The Veterinary Nursing course I am currently doing is 4 years. A veterinary medicine course is 5-6 years like you said. This means Vet nurses only have 1 year less of debt to pay off and I can assure you it is not 'little to no debt'. Vet surgeons also have more resources to practice medicine whereas nurses have to go out on placement and work an unpaid 40 hour week with most unis not covering travel costs which can be £40 a week. They is a lot of ignorance around what vet nurses do and how much research and knowledge they have. Also nurses are quite frankly taken advantage of especially students when it comes to tasks like cleaning and can even be asked to clean windows or receptionist chairs, does that sound fair to you? Vets definitely do carry a lot of responsibility when OPERATING. Its up to the nurses to care for the patients post-op holistically and effectively. And with this a lot of people even within practices think that if a vet has finished operating for the day they should relax and get made teas and coffees whilst reading or responding to clients. Who do you think is expected to make the teas and coffees? No not the vet themselves, not the reception staff, but the nurse who is run off their feet caring for the patients. Don't get me wrong it depends who and of course not all vets are like this but I feel there is a hidden social construct that their is more expected of nurses for less pay and less recognition. They also don't receive a grants like student human nurses as they receive one from the NHS and as Veterinary care is in the private sector, there is no government funding for any students within Veterinary studies. Not to mention the ever increasing registration fees, uniform costs, large number of expensive books, that the unis do not cover because the £9,250 a year isn't enough???? Of course we aren't in this profession for the money, but when you look at the statistics you can't ignore the absolute injustice going on, and the trouble is most people don't know it. They understand the issue with human nursing but as veterinary nursing is in the private sector, its just ignored? And for those vets who think they're better than nurses just because they have a higher social status as more successful and higher pay, you need to take a good hard look at yourselves in the mirror. Of course this is improving in todays society as its much more about equality, but its still not quite there yet. There is still systematic sexism as veterinary nursing is a predominately female profession and historically women get paid less as they 'don't work as hard'.