The veterinary nursing profession is facing a “serious retention crisis”, chair of the representative body for veterinary nurses in Ireland Irish Veterinary Nurses Association (IVNA) Kellie Fagan has said.

She said that although college courses report that veterinary nursing programmes remain heavily subscribed and highly sought after, the profession is successfully recruiting people but failing to retain them.

In 2024, 124 vet nurses removed themselves from the veterinary nursing register – almost half of the 231 graduates qualifying from colleges each year, she outlined.

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Of those who left, 57% cited a change in work-life balance, 55% said it was due to a change in working terms and conditions and 52% reported career progression.

“The retention crisis is worsening,” she told an Oireachtas committee on agriculture meeting this week.

“Our 2026 survey found that nearly 76% of veterinary nurses are either considering leaving, unsure about remaining or planning to leave the profession altogether. The main reasons are low pay, burnout, poor work-life balance and limited career progression."

Sustainable future

“The students are enrolling; the graduates are qualifying - the commitment is there. But what we are missing is a profession that enables veterinary nurses to build a sustainable future within it.

"If we fail to address this now, we will continue to train high skilled professionals only to watch them leave.

“The future of veterinary nurses in Ireland cannot be secured through recruitment alone.”

Age demographics

“The majority of our nurses are between 20 and 30 years of age,” treasurer of the INVA Sarah Keane told the committee.

“Of respondents to our survey, only 10% had worked in the profession for more than 10 years and only 3% for more than 20 years. The nurses aren’t even getting to their mid-40s in practice.”

Pay is a big issue, according to the INVA.

“Many earn an average salary of just €36,800 a year," according to Fagan.

“Feedback in our surveys would say pay is a big issue - 92% said were going to leave over pay and 81% would leave or consider leaving over burnout and mental health.”

Fagan believes a big factor is the female demographic of the pay scale.

“There is a pay difference of €10,000 between female and male vets. We have a 97% female demographic in our pay scale. I would say that is a huge factor.

“We ask for support in developing a structured pay scale. That there is clear remuneration based on your experience and clarity within the profession.”

Shortage of nurses

Keane highlighted the shortage of veterinary nurses across the country, both in urban and rural practices, detailing that 92% of farm animal, 86% of equine and 44% of mixed animal practices have no registered veterinary nurse and a total of 181 clinics have no veterinary nurse.

The association is calling for more regulation and protection of the title of veterinary nurse.

“It is a protected profession since 2008, a regulated profession,” Keane told the committee.

“Currently, we have numbers reporting lay staff representing themselves as veterinary nurses. If this issue continues, this will be an animal welfare issue in the long run."

“We have the regulations there, but we would feel that there is not enforcement of those regulations. Clear prosecutions on that use of title would go a long way in deterring that,” Fagan believes.

Protection and regulation of the title will come “directly from the Veterinary Council of Ireland (VCI) – our regulatory body. Unfortunately, we are not getting a huge amount of correspondence or a response back”, according to Keane.

“We have engaged with them and asked for clarification on these issues of the number that have and the prosecutions that are in place, but there hasn’t been that much transparency,” Fagan added.

Fagan also reported a 6% confidence in the VCI safeguarding the protection of nurses from its survey and a power imbalance, with nine vets and only one vet nurse on the council.

“The veterinary council’s own workforce report identified veterinary nursing workforce issues as its number one priority area and highlighted the need to improve recruitment, retention, recognition and utilisation of veterinary nurses. Nearly two years later, many nurses feel little has changed,” Fagan told the committee.