Why the vet nurse rota is different.
Vet nurses handle prep, inpatient care, anaesthesia monitoring and theatre support. Their needs don’t follow the vets’ exactly: more presence at peak consult times, inpatient cover, sometimes split shifts.
The trap of two separate rotas.
Many practices build the vet rota, then the nurse rota separately. The result: surgery booked with a vet and no nurse, an afternoon with three nurses and one vet. The two rotas are separate, but they are built together, month by month, with the same cover in view. Annual leave is where it shows most: the method is in our guide to annual leave and absence on a vet rota.
Count in hours, never just days.
Nurse contracts are often hours-based, with uneven days: mornings, afternoons, part-time. Counting “five days” isn’t enough. Work from each person’s contracted hours, and keep the 48-hour weekly average and 11 hours’ daily rest in mind.
Those are planned hours. What the law asks you to keep is the hours actually worked: in Ireland, working time records for three years (what an Irish practice must keep); in Great Britain, records adequate to show compliance, kept for two years (regulation 9 since 2024). The limits those hours must fit inside are in our working time guides for Ireland and Great Britain.
Half days and extra cover: the month’s shock absorber.
Short slots (a morning of extra cover, an inpatient afternoon) are what let you balance each contract’s hours without leaving gaps. Define them as slots of their own, with their capacity, rather than improvising them each week.
The opposite of a shock absorber is the long day: a nurse working her hours over three days is away four days in seven, and cover thins out. The arithmetic is in our guides to three long days in Ireland and in the UK.
The version with a tool.
In Djed, vets and vet nurses are two separate teams, each with its own rules, shifts and fairness, built in the same month. Hours-based contracts (Clinic plan) carry each person’s target hours and the engine spreads the shifts to get close to it. More on the shifts page and in the rota template.
If nurses take part in on-call, the rules belong in each contract: see our on-call guides for Ireland and the UK, and the night-work limits for Irish and UK practices.
Sources and date checked.
- Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, revised edition (sections 11 to 17 and 25).
- Working Time Regulations 1998 (SI 1998/1833), regulations 4 to 12. Northern Ireland has its own regulations, the Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016, with the same limits.
Texts checked on 5 October 2026. This guide is not legal advice: for your own situation, speak to your HR or employment adviser.
Frequently asked questions.
Why not build two separate rotas?
Because cover is shared: built apart, you get surgery without a nurse and afternoons with three nurses and one vet.
Should nurse rotas count days or hours?
Hours: nurse contracts are often part-time or uneven, so count each person’s contracted hours.