What A Difference a Year Makes

November 12, 2024

Now this is a story all about how, this vet nurse’s life flipped upside down and I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there, I’ll tell you how I stopped thinking my life was unfair. (Thanks, Will Smith for the intro, I’ll take it from here!)

The London Vet Show (LVS) is a transformative experience for me this year. Take a seat and let me regale you with a tale of the ‘stuck’ veterinary nurse, AKA Charlie Fisher!

It was back in the ‘dark ages’ of the noughties. MySpace was trending, and Blackberry was a make of phone rather than an overpriced fruit. Instagram didn’t exist, nor did TikTok and internet access on your phone was largely overpriced and inaccessible. The laptop/desktop was utilised for any internet facilities. Oh, and the millennial large buckle belt was circulating!

I went to university to study English literature. Veterinary nursing wasn’t even on my radar. At some point, during my studies, the professors encouraged us to think about the rest of our careers. A career that wasn’t contained within the education system. Well, that was just terrifying, thank you very much. Nursing flicked up on the periphery of my vision. But I didn’t like people that much… I loved animals. I’d been around animals all my life. I’d even contemplated being a vet. That felt a bit unreachable at the time, so, I’d pushed that career trajectory to one side. Veterinary Nursing, however, now this could be the making of me.

Spoiler alert, it was indeed one of the most fulfilling careers for me. After five years, (two spent steadfastly breaking my way into the veterinary industry) I was a brand new, shiny and full of enthusiasm, qualified, registered veterinary nurse. This was it. Everything had culminated in this amazing career where no two days were the same, no patient presented the exact same way and, despite my back and knees’ protestations, it was the career I would gladly hang my proverbial hat on.

Somewhere, between being a newly minted nurse and having my two children, I started to become a bit jaded. The industry was forever hampered by both members of the public and news stories declaring I was ‘only in it for the money’ (which, if you looked at my bank balance, most certainly was not true). The patients, well, my love for those never wavered, but I stopped seeing them. Really seeing them. I was stuck. What else could I possibly do when I’d dedicated the last fourteen-plus years of my life to this? I wasn’t qualified for anything else.

This would be the moment in the TV show or film that would freeze the picture and stamp a big old ‘wrong’ over it. Because I had so much to offer, I just couldn’t see it. A friend encouraged me (read, kicked my butt) to create a LinkedIn profile and see what others were achieving beyond the restrictive walls of my veterinary practice. I was shocked, people were doing so much. They were transferring their amazing talent and skill into other careers. People were out there, writing; writing scientific journals, blogging, podcasting, website designing, marketing, and did I mention writing?

I was advised to book a 30-minute consultation with the wonderful team at Vets, Stay, Go or Diversify to have a chat about helping me work out what I could possibly bring to the table. Within 30 minutes, Adrian Nelson-Pratt had identified areas of interest for me and made introductions to the relevant juggernauts within the industry. This couldn’t really go any further, could it? I was but a small fish in a very large pond, however I made a few connections which started to gain some traction. Enter my aforementioned friend, with an option to attend LVS. I jumped at it. I’d not been before but heard it would be a good place to put some faces to these tentative introductions. So, enter LVS I did. I was alone, I was absolutely terrified. I walked through the large, bannered entrance to the London Excel Centre wide eyed and feeling like a complete imposter. I meandered around the exhibition and took in all of these wonderful people who worked both in practice and externally.

I went to a workshop where I put faces to several people I had briefly harassed (for there was really no other adjective for the level of scrutiny I had placed on them!) and the one and only Lacey Pitcher took me for a coffee and asked me what I wanted to write about. My heart stopped. My mind exploded. I died. Right there, in the middle of London. I could write? I could write something veterinary-related.

That was, as they say, all she wrote. From that moment onwards, my life changed. Not only did someone encourage me to write, commissioned me to write an article for the following year, but someone believed I had the skills to do it. Since last year at LVS, I have had three published articles in the VN Times, started working within the marketing and content creating sector, which, another spoiler, I loved! I have moved out of clinical practice and into a wonderful marketing job that helps promote veterinary practices and their staff through the most up to date digital marketing techniques. I get to liaise with practice owners, practice managers, nurses, vets, marketing folk, digital creatives, content makers and website developers. I get to write at the same time as utilising my veterinary nursing diploma and this year I am attending LVS as a veterinary professional involved with running an exhibition stand.

I’m not saying that I’m done, I’m forever exploring my capabilities. I’m now just in an incredibly supportive environment to be able to do that. It feels like I have London Vet Show to thank for the start of it. All these wonderful people come together and lift each other up. Inspiring each other.

What more could anyone want? Well, I want to hear from you. This isn’t just my tale anymore. It’s yours too. Come see me at LVS at the VetsDigital stand K69 and we can chat, see if there’s something you can get involved with in practice, chew the fat, plan how to get your practice out there into the (now very phone-accessible) internet, or just say hi.

Whatever you’re afraid of, go for it.

Give it a shot.

You might be somewhere else this time next year, and it will be your story I’ll be listening to.

Mic drop.

 

Categorised in: , , ,