Veterinary Nurse

A veterinary nurse provides direct clinical and surgical nursing care to animals in veterinary practices, hospitals, and clinics across Australia. They work under the supervision of a registered veterinarian to assist with diagnostic procedures, prepare animals for surgery, monitor anaesthetised patients, and provide post-operative and medical care. They maintain clinical records, sterilise instruments, and ensure animal welfare and biosecurity standards comply with state and territory veterinary practice requirements.

Restrain and handle animals of various species during clinical examination and treatment procedures. Prepare animals for surgical procedures by clipping, cleaning, and positioning them on surgical tables. Assist veterinarians during surgery by passing instruments, suctioning, and maintaining the surgical field. Monitor and record vital signs of anaesthetised animals including heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, and temperature. Administer prescribed medications via injection, oral, topical, or intravenous routes under veterinarian direction. Place, maintain, and remove peripheral and central intravenous catheters for fluid therapy and medication administration. Perform clinical pathology tasks including blood collection via venipuncture, urinalysis, and faecal examination. Sterilise surgical instruments and equipment using autoclave and other sterilisation methods to meet infection control standards.

The standard entry pathway requires a Certificate IV or Certificate III with at least two years of on-the-job training (ABS skill level 3). Specific qualification requirements vary by employer and state. Some employers may accept equivalent experience. Check yourcareer.gov.au for available courses and dewr.gov.au/skills-reform/free-tafe for subsidised training options.

The work is physically demanding: lifting large animals, standing all day, repeated needle sticks and animal bites. Emotional burnout from euthanasia decisions and animal suffering is real. Pay ceilings are low unless you move into management or specialise.

Concentrated in capital cities and large regional centres where pet ownership density is highest. Rural areas have fewer opportunities despite animal agriculture. Employment follows suburban and urban veterinary clinic locations. Remote work is not viable for this hands-on clinical role.

Published for ANZSCO unit group 3613, the wider group this job sits in, not for this job on its own.

This is the median for full-time employees who are not managers and are paid at the adult rate, before tax and salary sacrifice. It is a guide to what the work pays, not a wage rate.

Source: ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.

• Active Listeningcore
• Appointment Schedulingcore
• Attention to Detailcore
• Case Note Documentationcore
• Confidentiality and Privacy Compliancecore
• Empathy and Emotional Intelligencecore
• Health Record Administrationcore
• Health Terminology Literacycore
• Incident Reportingcore
• Multitaskingcore
• Policy and Procedure Adherencecore
• Team Collaborationcore
• Time Management and Prioritisationcore
• Verbal Communicationcore
• Written Communicationcore
• Calculate rates per hours
• Complaint Handling
• Continuous Learning and Upskilling
• Customer Needs Assessment
• Data Entry and Accuracy
• HICAPS and Medicare Claiming Systems
• Invoicing and Billing Administration
• Practice Management Software (e.g., Best Practice, MedicalDirector)
• Regulatory and Legislative Awareness
• Risk Identification

• ABS OSCA 2024, occupation definition and task statements
• ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.
• ABS, 2021 Census of Population and Housing based on usual place of residence (Custom Report). OSCA Experimental Estimates.

Role data is drawn from official Australian Government sources, and each figure names where it comes from. Where a role is not in the ABS classification, the page shows no government figures for it. Data may not reflect every local variation.

Where our numbers come from.

What Veterinary Nurse workers move into, from ten years of tax records.

Last updated: 30 October 2026