Veterinary nurse

As a veterinary nurse you belong to the animal health staff, which implies that

• the public is aware of your specific qualifications
• you shall practice your profession in accordance to science and proven experience
• you take full personal responsibility of the treatments you carry out
• you shall follow the requirements regarding your profession, such as keeping journals and medical records, issue certificates, confidentiality and duty of notification
• you are under government supervision and you may be reported to the Veterinary Disciplinary Board for Animal Health Staff (Ansvarsnämnden för djurens hälso- och sjukvård).

As a veterinary nurse, you are allowed to independently and without delegation, perform work duties for which you have both formal and actual qualification. The formal qualification involves those topics that are included in the education and are required to obtain the license as a veterinary nurse. The actual qualification involves tasks that you actually know how to perform.

Can a foreign education lead to a veterinary nurse license in Sweden?

Within the Swedish Animal Health and Medical Care system, it is possible to work either as a licensed veterinary nurse, or as a veterinary assistant (djurvårdare). These occupations can be compared to licensed nurses and assistant nurses working with human health care. The division between veterinary nurse and veterinary assistant (djurvårdare) does not always exist in other countries, and it can therefore be difficult to assess whether a certain degree in animal health care from a foreign country can lead to a Swedish license or not. Some educations are similar to the Swedish veterinary nurse education, while the content in other educations differs from this education and is more similar to an education to become a veterinary assistant.

I already have a degree in animal health care from abroad and would like to know if my profession correspond to being a licensed veterinary nurse or a veterinary assistant in Sweden

If you already have completed an education in animal health care abroad, and would like to know which profession that corresponds to, you could get an idea by answering the following questions:

1. Can I work with animal health care on my own responsibility after completing my education? For example: Can I get my license withdrawn if I misbehave and can I get a warning for something that a veterinary surgeon has told me to do?
2. Am I allowed to vaccinate animals and write vaccination certificates?
3. Am I allowed to – under some conditions – perform simple surgical procedures?
4. Is my education focused on dogs/cats and horses?
5. Do my knowledge correspond to the formal qualifications of veterinary nurses in Sweden?
6. Do I have an education on university level?
7. If I had been working with people – had my title then been a licensed nurse?

The more yes you answered to the questions, the greater is the chance that the profession you have been studying, corresponds to the veterinary nurse profession in Sweden. If you have answered no to most of the questions, you have most likely practiced a profession that corresponds to the title veterinary assistant (djurvårdare) in Sweden. However, the answers to the questions above only give an idea of which profession you have practiced, and the set of questions is not an exact template of whether you can get a license or not.

The Swedish veterinary nurse education is a three year university education. The education is focused on the animal species dogs, cats and horses. To work as a veterinary assistant (djurvårdare), there is no formal requirement of an education, but many have studied animal care during high school or have completed a complementary vocational education.

I would like to study veterinary nursing abroad and would like to know if the education will lead to a license as a veterinary nurse in Sweden.

We can never make a statement in advance if a foreign education will lead to a Swedish license as a veterinary nurse. Different circumstances can affect the assessment, such as a change in content over the years, additional studies or professional experience. Each application for a license is therefore assessed individually.

There are however some guidelines for you to consider:

• Degrees from a third land (outside EU/EEA and Switzerland) are required to be on university level, cover at least three years of studies, and have a corresponding content as the Swedish education.
• Degrees from other EEA-countries or Switzerland should as far as possible correspond to the requirements above to increase the possibility to get a license as a veterinary nurse in Sweden.
  

How to apply for a license as a veterinary nurse

The application for a veterinary nurse license is made electronically by using our e-service. You will need to upload digital copies of your diplomas and other certificates. You may choose whether you want to scan your documents or submit photos of them. We must be able to read all the documents in the application in order to make our assessment. It is therefore important that the digital copies are clear and legible. If we consider the quality insufficient, you will need to resubmit the documents and then the processing time will be longer. The application fee is currently SEK 1,660, and you pay at the end of the application process by using either Visa or MasterCard.

Depending on where you studied, the required documents for your application might differ. Follow the link below for a specification of what documents are required for your application and additional information about your application.

• Education in Veterinary Nursing from an EU/EEA-country or Switzerland
• Education in Veterinary Nursing from a third country (outside EU/EEA or Switzerland)