate meeting the minimum General Practice standards for small animal practices as set in the RCVS Practice Standards Scheme.
It is advised that you spend a minimum of 15 days per 15 credit module working in a suitable clinical environment (e.g. critical care if the Emergency and Critical Care Nursing module is taken).
This programme provides a framework for postgraduate study which offers Registered Veterinary Nurses (RVNs) the opportunity to advance their knowledge, improve research skills, and practice evidence based veterinary nursing. The programme is flexible and allows individuals to directly align their studies to areas that are of interest to them, or are directly relevant to their current or future roles. The programme is intended to meet the needs of anyone seeking a flexible and adaptable route to a successful postgraduate degree, or who wish to undertake postgraduate-level study for continual professional development purposes at an advanced level.
The MSc Advanced Practice in Veterinary Nursing comprises three components:
Three core courses (Year 1)
Three optional courses (Year 2)
Dissertation (Year 3)
The programme is delivered fully online using a range of learning and teaching approaches including lectures, seminars, tutorials, work-based learning and project work. You will have the flexibility to tailor the subject of many of your assessments and final dissertation to disciplines or specialisms that are relevant and of interest to you and/or your future career.
The online and part-time nature of this programme, and the flexibility this route offers, makes it ideally suited to individuals in full-time employment.
This programme meets the demand for the preparation of both specialised and extended role practitioners and will develop students’ knowledge, skills and confidence in order for them to pursue a career related to Advanced Practice in Veterinary Nursing such as referral nurse, head nurse, practice manager, educator or researcher.
The programme also provides a platform for students to move into the field of research, with the potential for individuals to continue studying towards a doctorate.
This exciting course is run in conjunction with the National Association of Veterinary Physiotherapists (NAVP). The programme is designed to develop the skills of the student to support veterinary surgeons in the rehabilitation of a variety of species and will in particular focus on equine and canine patients. It will also focus on supporting equine and canine athletes both during competition and for recovery.
It is designed to enhance competency in existing therapists and to help students with less experience achieve their goal as capable and knowledgeable veterinary physiotherapists. The programme offers successful students the opportunity to become part of the existing para-professional cache of veterinary physiotherapists by developing excellent understanding and knowledge of anatomical structure in relation to function, treatment, rehabilitation of a variety of animals and of course business skills for those who plan to be self-employed.
The programme will be run on a part-time basis over three years, with the majority being delivered at weekends (11 weekends for the 1st year , 19 weekends – including internal placement weekends on site – for the 2nd year). There will be the occasional Friday that requires attendance, such as Academic Induction and examinations. The first year is quite structured and enables us to accurately predict the level of commitment required from each student to pass the modules. In the second clinical year, students differ widely in their ability to pick up and accurately apply the techniques being taught. So the requirement for self-directed practice can be substantial. There is also an increased level of contact in year 2 as students need to undertake placement days alongside the taught element, so weekends become far more frequent than during the first year. By year 3 students will be able to organise their own study time to complete the dissertation.
The first two years will comprise the Postgraduate Diploma in Veterinary Physiotherapy and if successful the student will be invited to become a member of the National Association of Veterinary Physiotherapists and be able to practice. The third year involves the dissertation and on completion the student will have a full MSc Veterinary Physiotherapy.
A successful veterinary physiotherapist will soon find that demand for their services outstrips their availability as there are a limited number of qualified therapists in the industry. Additionally, para-professionals in the veterinary world may soon be limited to those carrying a recognised post graduate qualification.
A successful Veterinary Physiotherapist will soon find that demand for their services outstrips their availability as there are a limited number of qualified therapists in the industry. Additionally, Para-professionals in the veterinary world may soon be limited to those carrying a recognised postgraduate qualification.
A unique programme in New Zealand
Join this world-leading programme offering postgraduate study in conservation veterinary medicine.
Find out more about the Master of Veterinary Studies parent structure.
The Master of Veterinary Studies (Conservation Veterinary Medicine) is the only programme of its kind in New Zealand. It combines the strengths of our world-leading veterinary school and the essential work of our Massey Wildbase team and the Massey University ecology group.
New Zealand ‘s biodiversity is in crisis and the study of conservation medicine, disease ecology and ecotoxicology is crucial to protecting the remaining unique endemic fauna.
Your learning will cover a broad range of conservation-related medicine including avian and reptile medicine, wildlife pathology, captive management of wildlife, disease ecology and ecotoxicology.
Attached to Massey University’s veterinary school, Wildbase has four areas of focus: the hospital, oil response team and training, research and pathology.
Massey University’s Wildbase Research Centre is an internationally renowned leader in the field of wildlife health and disease. Wildbase has New Zealand's only dedicated wildlife hospital and is having a huge impact on the survival of some of New Zealand’s most endangered birds and animals. We are the go-to hospital for the Department of Conservation, receiving wild and captive animals from all over New Zealand to diagnose, care for or perform autopsies. The Wildbase wildlife hospital is currently in the midst of a NZ$1.44 million expansion.
Massey University’s veterinary programme is ranked in the top 50 universities worldwide by both the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) ranking and ShanghaiRanking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects.
This course is run on our Manawatu campus in Palmerston North. Host to the only veterinary school in New Zealand, Massey University’s well-equipped facilities include an equine hospital, 24-hour pet hospital and sheep, beef, dairy and deer farms, all located near campus. The Wildbase wildlife hospital is the only dedicated wildlife hospital in New Zealand and underwent a $1.44 million expansion in 2016.
You will have access to our other world-leading science facilities such as modern laboratories for virology and bacteriology, molecular and immunohistochemical work.
Our courses are led by internationally-recognised lecturers and have a reputation for their use of real-life case studies and high staff to student ratios.
Massey’s veterinary and animal science staff are integrated and cooperative. There is also a wide range of expertise across the sciences at the university, including agricultural science, fundamental sciences and engineering. This will give you access to a wide range of expertise, equipment and facilities on one small campus.
Postgraduate study is hard work but hugely rewarding and empowering. The Master of Veterinary Studies will push you to produce your best creative, strategic and theoretical ideas. The workload replicates the high-pressure environment of senior workplace roles. Our experts are there to guide but if you have come from undergraduate study, you will find that postgraduate study demands more in-depth and independent study.
Join a unique programme
Join the only veterinary epidemiology speciality programme in Australasia.
Find out more about the Master of Veterinary Studies parent structure.
Massey University offers the only veterinary epidemiology programme in Australasia.
Epidemiology is the science concerned with study patterns of health and disease in different populations, or groups. Group comparison is at the core of scientific methods needed to assess the efficacy of intervention for the prevention, treatment and management of diseases.
When you complete a master’s in epidemiology at Massey University you will gain the skills needed to work at a high level in the field of epidemiology. You will gain skills in critical evaluation of the literature, through to study design and advanced skills in analysis of epidemiologic data.
You will learn how to critically evaluate the literature to make evidence-based decision making in a range of sectors including health and policy. This epidemiology programme will teach you how to design surveillance systems and population studies in order to determine magnitude of health problems. You will be able to identify risk factors, evaluate interventions and gain the skills necessary in advanced data analysis and statistical computing.
You will gain from the Master of Veterinary Studies’ (Epidemiology) emphasis on developing lantitative skills through case studies. During your studies you will work with data collected during real epidemiological studies to help you learn how to interpret results in the light of bias, confounding, effect modification and model error.
Massey University hosts the EpiCentre - the largest veterinary epidemiology training and research centre in Australasia and widely considered to be one of the leading groups in the world. The group has a proven track record with more than 15 years’ experience in education and research.
The EpiCentre is an OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health) Collaborating Centre for Epidemiology and Public Health and the only such centre in the Asia-Pacific region. Therefore, we have are doing research both in NZ and internationally and this gives us a very outward facing program. We have taught students from all over the world and many have returned to do a PhD with Massey.
The Centre works extensively in the development and commercial application of animal health software (DairyWIN, InterSpread, CamDairy, VetPad), and is also experienced in the use and integration of a wide range of software for epidemiological uses, notably geographical information systems (GIS), expert systems, multivariate analysis and simulation modelling.
The group is active in field work with humans, production animals, companion animals and wildlife in New Zealand, and provides consultancy services and training courses in epidemiology throughout the world.
Massey University’s veterinary programme is ranked in the top 50 universities worldwide by both the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) ranking and ShanghaiRanking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects.
This course is run on our Manawatu campus in Palmerston North. Host to the only veterinary school in New Zealand, Massey University’s well-equipped facilities include an equine hospital, 24-hour pet hospital and sheep, beef, dairy and deer farms, all located near campus. The Wildbase wildlife hospital is the only dedicated wildlife hospital in New Zealand and underwent a $1.44 million expansion in 2016.
You will have access to our other world-leading science facilities such as modern laboratories for virology and bacteriology, molecular and immunohistochemical work.
Although the focus of this programme is on animal health, this programme is also suitable if you are working in another sector and wish to improve your critical evaluation skills and managing data.
Postgraduate study is hard work but hugely rewarding and empowering. The Master of Veterinary Studies will push you to produce your best creative, strategic and theoretical ideas. The workload replicates the high-pressure environment of senior workplace roles. Our experts are there to guide but if you have come from undergraduate study, you will find that postgraduate study demands more in-depth and independent study.
Lead the world of pathology
Join this unique residency programme to learn from the largest collection of veterinary pathologists in the southern hemisphere.
Find out more about the Master of Veterinary Studies parent structure.
Massey University has the largest pathology department in the southern hemisphere. Our team of veterinary pathologists that include five pathologists that are boarded by the American College of Veterinary Pathology will help you develop your own expertise in this fascinating and sought-after speciality residency.
Massey University deals with a broad range of animals, from companion and production animals to exotic animals that may go off-track and wash up on our shores. That means that you will gain pathology knowledge of a wide variety of animal species.
Massey University’s veterinary programme is ranked in the top 50 universities worldwide by both the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) ranking and ShanghaiRanking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects.
This course is run on our Manawatu campus in Palmerston North. Host to the only veterinary school in New Zealand, Massey University’s well-equipped facilities include an equine hospital, 24-hour pet hospital and sheep, beef, dairy and deer farms, all located near campus. The Wildbase wildlife hospital is the only dedicated wildlife hospital in New Zealand and underwent a $1.44 million expansion in 2016.
You will have access to our other world-leading science facilities such as modern laboratories for virology and bacteriology, molecular and immunohistochemical work.
This is a residency programme that operates under the entry requirements of the Master of Veterinary Studies (MVS).
The content of the course is similar to a residency - clinical work with a small thesis - and, like other residencies, has very restricted entry numbers.
This is not a paid residency. It operates as the MVS and any of its associated entry requirements and student fees (which will be dependent upon your residency status) will apply.
Pathology is a part of veterinary medicine that is particularly hands-on and as such demands a high level of learning ‘on the job’. That is why this particular endorsement of the Master of Veterinary Studies is a clinical residency programme. There are no lectures or structured taught component to this programme, instead you will be guided by our world-leading pathologists, working on real-life cases.
Around 80% of your time will be working with pathologists performing gross necropsy examinations as well as learning how to make microscopic diagnoses and describe disease processes within necropsy reports. The remaining 20% will see you complete a research thesis in an area of interest to you.
This programme has very limited openings. Applicants are only selected into the program when space becomes available.
The position is initially for two years. If you achieve academic milestones, the program can be extended to three years which will make you eligible to sit the ACVP board exams and practice in a wide range of countries.
Postgraduate study is hard work but hugely rewarding and empowering. The Master of Veterinary Studies will push you to produce your best creative, strategic and theoretical ideas. The workload replicates the high-pressure environment of senior workplace roles. Our experts are there to guide but if you have come from undergraduate study, you will find that postgraduate study demands more in-depth and independent study.
The Melbourne Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) is Australia’s first graduate-entry, professional veterinary science qualification. The DVM is based on the latest global thinking in veterinary science practice, teaching and learning.
As a NEW Generation Melbourne DVM student, you will take part in our unique Tracks program. Tracks prepare you best for your chosen career path by concentrating your studies on a particular area of clinical interest and gaining complementary industry-ready skills and knowledge. This represents the latest international education models and enables you to stand out from the crowd upon graduation.
Our DVM curriculum has been developed around five learning domains, which infuse every subject and are based around the attributes of a veterinary scientist:
The BA/BSc Top-up in Professional Practice is a flexible, work-related undergraduate programme that provides a route to a degree for those who have previously achieved an undergraduate qualification, such as a Foundation Degree, HND or similar. It is the third stage of a BA/BSc, delivered part-time over two academic years.
This work-related learning programme is suitable for professionals from a wide range of areas in the public and private sectors. This includes health and social care, education, local government, public services, human resources, professional trades people, business and administrative services, cultural industries, retail, hospitality, financial and legal services.
The Centre for Professional Practice offers flexible, work-related academic programmes for Undergraduate and Postgraduate students. The Centre is founded on the belief that employers can benefit from the University of Kent’s academic and research excellence, quality teaching, design and development activities to create positive change and to forge new knowledge within their organisation.
We work with a wide range of external partners and employers to create distinct and original work-based and work-related developmental and educational solutions, which respond to the unique workforce challenges experienced by employees and organisations across the region and beyond.
The Centre’s programmes are designed to enhance career progression and foster intellectual and professional development and practice.
The programme offers an opportunity to attain academic recognition for the skills, knowledge and experience you have developed in the workplace. It focuses on a specific area of practice relevant to your work and enhances your career progression. You can explore your profession further and consider the professional challenges associated within your specific area of practice. The modules have been designed to help you review and analyse the current debates relevant to the professional context in which you are working.
The programme is structured over three modules delivered over two years:
Year 1 (30+30 credits):
Year 2 (60 credits):
Taught sessions are delivered over a series of long weekends.
The Certificate of Advanced Veterinary Practice (CertAVP) is a flexible way to achieve a veterinary post-graduate qualification. It is run as a distance learning assessment only programme, with you only needing to come to the RVC for C module written exams.
The CertAVP at the RVC encourages independent, adult-centred and self-directed learning, it is not a taught course. The aim of the assessment process at the RVC is not only to support you to fully understand the quality of your current clinical practice but also to foster life-long learning skills and to advance and enhance your clinical knowledge, skills and understanding. Reflective, critical practice is expected and encouraged.
The learning scaffold for CertAVP at the RVC is your clinical and professional experience - the learning you build by reading, formal CPD and other learning activities around the professional issues you have faced in your practice and the clinical cases you manage. Setting your own learning goals to help you achieve the learning outcomes for the modules and seeking the learning opportunities that fulfil your learning needs are crucial activities for an adult learning experience. So, although the CertAVP at the RVC is not a taught course (which can imply that everyone has the same learning needs), there are rich learning opportunities at every stage. These include the detailed and personalised feedback you will receive on your work, a range of discounted RVC CPD courses that support learning outcomes for many CertAVP modules, a wide variety of online learning resources including access to the RVC library and where needed one-to-one learning support from our Learning Development team or module leaders.
RVC assessors have specialist and higher educational qualifications that ensure the level of assessment is educationally sound, robust, fair and at the level expected of veterinarians aspiring to achieve Advanced Practitioner status. Extensive feedback is provided on allsubmitted work. Assessment of your work is as and for your learning, not just of your learning. Our aim is to help you develop life-long commitment to improving your practice, and therefore skills such as self-analysis, clinical reasoning, and accessing, interpreting, and applying information, are of utmost importance to the RVC-based CertAVP.
Reflection is an important component of the CertAVP for a very good reason and will remain. By learning to reflect on your practice, you learn how to analyse what you do and why you do it, become better placed to explain this to clients or colleagues, and identify areas for improvement. Even more importantly, where you are competent at a skill in one context, reflection probes you to consider whether you could repeat that skill in a more demanding situation, or adapt it to fit a more challenging context. By analysing situations where you feel some discomfort, reflection encourages you to consider why you feel less satisfied, and how you could develop your approach to be more satisfying in future.
Reflection is a critical part of the self-evaluation process in learning. It helps you think about what you know or have learned and helps you identify areas of confusion, so you can create new learning goals. Evaluating what you have learned, what you still need to work on, and how you can get there all supports developing deeper understanding rather than superficial knowledge. Self-reflection and self-critique are essential components of the adult learning experience, life-long learning and professional practice. Were it not for reflection, the implication is that there is no room for improvement.
