Nathan Torr is an ECC nurse in Vets Now’s Manchester hospital. Having gained a love of animals at an early age, Nathan realised that the role of a nurse and the adrenaline of emergency and critical care was the path he wanted to follow. As part of Vet Nurse Awareness Month, Nathan explained how he got into nursing and how he’s now working to support the charities we work with at Vets Now as well as bringing the Manchester team together.
What made you want to become a vet nurse?
Since the age of 8 I always wanted to work with zoo animals but as I progressed I went to College in Eccles and did an animal management course for two years and from there I did various placements in pet shops, wildlife conservation, and vets. Working in a small vet practise made me think, ‘I could like doing this’ and then it was suggested that nursing could be for me because I’m quite a hands-on person, who likes to get stuck in.
What did you study for and where did you work before joining Vets Now?
I finished College in 2015 and went onto university doing four years doing a foundation degree in veterinary nursing at Myerscough College. After uni I was a qualified veterinary nurse at Animal Trust in Bolton for just short of two years. Animal Trust is a not-for-profit vets where I saw general practise mixed with emergencies. Most of the time I was working with emergencies in the ICU and dealt with a vast range of cases ranging from RTC, c-section and cardiac arrest.
Alongside my permanent job I did some locum work at Vets Now, which is a good way to experience working in different places, and that’s how I heard how good Vets Now is, and how Manchester has a lot of big names in the vet industry – such as John Williams, Paul Albridge and at the time Louise O’Dwyer.
Vets Now provide the gold standard care, which is what I wanted to do. So, I looked at being a locum at Vets Now and then an application came up for a permanent job and I went for it. To my surprise, I got offered an interview and a week later I got offered the job and I’ve been here two-and-a-half years now.
What do you enjoy about working as a vet nurse at Vets Now?
It’s the cases that come in – the emergencies – the gold standard care we provide, the adrenaline that goes through you with emergencies and I love the team I work with; we all have a laugh and we learn so much together. With the cases we go through, every day is going to be something completely different, even to the people who’ve been here for a while.
A key part of Vets Now is that they love progression. When I started here I was a general ward nurse and in October 2022 I became an ECC nurse. They’ve put me through training, I’m now doing my ECC cert, and they’ve also supported me to do my exotic certificate in avian, reptile and amphibians, small mammal, wildlife and zoo species, which I’ve just completed.
I can’t say which has been my best day here because there’s been a lot, but I’d probably say the day I moved over to ECC from the ward was the best because that’s what I’ve always wanted to do.
You mentioned Louise O’Dwyer, who was an inspiration to many in the veterinary industry and now has a bursary named in her honour for nurses at Vets Now. What impact did Louise make on you?
I met Louise when I started at Animal Trust because Louise was working there at the time and I worked with her for a couple of shifts. It was only a small period but I remember the first time I met her, I was in theatre. Being new, the ECG machine was beeping at me and I wasn’t sure what the graph was as it wasn’t the same as I was used to. She didn’t get annoyed in the slightest and she didn’t just tell me what I needed to know for right there and then; she taught me what a capnograph was and how to interpret it.
She then printed off cards and showed them to me and told me to learn them. That’s something that always sticks with me – the way she went about taking her time and going through it with me and explaining, that’s something that’s been with me in the six years since.
You’re working with the Manchester team to raise money for charities who help stray animals in the area – what led you to do that?
Over the last few months, we’ve been getting lots of stray animals coming into practice – far more than we used to before – a mix of dogs and cats, but mostly cats.
What inspired me is that we work with these charities and give the dogs and cats to them so they can rehome them and I wanted to help them out – help to give them funding towards food, towards their activity, to help them rehome these animals. So I’ve looked into the top charities we work with to support them in the best way we can.
What are you doing to raise money?
Last year I did the Tough Mudder Manchester which I thought it was a great experience, and I thought this would be a great opportunity to do a team building exercise, and it’s fun at the end of the day.
So I thought ‘let’s do the Total Warrior’, let’s get the team involved, so I spoke with Phil [Elliott –Hospital Manager], I put an email out and got several people who’ve come forward who are interested in doing it. I’m inviting the day team, night team, reception team, admin team. We don’t always work together so it’s great to come together as one and help a great charity.
Which charity are you raising money for and where can people donate?
There are several local charities we work with and we decided to focus on raising for the Society for Abandoned Animals, which is a small charity based in Manchester. They’ve gone above and beyond their limits by helping out the local community, taking in stray and abandoned animals needing forever homes even though they are at maximum capacity.
The money that will be raised for the charity will help in their rehoming process, making sure every animal is healthy, provided with vaccinations, microchipped and up to date with preventatives to keep them healthy. You can donate via our JustGiving page:
Nathan Torr is fundraising for Society For Abandoned Animals (justgiving.com)
What would you say to anyone else who’s looking to get into nursing?
Follow your passions. A lot of people don’t believe something like nursing is something they could do, or they think the stress will get to them.
But if you’ve always had a dream to go for, do it; you should go out and do what you want to in life. Go and do your ECC Cert, go and do referral work, go and work in practice. Go and do what you can do. And if you’re thinking of leaving the profession, maybe try a different type of nursing. We’ve lost nurses from the profession but since the community of nurses is small we should come together, share our experiences and support each other.
We do far more than what some people think we do – some people think we just cuddle animals but we do far more, far more even than an NHS nurse. I’m proud to be a nurse, and I always put RVN after my name – even in my description on Facebook – because I’m proud of the letters after my name because I’ve worked for it.