In this Veterinary Nurse career interview, we speak to Wildlife Vet Nurse Beckie Barnardt who has had a varied career in the UK before starting her permanent move to South Africa to work in wildlife conservation and rehabilitation.
Beckie has used her skills and resilience learned from being an RVN to help her set up and establish African Legends Wildlife – a Veterinary program designed to give Vet Nurses (and Vets) the opportunity to experience working in wildlife medicine and rehabilitation.
Beckie also shares valuable advice regarding (not-so) linear careers.
Can you tell us a little about your Veterinary Nursing career so far?
My nursing career started as a first opinion small animal practice nurse, which would take in the odd injured wildlife. The practice stopped doing their own on-call, which I missed doing.
I then moved into doing ECC and permanent nights, which was also the OOH for an exotic practice. I loved the emergency work, but soon realised I like the weird and wonderful more when the exotic patients came in.
While doing ECC, we also worked with a charity and cared for patients under this charity. I then left ECC, to start locuming full-time in between my times of leaving to go to South Africa and obtaining visas while in the UK.
How did you get into the route you are on now?
My route definitely hasn’t been linear, with many ups and downs, it is normal to have wobbles through your career, but no one ever told me that!
I took the opportunity to volunteer in South Africa for 10 months and decided to go back for a second year. However, I then ended up being locked down for that second year, which meant being unable to work (you have to have a work permit in South Africa) out there or no flights back into the UK, this then meant I had so much time to evaluate what route I would actually like to direct my career to go.
So after a lot of work, we decided to expand the Wildlife transport business that was already established for people to be able to join us and then moved to a small game reserve.
Did you need to undertake any further training or qualifications to get into the role of starting your own Veterinary wildlife program?
I didn’t need extra qualifications to be able to start up, however after working previously alongside wildlife vets, local game farmers, and other wildlife professionals you are taught so much.
It is very beneficial to have a basic knowledge before being able to do this kind of work in South Africa as the wildlife industry is competitive. I have taken extra qualifications/courses while being out there such as wildlife first aid and rehabilitation, venomous snake handling & snake bite first aid.
Before your move to South Africa, had you done much work with Wildlife and Exotics in the Uk?
I had quite a bit of experience with exotics through choosing locum placements at various exotic interest practices including one which looked after two small local zoos as well as wildlife.
From pet exotics, English wildlife, and zoo work in the UK, I have been exposed to many different species, conditions, and procedures before leaving, such as seals to squirrels, and of course many hedgehogs!
What does an average day in South Africa look like for you?
There is no average day on the reserve, it’s like farming but different. I usually start my days at first light to do a round of the reserve and check on the animals, especially in the baby season to ensure there have been no calving difficulties. Dystocia has affected our Bonteboks often.
The rounds will take us to check the fencing to ensure there are no gaps, especially because the rogue warthogs love to break through to us. We don’t have piped running water like in the UK, so the morning round will also be checking if our reservoir tanks are full and if not pumping water from the borehole.
After this it will depend on what needs to be done, for example, we recently had a young Springbok who was being rehabilitated, which meant being up a few times through the night to feed and then throughout the day to get her back to a stage for her to be released back to the herd. Rehabilitation is a huge portion of my life on the reserve.
Then it will be general wildlife management of the reserve and/or having guests stay with us. Our new task this year is to build and put up bat boxes!
What do you enjoy most about your job now? And are there any downsides?
The best part of my job is when we have delegates join us as part of the program to share what we do and what is important to wildlife conservation in South Africa, as well as deal with all the wildlife and procedures with our wildlife vets.
The biggest downside is it is a full-time job, there is no shutoff, no days off, and some days there is a lot of hard graft and not much involvement as a nurse or directly with wildlife so a large portion of my job is hands-off.
This includes all the admin that needs to be done, it has made me appreciate all the nitty-gritty stuff our practice managers do for us!
What advice would you give to any RVNs looking to undertake a Veterinary program with
Wildlife?
The biggest advice is not to be put off by how sought-after the jobs are to work with wildlife in the UK. All our small animal skills are 100% transferable!
There are lots of great CPDs out there and volunteering opportunities to be found, putting yourself out there for these opportunities is the biggest step to being in the diversifying field of interest to you.
Association of Zoo & Exotic Veterinary Nurses has a membership option and every year holds
their own congress for members, as well as CPDs; I have seen many jobs and volunteer opportunities posted on their Facebook group for exotics and wildlife.
I have completed the Girling and Fraser Advanced nursing certificate in zoo animals, which gives you a great insight into this work. They also have separate modules for English wildlife, avians, reptiles, and small mammals. These are good modules, but it is a distance learning course, so you will need to be able to self-study and set time aside to complete the assignments.
I have also previously completed the BDMLR marine mammal medic course in 2016, this is a
great course for handling marine wildlife, especially for those of you in coastal areas. I then worked closely within my last locum job in 2022.
Can you tell us what RVNs can expect if they joined your Veterinary Wildlife Program?
African Legends Wildlife Services program was created with nurses in mind, to give a hands-on experience with African wildlife as well as the veterinary experience, included is a two-day wildlife first aid course with a provider, certified with the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council. Those with 1CPD can also gain 30 hours from this program.
Anyone can apply or request more information by emailing info@africanlegendswildlife.com.
Part of the program focuses on the comparison of working in field medicine in South Africa and
working in a captive zoo setting with these species. As well as adding the wildlife first aid course I completed it a few years back as a component as this can be used in general day practice for
any wildlife brought in to you.
Find out more about experiencing life as a Wildlife Vet Nurse in South Africa:
Facebook: africanlegendswildlife
Instagram: africanlegendswildlife
Website: www.africanlegendswildlife.com
Finally, as a Registered Veterinary Nurse, what are your current future career goals or aspirations?
Currently, my goal is moving to be in South Africa full time to run the reserve, rather than being
back and forth to the UK.
My future goal as an RVN is to register with SAVC, but the UK nursing qualification is not yet
recognised for us, so we need to complete the entry exams to register.
As well as this is to establish a small centre on our reserve for us to treat and care for the wildlife that needs rehabilitation, that isn’t our garden or spare room!
