It is a universally acknowledged fact that 100 years ago, millions of women won the right to vote.
What is not so well known, perhaps, is the same passage of time has passed since men were also granted suffrage.
Prior to the 1918 Representation of the People Act, democracy was restricted to wealthy males. After its introduction, suddenly, and for the first time, a generation of working class British men – some still embroiled in the First World War – were able to have a say on who they wanted to see in power.
Now, I am no politician, nor a member of your esteemed profession, but if I could vote in VN council elections or express my view via the ongoing consultation, I would.
Make a difference
Democracy was restricted to wealthy males until 1918, when a generation of working class men – some of whom served in the First World War – were able to vote. “British soldiers in action” by Champagnepapi22 is licensed under CC BY 4.0
People fought tooth and nail – some even gave their lives – to enable every man and woman to vote. Compared to that, putting a cross on a ballot paper seems ridiculously easy, and surely worth a few minutes of anyone’s time?
As incoming RCVS VN council chairman Racheal Marshall says in the August edition of VN Times, this is your profession and you can play a vital part in shaping it.
Life is about looking forward with hope, not backwards with regret. Your voice can make a difference to your future life and career – and to those people yet to come. Why not make it the best version possible?
That is, after all, what those brave people did for us many years ago. The simplest of human rights seemed like an impossible, unobtainable goal, but they never gave in and, in so doing, altered the course of history.
Positive change can occur, if only we have the courage to take the first step.
The competition is only open to practising RVNs, SVNs and veterinary nursing assistants who subscribe to VN Times, who work in veterinary practices and are residents of the United Kingdom aged 16 years or over. Veterinary surgeons are unable to enter. All entrants will be checked against our Vetfile database and the RCVS register for eligibility.
Employees of pharmaceutical companies and veterinary companies that provide a service to veterinary practices are not eligible to enter. Any such entries will be invalid.
Entries must be received by midnight on Sunday September 16, 2018. Entries will be shortlisted and readers of VN Times will vote to determine the top 12 and one overall winner. The winners will be notified by email or telephone by Monday November 5, 2018.
We will accept a maximum of three photographs per person but please note that when it comes to short-listing only one of those entries will be able to go through to the final choice.
Photographs must be in keeping with the theme “Out and About”, (i.e. animals outside) and must be accompanied by a brief description of the subject with a maximum of 100 words.
Please supply the best quality and largest image you can. Avoid downsampling images for emailing purposes.
High resolution digital entries must be emailed to outandabout@vbd.co.uk – most smartphones and digital cameras will take a reasonable quality photo. If emailing from a smartphone, choose the “Actual Size” option if asked about reducing message size. A minimum file size of around 1.6MB should be sufficient.
Veterinary Business Development Ltd accepts no responsibility for incomplete or delayed entries.
Each entry should include the animal’s name (if known), your name, telephone number, your qualification(s), practice name and practice address.
By entering the competition you are giving Veterinary Business Development Ltd permission to publish the photograph and details in the VN Times 2019 wall calendar and for the free use of the image elsewhere by Veterinary Business Development Ltd.
By entering the competition you are giving Veterinary Business Development Ltd consent to retain your data for six months.
All photographs must be the entrant’s own work. If you are submitting a photograph of your animal taken by someone else, please supply written permission from the owner that they are happy for you to enter it in the competition and for you to receive the prize if you are a winner.
Photos may only contain animals or people if you have the owner’s/person’s prior consent. Written consent will be required from a parent/guardian/carer if any person under the age of 18 or vulnerable adult is photographed.
First prize: £1,000 Amazon.co.uk voucher. Runners-up: 11 people will each receive a £50 Amazon.co.uk voucher. All 12 winning animals will feature in the VN Times 2019 wall calendar, with the first prize-winning entry appearing on the front cover.
There is no cash alternative to the prizes.
Veterinary Business Development Ltd accepts no liability for loss or misplacement of the prizes once in the winner’s possession.
The VN Times 2019 wall calendar will be mailed with the December 2018 issue of VN Times.
It’s very daunting standing in your first consult as a real, qualified vet – even if it is “just a vaccine”, which invariably turns into “actually, this has happened“, or “now you mention it“, and so on.
But why is it we have that constant feeling of being on edge – more so than a few months previously, when we were still students?
A noticeable shift certainly occurs to being an actual vet, rather than someone who always has a supervisor to have the final say, or take the brunt of the backlash of a mistake.
However, is it the accountability or the responsibility worrying us the most?
Pressing concern
Mistakes are inevitable, but rarely catastrophic. IMAGE: pathdoc/Fotolia.
As soon as we swear the oath enabling us to register as veterinary surgeons in the UK on graduation day, we become accountable to the RCVS.
In the past year, I have witnessed more than one speech telling us a) not to be scared of the college, and b) not nearly as many complaints, disciplinaries or registration removals occur as we think.
Exact figures aside, the take-home message has been: if you don’t knowingly do anything wrong or illegal, the likelihood of serious consequences is very low. You can’t get struck off for making a simple mistake.
The veterinary press, however, seems to over-represent those who are struck off or reprimanded; after all, you never hear about how many vets were not struck off this month or doing their jobs as they should.
Perhaps this is where the unease stems from? And why the RCVS seems so keen to tell us these individuals convicted of misconduct are a very small minority of the profession?
Are new grads really scared of the RCVS?
Talking to my colleagues, the general feeling is we understand we won’t get struck off for making a mistake. However, if the fear has anything to do with our regulatory body, it’s more the confidence knock we would have as a consequence of having a complaint against us made to it.
Of course, an element of worry surrounds being banned from practising as a vet, but I don’t think I would rank it top of the “things to be afraid of as a new graduate” list.
Instead, in that list, I think responsibility carries a greater weight. As students, we were always supervised and, ultimately, the fate of an animal’s life never truly rested in our hands. Any decisions we made were either backed up or steered in the right direction by clinicians.
Now, it’s down to us. Yes – other, more experienced colleagues should be in each practice with whom to discuss cases or reaffirm decisions, but when it comes to the consult room, you’re on your own.
Experience is king
Jordan, pictured during her final-year rotations.
What if I miss a heart murmur? What if miss signs of glaucoma, a pyometra or a lump? The list goes on. What if I could have done more investigations earlier? What if I misdiagnose something and prolong pain because I didn’t prescribe the right treatment first time?
These questions going on in our heads, coupled with a niggling feeling we have forgotten something or misread a dose, are the root of the fear. I believe this is what scares us, more so than the RCVS.
The animals – and us inherently wanting to do our best for them – makes us worry. We worry our lack of experience could be at the expense of an animal’s health – or even their life.
The only way to get past this is to gain that experience to have confidence in our decisions and learn from the mistakes we will, undoubtedly, make.
My mum said to me this week: “This is the only time you’re ever going to feel like this,” and she’s right. (But don’t tell her I said that). Even if we start a new job in the future, we will have a lot more experience under our belts, so shouldn’t, in theory, feel as lost or scared as we do now.
Being a new graduate vet is a unique position for a myriad of reasons and we need to embrace it. The fear that comes with this newly found responsibility will ease with time, and we can take our careers in whichever direction we choose.
We’ve barely had a day of news in the past year that didn’t include Brexit. Yet, do any of us really know what the real consequences will be?
Within the veterinary profession, specific factors are undoubtedly going to be influenced by Brexit, even if we don’t know the extent of these yet. They do, however, include a great deal of legislation on welfare and meat hygiene, but also the future of the UK veterinary workforce.
It has been suggested the proposed coalition of Keele University and Harper Adams for yet another UK vet school may help boost numbers of veterinary professionals in the UK post-Brexit, especially when it is suspected we may be facing a shortfall.
I disagree.
Not a new problem
Is training new vets going to be of detriment to the health and well-being of those in the profession already? IMAGE: GianlucaCiroTancredi/Fotolia.
Sure, post-Brexit, it is likely to get worse – for example, the uncertainty surrounding the whole situation is (anecdotally) already seeing some of our EU vets searching for jobs overseas and leaving. This isn’t just “vet news” either – the BBC (despite the ambiguous statistics quoted) also recognised the effects of Brexit on the veterinary profession in an article this week.
But opening new vet schools isn’t the answer. For example, there is increasing awareness in the veterinary profession of the importance of mental health and a resultant expanding of the resources available for those who are struggling.
We also frequently hear buzzwords such as “compassion fatigue” and “burnout”, which we need to do more about.
My point is: we need to look after our current vets. This would prevent them getting tired and fed up, and ultimately leaving the profession – or, at least, leaving a clinical practice role.
Sold the wrong idea?
The Voices from the Future of the Profession report produced by the BVA/RCVS Vet Futures initiative in 2015 stated 50% of recent graduates thought their working lives did not meet their expectations. This disillusionment, set among a feeling of being undervalued, overworked and lacking a good work-life balance (something I’ve written about at length) leads to vets turning to other careers before they have a great deal of experience – this is what should be addressed.
We need to focus on the well-being of the vets we have instead of luring even more school leavers into a profession they have false preconceptions of.
More new graduates will not solve the problem – and this is coming from one. They will simply dilute the profession and struggle because there are less “experienced vets” to mentor them and help them hone their skills and knowledge. Ultimately, a large proportion of these will become stressed and leave within a couple of years – the vicious cycle is thus complete.
Teaching tussles
On a vet school level, irrespective of Brexit, this announcement is too not welcomed. At Glasgow, I have met clinicians that have chopped and changed between vet schools because there aren’t enough experts willing to teach, resulting in a bidding war between the universities.
We now have nine vet schools across the UK and Ireland. The Aberwysth-RVC programme (for which updates on their plans were announced earlier this week) and the Keele-Harper Adams course are only going to add fuel to that fire. Where are we going to suddenly magic up so many more diplomats and EU specialists to teach? Or, for that matter, clinical skills and first opinion teachers?
Couple-of-years-qualified graduates aren’t going to have the same breadth of experience to prepare students for a variety of surgical or clinical scenarios – they are not an adequate substitute.
Reasoning questioned
Is it simply a case of money, as Jordan claims?
The plans for new vet schools is not about saving the profession, nor is it about Brexit. It is down to academic institutions seeking high-achieving school leavers to attract more undergraduates and gain more funding.
It is ludicrous a university can just decide to open a vet school off its own back and threaten the resources of current vet schools, which include teaching staff and the availability of EMS placements, especially since many of the new course models (Nottingham, Surrey and the two proposed courses above) do not have their own teaching hospitals and, instead, use external practices.
It is true the new courses will be monitored and analysed once they have an intake of students to assess whether the graduates will be allowed to practice as veterinary surgeons, but by then, it’s too late.
There needs to be regulation to prevent it getting to that point, for the sake of the profession and the disillusioned school leavers applying en masse to these new courses.
Legality within the veterinary profession can be a bit of a minefield, especially when it comes to things like drug licensing. This leaves many new graduates in fear of doing something against the law without even realising.
However, while some veterinary legal principles are complicated but clear, others are genuinely vague, leaving us unsure on where we would stand in a court of law.
A stab in the dark
It was recently reported that stab victims, scared of the inevitable police involvement if they were to present at A&E, were turning to vets to have their wounds sutured, albeit at a handsome price of about £200. While the morality of doing a procedure such as suturing on people may be questionable, the legality certainly is.
The RCVS clearly states vets are not legally allowed to prescribe pharmaceutical products for people, but they have no specific guidelines on wound treatment.
It could be argued that, ethically, suturing should involve the use of some form of local anaesthetic (either by a local block or a transcutaneous patch) and, therefore, cannot be allowed as this would involve drug administration.
However, that’s not to say a person can’t consent to old fashioned gritting their teeth and bearing temporary pain for the sake of saving a four-hour wait in A&E.
Friend or foe?
For those who could be potentially incriminated if they sought medical help at a hospital, you can sort of understand why they’d ask someone else, like a vet, for stitches. But they aren’t alone…
A number of vets who become injured either on the job, or elsewhere, will seek the help of their colleagues, rather than take the majority of a day off to wait for the NHS to achieve a vastly similar result. After all, vets are pretty damn good at suturing and would arguably do a better job than the junior doctor on an emergency ward.
You could discuss the ethics of whether a vet should help someone who needs medical attention in varying situations and whether they are legally allowed to do so. However, charging for the service is an altogether different matter – stitching up a fellow vet, or even a family member, wouldn’t raise the question of fees, but a stranger who walks in off the street?
Cash in hand
A BBC article from 3 March (Stab victims ‘paying vets to stitch up their wounds’) reported the “going rate” to be around £200 – does this not infer the image of an underground medical procedure market, whereby vets can earn a bit of extra cash to extend their services to animals of the two-legged kind?
You have to admit, when you consider the rough cost of a bitch spay at around £150 (weight and complication-dependent), that figure has quite an impressive profit margin. Once a vet charges for the privilege, it becomes a business venture, not just an act of goodwill.
Stab victims are reportedly turning to vets to have their wounds sutured, in an attempt to avoid police involvement. IMAGE: vzmaze / fotolia.
And yet the NHS is screaming for help in A&E departments. With average waiting times at an extreme high, it’s begging prospective patients to consider whether their ailments are worthy of the emergency room or whether they could be seen elsewhere – the GP, minor injuries, pharmacy… and now the vet?
By applying skills used on animals every day, would vets not be easing some of the burden on our struggling NHS?
Risky business
But what if something went wrong? An infection of a wound, of which the bearer couldn’t explain who sutured it, should surely raise some eyebrows – and, after all, with vets being legally unable to prescribe drugs to people, the injured party could not return to the surgeon responsible and ask for antibiotics.
This is where the legal grey area becomes pertinent. Where would a vet stand if sued for wound breakdown? Members of the Veterinary Defence Society are supported for claims against their actions involving animals… but humans?
There are a lot of unanswered questions that, for me, make conducting procedures such as suturing on members of the public too risky.
Final decision?
It may be different if it were a colleague or close family member who understands the trust he or she is putting in you to do a “simple” procedure works both ways. However, even then, it’s not without elements of risk.
On a wider scale, should we, as a profession, be seen to advocate such practice? Or should our representing bodies be defining the limits of our medical interventions and reprimanding those who see the injured public as a business opportunity?
But then, would we live in even more fear of being prosecuted just for helping a fellow vet who knows full well what he or she is agreeing to?
Fertility work makes up a large proportion of cattle veterinary work in the UK and, after spending a month on the farm rotation at university, I can appreciate the importance of getting it right – and how hard it can be.
Experienced large animal vets make it look easy – they scan the uterus and ovaries, and decide what drug to give to aid getting the cow in calf, all in a minute or two.
In the meantime, I’m still fumbling about trying to palpate what, I think, may be the uterus or ovaries while the cow squeezes and gradually cuts off the circulation in my arm until I can barely feel my fingers.
Meanwhile, the vet has zipped through several cows already.
When things go wrong
What happens if you misdiagnose a pregnant cow as negative and administer prostaglandin, or give a cow steroids without realising she’s in calf?
On one fertility visit this week, we discussed when things go wrong. For example, what if:
you misdiagnose a pregnant cow as negative and administer prostaglandin (PGF2α)?
a vet gives a cow steroids for any number of reasons without realising she’s in calf?
The outcomes of both of these scenarios are almost inevitably abortion, which can have a number of repercussions on the farm – and, potentially, the vet.
Negligence or misconduct?
Many new graduates are terrified of being called up for “fitness to practice” for making a mistake such as those aforementioned. However, during a Veterinary Defence Society (VDS) workshop at the SPVS Lancaster weekend earlier this year, it was emphasised a difference exists between negligence and misconduct in the eyes of the RCVS.
What I took away from this session was, in simple terms, negligence involves making a mistake – such as missing a diagnosis, giving the wrong treatment accidentally, eliciting side effects from something due to missing something in the case history – whereas misconduct is actively doing something you know you shouldn’t – such as trying to cover up a mistake, lying or misleading a client.
Mistakenly giving PGF2α to a pregnant cow would be classed as negligence and, on the whole, the VDS would have your back; the farmer may receive some compensation for his losses, but the incident wouldn’t tarnish your career. In the same situation, misconduct would be denying you had administered any treatment.
In short, you won’t get struck off for easily made, one-off mistakes, but you may if you lie about them.
In the news
Our conversation about accidentally aborting cows led us to discuss the case of Honey Rose, the optometrist convicted of gross negligence manslaughter. News reports vary, but, from what I can gather, she failed to diagnose papilloedema (swollen optic discs) in an eight-year-old boy, which would have been an indication of the hydrocephalus he died of five months later.
It is reported she claimed to have been unable to examine his eyes properly because he had photophobia – a claim considered false by the judge. However, she had also failed to look at retinal photos taken by a colleague, on which the papilloedema was evident.
Going by the RCVS’ rules, missing the diagnosis or not looking at the retinal photos would be negligent. However, denying she’d been able to carry out a thorough examination, despite written records suggesting otherwise, would be misconduct.
Rose was found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter and was handed a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, and a 24-month supervision order, and was ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work.
In your defence
As vets, we have the VDS to help us in these situations – and, while it would be truly awful to make a mistake resulting in an animal’s death, we would not be at risk of imprisonment.
Doctors and dentists also have defence societies that will fight their corner, but optometrists? To my knowledge, an equivalent does not exist – and this was the first case of an optometrist convicted of manslaughter in the UK, which added to the complexity of the legal battle.
The death of a little boy is devastating, but, as medical professionals know, death is a risk with many procedures, no matter how small the risk may be. It’s frightening to think jail could be a consequence for those in the medical profession.
So, while I gradually lost the sensation in my right arm as I tried to reach an ovary of the 10th cow in a row, I mulled this over and realised I was extremely thankful for the safety net the VDS provides and would not take working with animals for granted.
After all, if I’d decided to be a doctor instead, I could be rummaging around in another human’s back end rather than a cow’s!
For further details of the Veterinary Defence Society and its services, visit www.thevds.co.uk
Recently, I have been engaged in a battle with my internet provider and – ignoring the fact I’ve been without the world wide web for a month – no one seems capable of doing anything about it.
If avoiding angry customers is the aim, communication is key, says Jordan.
Despite these grievances, it’s actually a) the communication factor and b) lack of desire to please the customer annoying me most.
Over the years I’ve worked in retail, and I have been a waitress, during which I was expected to bend over backwards for the customer for fear of garnering a complaint.
I even remember training sessions where we were shown graphs showing the number of complaints received versus words of praise, and how likely the customer would be to spread the word regarding bad service compared to good.
The gist of it all was to not anger anyone because bad news travels fast… and this is just as applicable in the veterinary profession.
The customer is always…
Contrary to the popular saying, the client is most definitely not always right, and as the point of a veterinary consultation is for us to impart our professional knowledge gained through – long and thorough – training, we are obliged to possess pretty fantastic communication skills.
Yes, having to tell a client their beloved pet died unexpectedly during routine surgery is a bit different to being put on hold for the umpteenth time because the advisor on the phone hasn’t read the account record properly, but the underlying principle is the same – so good communication is essential.
As vets, continuity isn’t always possible, but if you have an unknown client on the list you would be expected to brush up on the history and have a vague idea of why they’ve made an appointment. Anything less would be unprofessional – so why do other businesses think this is acceptable?
Strength in numbers
Is there anybody listening?
For these international corporations, the single customer is just a drop in the ocean – losing a few hundred quid a year when I cancel my contract is just pennies to them, and no matter how much of a fuss I kick up, realistically, it won’t touch their reputation.
For vets, however, it’s different – any complaint not only reflects badly on the individual involved, but on the practice and also the profession.
We cannot afford to lose the trust of our clients over silly things like calling a male dog “she” or not spending a few minutes reading through the patient’s notes before they walk into the consult room.
Poor communication is one of the most frequent reasons a complaint is made to the RCVS, and I suspect this is why the vet schools now have a much bigger focus on communication – to help us hit the ground running and (hopefully) avoid such negativity.
Practise makes perfect
Communication skills come with experience, and while they aren’t classically thought of as something that can be taught, we can be armed with certain tools to help us communicate more effectively.
The practical communication skills sessions we’ve had over the years involving actors have been an ideal way of letting us practise dealing with “difficult” clients before being in that situation for real. And now, in our final year, we’ve transitioned into taking our own consults, either with the clinician keeping an eye on us or confirming our findings afterwards and asking the client any questions we may have forgotten.
Being a vet encompasses so much more than clinical knowledge and surgical skills, and my recent phone arguments with various technical support advisors have made me appreciate just how highly trained we are in terms of communication – and that’s something we should aim to maintain to continue to be respected as professionals.
Wendy began her VN career in 1991 as a trainee at a small animal practice in Surrey. On qualifying, she moved to Yorkshire and started work in mixed practice, and after becoming head nurse, left to relocate to Germany with her forces husband.
Back in the UK in 2000, Wendy moved to Devon and spent two years at a two-branch, small animal practice as a nurse, VN assessor and eventually, practice manager.
Moving to the north-west in 2002, she worked as a nurse in a small animal practice before becoming the Veterinary Nursing Approved Centre coordinator at Myerscough College. After four years there, she returned to practice part-time, where she started working for Anthony Chadwick at his Skin Vet practice. During this time, Anthony launched The Webinar Vet, and, once established, sold up. Wendy stayed behind as operations manager and is often known as “Webinar Wendy”.
In her role, Wendy organises CPD for vets, nurses and SQPs. She also deals with dermatology referral clients and spends at least one day a month working in practice.
Why is she standing?
Wendy says she is “extremely proud” to be a veterinary nurse and wants to take an “active part” in ensuring the profession moves forward.
“I feel I have gained valuable experience throughout my different career roles, which will benefit the role requirements of an elected member and our cause as a whole,” she said. “I have a very good understanding of the varying levels of our profession and I am in a privileged position of having contact with members daily, ranging from students to the most experienced VNs.”
On education, Wendy says she feels “passionately”, and has a “wide exposure”, thanks to her time at Myerscough and The Webinar Vet.
“I believe I will also add value… establishing and reviewing schemes for post-qualification and CPD for VNs. This also includes recommending to the council amendments to the rules relating to the registration, conduct and discipline of veterinary nurses, if required. I am widely accessible to nurses due to my current role, so I can offer effective communication between VNs and the council. On future challenges and issues? You tell me. I aim to be an effective voice for the nurse in practice – an effective voice for you.”
Hustings highlights
Wendy tackled lack of VN engagement in the RCVS in her passionate video, citing poor voting turnout figures and calling the electorate to action. “I want to help increase engagement, hopefully by… carrying on communicating with nurses via social media and within my role at The Webinar Vet,” she said. “Voting in an election is important.
Can you get other VNs to vote? Do you know nurses who don’t vote? If everyone who votes gets one more VN voting, we can increase that [2015 turnout] 11 per cent to 20 per cent.
“It would be great if you voted for me to represent you on VN council, but more importantly though – please, please vote.”
Helen has had a varied career. Qualifying in 1996, she started in general nursing before concentrating on consulting. In 2004, she left practice to work for Petplan, but quickly realised she missed practice life.
Returning in 2007, Helen opened her own practice, employing the vet, finding the premises and having them fitted out. In 2013, she sold it, recognising its growth required more than a sole VN.
Helen now works for Onswitch as one of the trainers on its Bertha Bus, and is a project manager at Mojo undertaking various veterinary projects including working alongside International Cat Care.
Why is she standing?
Helen says she will “fight for VNs to have their voice heard” if she is elected.
“I am proud to call myself an RVN and be part of a dedicated, caring and hardworking profession,” she said. “I am passionate about getting our profession heard.”
This passion is evident when you see how Helen has been promoting the VN title petition. She has written to her MP, generated an article in her local newspaper and even contacted the Chris Evans breakfast show on BBC Radio 2 on the eve of BVNA Congress for the past two years – “VNs would have heard their profession mentioned in the ‘representing the nation’ section,” she said.
Helen believes her daily contact with vet professionals of all kinds is a strength. “Working as a trainer and PR, I meet many VNs, student VNs, vets and receptionists, which keeps me in touch with the issues in our profession,” she said.
Attempting to protect the title is “only the beginning of a great VN future”, says Helen, which should open up more opportunities for VNs and lead to the profession “gaining the recognition we deserve”.
Hustings highlights
Helen thinks Defra’s promise to review Schedule 3, and the possibility of having a tiered system where VNs undertake post-registration qualifications, could be a good thing for career engagement.
“As we qualify, our skills develop from our day one skills and our interests grow, with some VNs preferring more clinical roles in practice and surgery, and others preferring more client contact. Until you’ve experienced that, you don’t know where you want your career to take you,” she said. “By including post-registration qualifications, maybe this would help career development, VNs feeling they had a career and that it was worth staying in the veterinary profession.
“I know this is a main area for why people leave the profession, so I think it is good we work on career development,” she said.
Matthew’s VN career kicked off in 1989 at The Park Veterinary Centre in Watford, a busy mixed and exotics 13-vet practice. It was here he completed his training and here in 1994 where he became senior theatre nurse.
Leaving in 2003, Matthew headed to the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) to pursue his interest in zoo and wildlife nursing, where he remains.
Matthew is a regular lecturer to veterinary nursing and veterinary surgeon undergraduates at the RVC, and lectures on herpetology throughout Europe and America.
Why is he standing?
Matthew says he has “dedicated his life” to being a VN for 25 years, and has observed “many changes” that have taken place during this time.
“Our role and the general understanding of it has improved significantly within my time in the profession and it continues to,” he said. “I am passionate about veterinary nursing and consider myself very lucky to work at ZSL. With my experience and background, I am in a fortunate position to help educate and support the next generation of VNs.”
Matthew said it would be a “great honour” to be elected to council, as will be having the opportunity to represent UK VNs and “contribute to the advancement of our profession”.
“I would relish the opportunity to promote the vital role of the RVN,” he said.
Hustings highlights
In Matthew’s video, he said he feels there needs to be a “greater understanding” of the roles of a modern VN and, while these roles are “misunderstood” by the public, VNs are “too keen to blame this on everybody else”.
“I think a lot of it is our own fault,” he said. “We need to raise our profile and demonstrate professionalism wherever possible, and during my time on council I would really like to push forward on that.”
As a male VN, he would also like to work on diversity within the profession. “I’ve been a VN for more than 25 years now,” he said. “I’ve always really enjoyed it, and haven’t felt at any point that being male has held me back in any way, but again I think this comes down to public perception of what VNs are.”
The RCVS clearly states vets are not legally allowed to prescribe pharmaceutical products for people, but they have no specific guidelines on wound treatment.
