For vet nurses · New Zealand
Your own visits, on your own authority.
Nursing care in your clients’ homes, on your own account, within your competence. Prescribing and surgery stay with the pet’s vet. Here is what it takes, in order.
- 1Your scope
- 2What you need
- 3What it pays
- 4Hours that fit
- 5The tools
- 6Not alone
Written for New Zealand. Change your country at the top of the page and every step follows.
The short version
You’re already the practice.
The clinic bills your hands at practice rates and pays you by the hour. The skills, the calm and the clients who ask for you by name are yours, and every one of them comes with you when you leave.
Going independent does not mean leaving the profession. Veterinary nursing is not regulated in New Zealand, so you practise on your own professional authority, within your competence, and with the pet’s vet where the law requires it.
Step 1 · Your scope, in New Zealand
On your own account, and with the vet.
Veterinarians are the only animal-health profession New Zealand regulates. There is no statutory list of what a veterinary nurse may do. What you may do on your own is nursing within your competence. What the law reserves, the vet does or delegates.
On your own account
- Nail clips, ear and coat care
- Health, weight and mobility checks
- Senior and palliative comfort care
- Microchipping, client education and home-care coaching
With the pet’s vet
- Medicines, fluids, injections and sample collection, delegated by the vet who has seen the animal
- Restricted veterinary medicines: only a vet can authorise them, and only for an animal under that vet’s care
- Never on your own account: diagnosis, prescribing, restricted surgical procedures
Significant surgical procedures are reserved for vets under the Animal Welfare Act 1999. Because nothing sets out a nurse’s scope, we describe only what is clearly yours. Agree the boundary with each client’s vet before you take on delegated work.
Step 2 · What you need, in New Zealand
The paperwork, listed. Nothing hidden.
We do not arrange this for you. We tell you exactly what it is, and once you have it Qwoll keeps it current for you.
Your business
- The IRD number you already have, and an NZBN: a sole trader can start trading without forming a company
- GST registration once turnover passes $60,000 in any 12 months in a row
- Provisional tax and ACC CoverPlus levies, both charged on the income you declare
- Business-use cover on the car you drive to visits
Your cover and your standing
- Professional indemnity and public liability in your own name, extending to in-home work. ACC covers personal injury; it does not answer a claim about your work, and the clinic’s policy does not follow you. A broker will size it. Store the certificate in your profile and get a reminder before it expires.
- Your New Zealand Diploma in Veterinary Nursing. The AVPRC register and its annual practising certificate are voluntary, and only nurses on that register may call themselves a Registered Veterinary Nurse.
- The edge of your own competence, written down, and a standing arrangement with each client’s vet for anything delegated
General information, not advice. An accountant and a broker will confirm what fits you.
Step 3 · What it pays
The hourly rate is the floor.
A veterinary nurse in New Zealand most commonly earns $25 to $32 an hour. A home visit sells for more than an hour of that on published price lists, and you keep what you charge.
You set the rate.
Pay figures: Tahatū Career Navigator (Tertiary Education Commission), veterinary nurse — most common $25 to $32 an hour, lower $24, upper $38. Adult minimum wage $23.95 an hour from 1 April 2026 (Employment New Zealand). Prices are examples from published price lists of New Zealand mobile vet nursing services, checked 12 September 2026, not a promise of income.
A visit is 20 to 45 minutes of clinical time. The clinic pays for the hour. Independence pays for the visit.
Step 4 · Hours that fit
A few hours here, a few there.
“Going back to full shifts in clinic felt daunting. Honestly, it felt inaccessible. What I needed was a few hours here and a few there.”
Set your working hours, block time off, and let the calendar sync to your phone. School pick-up is a block on the calendar, not a negotiation.
Step 5 · The tools
Run the book from day one.
Bookings and your own client portal
Requests land in an inbox. Confirmed visits flow into a calendar built for the road. Your clients book and pay through your client portal.
Clinical records made for visits
Structured notes with vitals, photos and a private nurse-only note. Send the visit as a PDF to the owner or the referring vet.
Invoices and payouts, handled
Invoices auto-draft when a visit is done, in New Zealand dollars, with GST once you are registered. Payouts and earnings on one dashboard.
Competence and CPD kept current
Your diploma, insurance, practising certificate and CPD tracked with renewal alerts. Stored once and shown on your profile.
Step 6 · Not alone
Independent does not mean by yourself.
The founding cohort
Nurses have been running real books on Qwoll since July. The first of them are paying for it, and they shape what we build next.
The monthly catch-up
A standing call with the four of us and whoever wants to come. Bring a case, a question or a complaint.
Nurse-founded, Australian-owned
Built by people who have worked the floor. Qwoll is live in five countries, with support that answers.
Straight answers
The questions we get asked first.
- What can I do as an independent nurse in New Zealand?
- Nursing within your competence: nail clips, health and weight checks, senior and palliative comfort care, microchipping, advice. Nothing the law reserves to a vet, so no diagnosis, prescribing or significant surgical procedures. Anything delegated needs the pet’s vet, who has seen the animal.
- Do I have to be registered?
- No. New Zealand does not regulate veterinary nursing, and “veterinary nurse” is not a protected title. The AVPRC register and its practising certificate are voluntary. One rule does bite: only nurses on that register may call themselves a Registered Veterinary Nurse, so do not use the word unless you are on it. Qwoll keeps your register status and certificate on your profile.
- What happens if I am injured and cannot work?
- ACC CoverPlus starts automatically once you tell Inland Revenue you are self-employed, and pays up to 80% of your taxable income from your last completed financial year. The levy is invoiced around September on the income you declared. It covers your injury, not a claim about your work: you still need indemnity.
- What insurance do I need?
- Professional indemnity and public liability in your own name. ACC does not cover a claim about your work, and the clinic’s policy does not follow you. A broker sizes it. Qwoll stores the certificate and reminds you before it expires.
- Do I have to leave my clinic?
- No. Many nurses start with a few visits a week around a clinic roster and grow from there.
- Does Qwoll find me clients?
- Not yet. Today Qwoll is the tools to run the clients you have. Your own clients never carry a Qwoll fee.
- What does it cost?
- 14 days free, then from A$49 a month, billed in Australian dollars. Your invoices to clients are in New Zealand dollars.