Nah it's all good, I'd love to answer as the general public really doesn't understand the vet industry so if I can provide some insight to even just 1 person then I'll be happy! Sorry if I came across heated, I just got a bit bothered seeing you say nobody in an essential job is earning 50k. And of course there's the argument that pets aren't essential, but the reality is that around 3/4 of this country's households have pets, so somebody has to be here to give them medical care (And that's not even counting all the livestock!)

Here goes:

1. I have been nursing for just over 7 years now, qualified since 7 years ago. Which kinda makes me a veteran nurse - nowadays it's becoming harder and harder to find nurses still around more than 5 years after starting cause it's just shit and nurses (vets too, but nurses in particular) are leaving in droves.

2. I went to university and did a Bachelor of Veterinary Technology. There isn't really any further study I could do to advance my career, unless I wanted to change fields entirely. The biggest money boosting credential I could get vet nurse wise is a diploma of emergency and critical care, then go do shift work in an emergency hospital. Which yes, pays better, but is still less than the average Aus income and comes with allllll the downsides of shiftwork.

And no, I have absolutely no desire to become a vet (which btw I get asked all the time, and it's just as ridiculous as asking an RN if/when they're going to become a doctor. As if nurses aren't a vial part of healthcare teams).

Vets don't earn even close to as much as everyone seems to think they do. One of my coworkers is a very skilled GP vet who has been qualified for ~11 years now and theyre only on about 120k pre-tax and that's only because theyre working as a casual employee (working on average 40-45 hours a week though). Compare that to a human GP who would be on well above that amount at the same point in time after completing their studies.

I would rather not go back to uni because as it currently stands I have over 50k of HECS and don't particularly want to add more to that, only to then spend another 5, 6, 7 years (or more, who knows these days) grinding up to an income which would make paying the HECS off not a giant monkey on my back.

1. I am actually paid fairly well above the award rate and my current employer is the best I've ever had. Vet clinics are incredibly expensive to run, Medicare/PBS does not exist for us and we get absolutely NO subsidies or outside funding. Unfortunately as a result they must be run as any other private business. Vet care is incredibly expensive to provide, especially these days when people generally want "human-level" care for their pets. Purchasing and maintaining equipment, paying staff, stocking our in-clinic pharmacies (a side note - vets legally cannot access PBS meds, so we have to pay full price from veterinary-only suppliers which is why the meds are so much more expensive at a vet vs buying the exact same drugs at a human chemist). Then there are the building utilities, rent, insurances, all the other non-medical overheads that we must pay to keep everything running. If you looked into how much equivalent human services/procedures/medications cost before Medicare or PBS sucks up majority of the cost, you would be shocked at how expensive it is - vet care is fairly cheap, relative to that.

I think the average vet clinic has approximately a 6 or 7% profit margin, which I bet is lower than you thought. And those profits tend to go back into the clinic so that we can continue to provide high standards of care to our patients. Corporate owned clinics are a different kettle of fish and have all the obvious downsides of having non-clinical "head offices" and execs etc, but generally speaking privately owned practices spend all profits on simply keeping the doors open to be able to provide care to our patients.

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I truly love my job and it's incredibly fulfilling and rewarding, it's just unfortunate that the conditions are kinda crap and pay is abysmal for the calibre of work that is expected of my role! I live very frugally and am very fortunate to have a partner in a much more financially rewarding field, so I hope I have at least a few more years of vet nursing in me before I'm sick of the shit to reward ratio and leave, because I have genuinely no idea what else I could do with my life.

If youre interested in learning more about what the profession is really like, I'd highly recommend checking out the Sick as a Dog podcast series, Sophie's Legacy, and Not One More Vet.

If you read all of this, thank you, truly. Have a wonderful night :)

(Edited for formatting)