Inspiring Insights on Reaching Your Full Potential from Internal Medicine Nurse, Laura Jones

#037 - Have you ever wondered just how far your veterinary nursing qualification(s) can take you? Or what opportunities can eventuate, once you have discovered your niche? Laura Jones, seasoned RVN joins us, to share her story, her why, and how she has created the most fulfilling and rewarding career. From her early aspirations of becoming a vet, Laura found her true calling in internal medicine nursing, and she’s been making significant contributions to our profession for over a decade.

Laura's story is both inspiring and relatable. From the start of her journey, she has always made decisions that aligned with her goals, and goodness - has that worked out well for her! Over the years, Laura has been highly dedicated to furthering her expertise, gaining numerous additional qualifications which have opened a number of doors and provided her with a wealth of opportunity, the power of staying true to your why.

In a profession that’s constantly evolving, Laura shares her thoughts on the importance of continuing professional development, not only for veterinary nurses but all veterinary professionals; and her personal experiences shed light on the satisfaction and growth that comes with upskilling. We also touch on the influential role of social media, the benefits of her educational platform and the Medical Nursing Academy, and crucial topics like mentorship and self-care. So, buckle up for an enlightening conversation that underscores the joy and satisfaction a veterinary nursing career can bring.

Find out more about Laura's educational platform, Veterinary Internal Medicine Nursing

Get in touch with Laura Jones on Instagram 

Get in touch with us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook and visit our website - platinumcpd.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Platinum, CPD and the Positivity podcast acknowledges the traditional owners of the land where we work, live and record the Nungar people of the Wajak region and pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and elders, past and present.

Speaker 2: 0:19

The first thing that I would say is, although it can seem daunting, please don't ever feel afraid to speak up for the things that you want to be able to do, even if you don't feel comfortable. Perhaps having that conversation with your vet team, for example, speak to your senior nurse or your head nurse, depending on kind of the layout of your practice. We should all have development plans as part of our careers and we should be regularly touching base with our supervisors to discuss those and to kind of make a plan for our own personal development, even after qualifying.

Speaker 1: 0:55

Welcome to the Positivity podcast. I'm your host, emma McConnell, equine Vet company director, wife, mum to Daisy, chihuahua enthusiast and lover of miniature ponies. We are on a mission to bring happiness back into veterinary medicine by shining the brightest of spotlights on all the positive aspects of the veterinary industry. Through the sharing of stories, we will showcase the magic and joy that comes with being a veterinary professional, encouraging you to remain motivated about this special vocation and helping you become as mentally wealthy as possible, both at work and in life. Every one of us has a unique story that is worth sharing, and this is the perfect platform to share the extraordinary tales of our colleagues and community. So settle in and rediscover the joy of veterinary medicine and get ready to feel inspired and energized about your chosen career. This is the Positivity podcast. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Positivity podcast. I'm your host, dr Emma McConnell, and today I am joined by one very special veterinary nurse and fellow internal medicine enthusiast. Laura Jones has been a registered veterinary nurse for more than a decade and currently works as the senior medicine nurse at the esteemed Ralph Referral Center in the UK. Not only is she a dedicated clinical nurse, she has also developed the Medical Nursing Academy, an incredible educational platform and community space for veterinary nurses who are keen to develop their knowledge and skills. Laura is just one of those people who oozes charisma yet is so humble and kind, and she is truly one of our profession's brightest stars. This episode is an absolute gem and I know you are going to love it.

Speaker 1: 2:49

Before we dive in, though, I do have a bit of a favor. As you know, we are on a mission to spread positivity far and wide throughout our profession, so if you are a fan of the podcast, could I please ask you to share with at least three of your friends or colleagues? The more ears we can get into, the more we can remind our peers of the joy of our veterinary profession. Okay, I'm not going to make you wait any longer. Let's get into the episode.

Speaker 1: 3:17

Well, hello, laura, and welcome to the Positivity Podcast. Hi, thank you so much for having me. Not a problem, you are so welcome and I am so thrilled to be talking to you today because, truth be told, I have been I'm not going to say stalking you, but I have been following you on social media for quite a long time, and I just absolutely love everything that you put out into the world. I think you are such an inspiration, not only to our veterinary nurses but to all veterinary professionals. So I'm just so excited to talk to you today, and I absolutely cannot wait to hear all about your journey.

Speaker 2: 3:58

Oh, amazing. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1: 4:00

No problem. So I guess, just to kick off, Laura, do you just want to share with us your journey in veterinary medicine so far? So you know, maybe even going back as far as to why you became a vet nurse in the first place, sort of you know what, the why was behind that decision, and then all of the you know things that you've done up until now.

Speaker 2: 4:22

Sure, so, gosh, I originally wanted to be a vet, to be honest.

Speaker 2: 4:26

Yes okay, and I mean which I think probably most nurses say. So that was the original plan. Like I had gone to sixth form college, I'd started doing my A levels, the vet school application was going in and then I got granular fever and I ended up taking a year off of my A levels and during that year, as I started to feel better and started kind of picking up study again, obviously that had put the vet school application on hold and in that time I had done more work experience. I'd spent time with the nurses and realized it was really more the nurses that I wanted, the nursing that I wanted to do, and actually it wasn't that I'd always wanted to be a vet. It was more that I didn't really understand what vets did or in terms of what nurses did, if that makes sense and it was actually more of the kind of the day to day care, as well as the diagnostics and everything else that I was more passionate about.

Speaker 2: 5:25

So I ended up quitting my A levels, much to the dismay of my lecturers and family, yes, and I immediately got a job as a student nurse. I was very lucky to find one very quickly because I was working in a supermarket just to tide me over, and one of the vet nurses who worked at the practice up the road used to come in every day at lunchtime so she told me there was a student nurse job going. I applied for it and was lucky enough to get it. So that was when I was 17,. Started my apprenticeship and then from there qualified a few years later, have kind of dipped around a bit. I've done some vets in surgical referral which very quickly turned me into a medicine nurse.

Speaker 1: 6:09

I try. As a medic myself, I totally get that.

Speaker 2: 6:13

Yeah, yeah, orthopedics will do that to you and did some out of hours stuff, a little ditty, into management of a nursing team for a few years and then found a job as a deputy head medicine nurse in a new referral centre that was opening. That was 2015 and I've been a medicine nurse ever since.

Speaker 1: 6:33

Wow, okay. And so what is it about medicine that you love so much? Because, like I said, I'm also a medic, so I do definitely get it. But yeah, what is it about medicine that you really love?

Speaker 2: 6:44

So I think my favourite thing about it is that no two patients are ever the same. So we'll see obviously the same conditions commonly. But you know you can have in certain condition here patient with IBD, for example, that also has like four other concurrent diseases, and the way that you manage that patient becomes so much different to like your, just your bog standard IBD, because they have all of these concurrent you know, whatever it is arthritis and a concurrent endocrinopathy, for example. So the patients obviously every patient is an individual. But if you compare that to something like a patient going in for a TPLO where they have a very, very set way that condition is managed, they're so different and I think it really encourages us to treat our patients as individuals.

Speaker 1: 7:32

Absolutely. I love that, and so obviously you are in a referral centre now.

Speaker 2: 7:39

Yes.

Speaker 1: 7:40

When you sort of went through your nursing training, were you sort of aware of the different types of practices that you could end up in Like, did you sort of expect to end up where you've ended up now when you were doing your training?

Speaker 2: 7:54

No, absolutely not. I had no idea really as to what was out there when I trained. I trained in a. It's a group of practices. It was a small group. There were six practices. Most of them were small branches like two vet, two nurse, that kind of thing, like ops in the morning, consults in the afternoon, quite routine. And there was one kind of larger hospital where the out of hours happened. I trained in one of the smaller branches and I thought, oh, maybe I'll end up being a head nurse of that branch one day, or maybe I'll go and work at the larger hospital and then eventually I'll leave clinical work and go and be a rep.

Speaker 1: 8:30

I didn't really understand what more was out there and I guess now and we'll obviously go into sort of, I guess, your role and what you're up to now but you do so much, and I guess it's just it's funny, isn't it, how we're not really necessarily aware of what's out there until you sort of start exploring different things, like, I often think, so many people that I talk to, and I think probably for all of us as veterinary professionals, the expectations that we have upon graduation, whether that's as a veterinary nurse or a vet, never kind of matches what we end up doing. And that's just the one thing I love so much about our profession.

Speaker 2: 9:12

Yeah, absolutely. I think there are so many opportunities for diversification in so many different ways, like, diversification doesn't always mean leaving clinical work, for example, and going to do something else, but that's just so much. So many more directions we can take our careers in than we realize.

Speaker 1: 9:29

Yes, absolutely. I just wanted to go back and just ask sort of what your experience was. Like you said, you know you'd obviously wanted to be a vet and then you realized that it's the things that you really wanted to do, or what you were passionate about is the more sort of nursing care, and obviously there's so much that you can do with that. You then quit your A levels and I know for a lot of us sometimes making such a big decision like that is really challenging because we are so worried. You know about what our family might say, or you know our partner or colleagues, so what was that sort of experience like for you?

Speaker 2: 10:11

Challenging in a way. So at the time I wasn't actually living with my parents, I was living with my boyfriend at the time and his family. So in that respect I was kind of a little bit removed from their reaction. Yes, yes, okay. So I kind of towed the line for a little while of, oh, I might still apply, but I might not, I'm not really sure and then just made the decision no, I've been sick for too long, I've decided I don't want to do this, I'm quitting college. That's how it is. And I sort of didn't really pay too much attention to what people were saying, I think because I was a stubborn 17 year old as well who was being told oh you're ruining your life.

Speaker 2: 10:46

I'm not ruining my life. It's fine, it'll be fine and it has worked out, thankfully. But there were definitely times where I was like am I going to regret not getting A levels? Like is it going to stop me from going to university in the future or anything like that. And it actually hasn't. I went to uni and did a top up degree in nursing after qualifying and it didn't even make any difference to my application that I didn't have A levels.

Speaker 1: 11:09

Oh, how good is that, and I think that's the other really wonderful thing is that there are so many different paths right To get to a certain destination. You don't always have to go from A to B, and I think that's something that's really important that we do. I guess let our students know and our nursing students is that there are so many ways to get to where you want to go.

Speaker 2: 11:37

Yeah, absolutely. I think it's so easy when you're training to expect that only to be that kind of one path which is the one that everyone else takes, or the one that's kind of set out for you. And I remember worrying so much when I was training, for example, that there were things I was struggling with. I ended up prolonging my nurse training by six months because I had some issues at the practice I was training at and I had to transfer to a different branch oh wow. So I remember thinking that that was like game over for my whole career back then and it was going to massively impact my career because I'd qualified later and, like now, it's made no difference. So there's always a way around it, always.

Speaker 1: 12:15

Yes, absolutely, and I think that's oh, I'm glad you sort of mentioned that, because that's always something that I think a lot about as well. And I just go back to when I was a resident, and during my residency I loved it. It was such an amazing time. But because I was living away from home, I was in South Africa and my boyfriend at the time was in Australia. He's now my husband and I just kind of remember almost wishing that time away, because you just feel that three years is such a long time, like everything just seems to be taking so long. And then that time kind of comes and you just think, oh my gosh, in the grand scheme of things, in the scheme of your whole career, three years is literally nothing, right, it's a drop in the ocean.

Speaker 2: 13:04

Yeah, absolutely, I definitely remember it being the same, where you were just kind of it'll all be fine when I'm qualified, it'll all be fine when I've moved into this position, it will all be fine when I finish this certificate. And actually you get to that point and you're like, oh, actually it makes no difference.

Speaker 1: 13:20

Like everything's all fine and it always has been. It's all okay and yeah like.

Speaker 2: 13:24

The time that you spend working on those things in comparative to the lifespan of your career is such a small amount of time.

Speaker 1: 13:32

Yeah, it really is. So I guess my advice would be sit back and enjoy the ride and really don't wish the time away. Yeah, absolutely so, laura. You've obviously done some kind of further training, haven't you, and I just wanna do you wanna maybe share with us sort of some of those things that you have done as far as the medicine nursing goes, and also kind of what you're up to now, because you do have I'm not gonna call it a side hustle, but you do have something that is of immense value to our profession that I'd love for you to share.

Speaker 2: 14:07

Sure. So after I qualified, spent quite a lot of time collecting additional qualifications, all of which I think have definitely helped me nurse my patients better, but some of them I definitely did for the wrong reason. So, like there were definitely some that I did because of imposter syndrome, predominantly Right okay, such as my top up degree, for example. However, I have done my advanced nursing diploma. I completed a top up degree mostly because I didn't go to university, because I'd quit my A-levels. I wanted to prove that I could still go and get a degree, so I did.

Speaker 2: 14:42

The most significant thing that I've done, and I think probably the thing I'm proudest of, was getting my Benry technician specialist certification in small animal medicine, which I did in 2019, was when I passed my exam, and that's led on to a lot of other opportunities that I never expected to be a thing in my career, to be honest. So I started off with the back of that, getting invitations to present lectures and write articles for various journals, and that really took me down this path of teaching that I had never envisaged that I would do. Like I was always the person that went to like the SABA Congress and watched those nurses giving talks and was like that is never gonna be me, like I could never do that?

Speaker 1: 15:28

Not really.

Speaker 2: 15:29

Yeah, because I was just like how can anyone get on a stage and do that Like? And I didn't think that I would ever have something that I would either know enough about or be passionate enough about to go and share. But somehow I have taken this passion for medical nursing and turned it into teaching. So I now teach, like nationally and internationally, face-to-face at Congresses and things, but I also run a lot of online CPD and have recently developed a platform for veterinary nurses and technicians who want to learn more about medical nursing.

Speaker 1: 16:06

Oh, that is absolutely amazing. And again, I'm guessing you're probably just looking at all of those things that you've achieved and just thought, like this is the beautiful thing about veterinary medicine, right?

Speaker 2: 16:20

Yeah, absolutely, because there is no way that I ever thought that my career would end up going in this direction. I always thought that I would be like a and I still absolutely adore clinical work like, do not get me wrong, I really do. But I thought that I was gonna be one of those nurses that was like 65 years old and still trying, despite their probably failing physical health, to do the clinical job I had to do, yes, but, and I thought that that was the only way that I would get satisfaction out of my career. But now I find the teaching side of things just as empowering and just as satisfying as the clinical job. It's just different.

Speaker 1: 16:55

Yes, and what is it about the teaching that really kind of sparks joy in you?

Speaker 2: 17:03

I think it's the connection with peers, so like-minded nurses, nurses with similar interests, and just like bouncing off of each other's energy, like I used to be terrified going and talking to well even 10 people, let alone a room with a couple of hundred in, but now it's fun, like we can just bounce ideas off of each other. We all have the same common goal at the end of the day, which is to deliver better patient care and to develop our own skills and feel more empowered as nurses. So the fact that I'm up on the stage doing the talking doesn't change the fact that I have the same goal as everyone listening. So we just bounce ideas off of each other and come together to try and improve patient care.

Speaker 1: 17:46

Oh, I absolutely love that. So you obviously feel very passionately about continuing professional development. I also share that passion. I think continuing education is so vital for career satisfaction. I think it really contributes to sustainability within our profession and, of course, we have a sort of moral obligation to our patients and our clients to be kept up to date. I was just wondering why do you think that CPD is so important and not just important, but important for veterinary nurses particularly?

Speaker 2: 18:27

So I definitely agree with all of your points. I think we, of course, as regulated and registered professionals, have a responsibility to keep up to date with our skills, especially in the face of an ever-changing profession and such a high focus on evidence-based medicine and evidence-based nursing. So we definitely have that obligation to keep our knowledge and our skills current. I also think that it brings a massive amount of job satisfaction and it's really the key to developing our own skills. So there are things that I'd have never learned to do, for example, if I hadn't undertaken CPD. That exposed me to them.

Speaker 2: 19:07

So Schedule 3, which, for those of you outside of the UK, is the legislation that governs what nurses can and cannot do legally so Schedule 3 procedures are kind of seen as the fun bits of day-to-day clinical work, because it's like the extra things that are a little bit vetsy but the nurses get to do them. So Schedule 3 procedures usually just used to be seen as like lump removal, stitch-ups, that sort of thing. But I had the other week teaching me how to do joint taps and getting me to help do a bone marrow biopsy and things like with their assistants, and these are things that I never thought we'd be able to do, because until I started learning about them and learning about the cases that benefited from them, they were skills that just weren't even on my radar. So I think it's absolutely key for job satisfaction because by learning more you get to do more, and then you bring those new skills to the rest of your team and to your patients as well.

Speaker 1: 20:04

Yes, 100%. So I guess for us here in Australia things are probably slightly different compared to the UK, and certainly here in Western Australia. So in Australia we're not governed by one sort of governing body. Each state has their own legislation, which makes things a little bit frustrating, to be honest, and unfortunately here in Western Australia we're quite limited in what our nurses and sort of vet students are allowed to do.

Speaker 1: 20:34

Obviously they can do some certain things, but I was just going to ask what sort of advice would you give to vet nurses who are kind of really keen to upskill and really keen to kind of put themselves forward and learn to do more practical things and I guess have that confidence to ask their vets can they assist with certain things or can they be put in charge of the things that they are legally allowed to do? Because I think sometimes it can be a little bit challenging. I think vets can often be a little bit controlling and sort of be a little bit hesitant to release those reins or hand the reins over to someone else. So in your experience, do you have any advice that you could offer nurses that are kind of keen for more responsibility?

Speaker 2: 21:25

Absolutely so the first thing that I would say is, although it can seem daunting, please don't ever feel afraid to speak up for the things that you want to be able to do, even if you don't feel comfortable perhaps having that conversation with your vet team. For example, speak to your senior nurse or your head nurse, depending on kind of the layout of your practice. We should all have development plans as part of our careers and we should be regularly touching base with our supervisors to discuss those and to kind of make a plan for our own personal development, even after qualifying. Like that, development does not stop when you become a registered or a qualified veterinary nurse. So if you don't feel comfortable speaking to your vets about it, take it to someone else in your practice and then maybe put together a bit of an action plan. So if it's a skill that another nurse who's done it before, for example, might be able to teach you and getting you doing more of, then great. That's probably going to feel like a little bit less of an obstacle for you to start doing that. If it is something that you feel that your vets can be delegating to you because it's legally appropriate and it's within your area of competence, then have a chat with them. It doesn't always, you know, development doesn't always mean a new practical skill.

Speaker 2: 22:48

This is something that we've been setting up in our practice by getting the nurses involved more with like medical appointments and doing some revisits and things.

Speaker 2: 22:57

I know there's nothing practically that I need to be able to do to do that other than do a consult, but it's about having the vets be comfortable with that.

Speaker 2: 23:05

So we had a discussion with them about what would they expect of us in these appointments, what's the information that they want to have, what are the most important things for us to focus on? And we kind of put a bit of a plan together for how those appointments were going to run, based on that, so that the vets could be confident that they were able to delegate those tasks to the nurses, knowing that the nurses had it under control and knowing that they were going to get all of the information out of it that they wanted. So maybe speak to your vets and ask firstly, let them know what it is that you want to start doing, ask them if that's something that you can get more involved in, ask them how they would see that working and then kind of make an action plan from there, really. But the main thing I would say is just don't be afraid to speak up, because even if you get a no, you're in no worse situation than if you didn't speak up in the first place.

Speaker 1: 24:00

That is excellent advice. I absolutely love the idea of a development plan. This is something that we do with our sort of interns and residents and, yeah, it's something that I think every veterinary professional should have. I always advise people to do clinical audits as well. I think it's really important that at least once a year, you're kind of taking stock of all of those clinical skills that you can do, and then I because I do this myself like I make a list of all the skills that I'm really happy doing. I make a list of the skills that I perhaps would like a bit more practice, and then I make a list of the skills that I really want to learn or improve, and that kind of just gives you a bit of focus. And then, when those cases come along, if you share that information with your team, then it means that people can say, oh, we've got a CSF tap. She's a bit rusty at the moment. She really wants to kind of upskill. Let's just get Emma involved. She can go ahead and do the CSF tap, for example. Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 1: 25:06

Having a development plan is just so, so important and I know that at the moment and you would know, laura you work in a very busy referral practice, often the barrier, like I feel, like you know, you make these suggestions or recommendations and and often people are like, oh, but I don't have time, you know, and I think that's often such a barrier.

Speaker 1: 25:28

Everyone is so busy at the moment and I think sometimes, you know, maybe vet nurses as well feel like they can't or potentially can't, you know, speak to the vets because the vets are, you know, under a lot of pressure. The nurses are obviously under pressure too, but I wonder if that's kind of a little bit of a barrier at the moment as well. But I think, like you said, just don't be afraid to put yourself forward. Yeah, definitely, yeah, I completely agree. And I guess the other thing is that, just speaking of you know how our practices are busier now than they've ever been before. I think that there is such an opportunity for our vet nurses to really show off their skills and take that opportunity of being so busy by saying, hey, look, I can do this, let me take that off your plate. And I think this is where practices really need to start empowering their vet nurses and utilizing them and their skills.

Speaker 2: 26:31

Yeah, definitely. I think, like you say, we know that post COVID and everything else, we're facing a caseload and a kind of a level of busyness that we've not really seen before, and I think we're probably at the point now or certainly in my opinion, where it's been kind of long enough for the world to have mostly settled down after COVID, and I think this is probably our new normal rather than still a level where we're at the peak and we're waiting for it to die back down again. So that probably means that we're not going to get any less busy any time soon. So, although our vets might be saying, yes, ok, well, I'm too busy to show you that I don't have time to teach you, they're not going to magically get any more time unless they teach you it so that you can start doing it and take it off of their plate, exactly. So at some point something's going to have to give and they are going to have to start kind of empowering nurses not saying that obviously the vets aren't doing that already.

Speaker 1: 27:27

But even more so. I mean, we can always do more, right? Yeah, definitely so, laura. I guess where I first sort of came across you was on social media, and I just have to say that your social media is not only beautiful, but you provide so much value and you're providing so much value for free to veterinary professionals and, to be honest, I don't think it's just veterinary nurses that benefit. I think so much of what you put out there is probably really beneficial for the vets as well. So I have a couple of questions around this. Like I said, I just think what you are doing is so admirable, but I think you just do it so well, and I think by vet nurses especially, seeing you putting yourself out there and sharing all of the things that you do, that is so empowering for our colleagues. But I think the other beautiful thing that you've created is community, and I just love to sort of ask what your view on community is. Why do you think community is so important for us as veterinary professionals?

Speaker 2: 28:43

Oh, I think it's absolutely vital. I really really do, and that was something that I completely underestimated when I started social media. To be honest, to be completely honest with you, I started it because the practice that I was working in at the time no one else there really liked medicine that much. I was the only medicine nurse and I tried to talk to the other nurses about it and they were just like, oh my God, shut up about poo, like stop it, stop talking about medicine, we're all bored of this. So I was like, well, I'm going to just put it out there for other people to enjoy. So I started making these posts and then this community just kind of developed off of the back of that and now I actually I enjoy the community side of it so much more than actually putting the information out there.

Speaker 2: 29:35

I mean, obviously I enjoy creating the posts and it's amazing that people get value from it and it's amazing that people find them interesting, slash learn from them. But the community really is what lights me up and I just think it's absolutely vital and I think now that was something that we never had before. Now you can open your phone, go on Instagram and there's a whole sea of other nurses, student nurses, vet students who have all of these amazing connections with each other, most of which are people you've never met before. And if you're having a bad day or you're struggling or you've seen a really challenging case and you just want to bounce it off of someone, there's more than a handful of people in your pocket that you can do that with, and I think that's something that I personally now take a bit for granted because I'm so used to it being there. But if you think back, kind of even five years, that was just something that wasn't there and I think it's so amazing that it now is.

Speaker 1: 30:37

Oh, absolutely. I could not agree more. Yeah, I think what you've created you've just done it so well, because I think sometimes we have to be a little bit careful with some of these sort of Facebook groups, for example, often where people are asking for advice and you're sort of not really sure the people that are then providing that advice, how sort of sound is it. But I think a page like yours, where it's someone who's very qualified, everything you put out is really reputable, I think, is really really amazing. So certainly one kind of aspect where social media is actually incredibly beneficial for us as a profession.

Speaker 2: 31:18

Thank you. Yeah, I completely agree. I think social media can be such a double-edged sword and I it's funny you mentioned the Facebook groups because I've removed myself out of probably a good 95% of them now yes, absolutely, just because some of some of the aspects of it are really positive, but there's also often a lot of drama and misinformation. Yes, and you just find it best to not be in them. Exactly which is why I think, yeah, something like, rather than a group, where there's lots and lots and lots of back and forth discussion, something more like social media posts where you're putting information out for people to take whatever they need from, and then if people want to have conversations and things in the comments or in the DMs or anything, then great, let's bounce ideas off of each other off the back of that, absolutely so my second question is because you obviously create all of that content yourself.

Speaker 2: 32:08

Yes.

Speaker 1: 32:09

You also are a busy veterinary nurse and I mean again, we obviously only see on social media, it's just kind of the highlights, but you do seem to do it all with so much ease and I would certainly say, with so much grace as well. So how do you manage it all?

Speaker 2: 32:29

I don't really know to be honest with you, but somehow I do. I will preface this by saying that I do not think that I have the balance right, okay, and I don't think that there's ever such a thing as a perfect balance between work and life. So sometimes I put pressure on myself to be dealing with things or juggling my schedule and things in a certain way, but actually I have to take a step back and remember that this is my life at the end of the day. So you know, I just like this morning, for example, I woke up with a list of things that I wanted to get done today and I felt a bit overwhelmed by it, because I had planned to go to the gym this morning. First I was like maybe I should cancel the gym. I'm like, no, that's my life and that's important to me, so I'm going to do that first and then everything else afterwards.

Speaker 1: 33:20

I was going to say. That's so interesting because I've been having this sort of conversation with a couple of friends of mine who are also, you know, sort of multi passionate, run multiple businesses, you know sort of jobs on the side, those types of things. And a couple of things have come out of those conversations and one is and I completely agree with what you're saying resonates so much with me is that often the deadlines that are there are deadlines that we set ourselves. Yeah, absolutely so it actually doesn't matter to anybody else if that task does not get done by that deadline. You know, for the most part, for example, the other thing is we choose to be stressed about things. So I just then say to myself I choose not to be stressed and it really actually seems to work.

Speaker 1: 34:19

So I was a little bit similar. I I'm obviously on maternity leave at the moment but still have sort of a few bits and bobs going on, and you know, you sort of get to do this sort of tends to, you know, grow like crazy, and you sort of look at it and then I just say, do you know what? I just choose not to be stressed and I'm not going to let those deadlines, you know, kind of really impact, like you said, my life. So I'm not going to not go to my PT session because I've got these other deadlines. But no, they're deadlines that have been set by me so I can change them.

Speaker 2: 34:54

Yeah, absolutely, but when it comes to to answer your original question, because I feel like I went on a- huge dungeon there.

Speaker 2: 35:02

When it comes to balancing everything. I yeah, like I say, I definitely don't think I have the balance completely right. I always make sure as a non-negotiable that I have one complete day off of everything per week. So that is not on my phone, not on social media or only on my own personal social media, not on any kind of veterinary related things and taking time to do things that are completely non-ventory so that I am refilling my cup that way. So that is a non-negotiable one day a week.

Speaker 2: 35:33

I work four days a week in clinical practice currently, and then my other two days I will do work on content or prepping lectures or whatever else. That needs to be between 10 and 4, and I'm very strict with those timings so that I have time to do something like go to the gym in the morning and then I still have like six hours in the evening where I can switch off and kind of de-stress. The other thing that I'm very strict with is like phone notifications and things, so I don't have like notifications on for Instagram and Facebook or my emails, for example, so that I'm only going in and checking them and things at time that work to me, so that I'm not being kind of distracted by that all the time?

Speaker 1: 36:22

Yes, absolutely, and have you always had sort of such good boundaries when it comes to your non-clinical days?

Speaker 2: 36:32

No, no, not at all, and I definitely think I still need to get better at them. Sometimes I'm on my non-ventory day and I still, just because of muscle memory, end up picking up my phone before I know it on Instagram. So I definitely haven't got it perfect, but I actually worked with a coach that helped me set those boundaries and things?

Speaker 1: 36:52

Yep, absolutely, because, yeah, I think it's so easy. Especially, you know like you're so passionate about what you do and you're so passionate about, you know, creating that content. You know that's providing value to everyone around you, but it's not necessarily something that's for you. It's so important that we do stop and then take that time, you know, to recharge, really isn't it? Because otherwise, I mean, burnout's a real thing. So something that we've all got to be very aware of and very cautious of.

Speaker 2: 37:25

Absolutely yeah, definitely.

Speaker 1: 37:27

So I just wanted to go back and just talk a little bit about your Medical Nursing Academy, which is the platform that you have created for, I guess, sharing even more value to our veterinary nurses. Did you want to maybe just share a little bit about that?

Speaker 2: 37:47

Sure, so the Academy is something relatively new. I only created it in February of this year, but it's something that has been kind of something I'd wanted to do for a long time. So it came about because in 2022, I had done a few workshops that I had like created myself, marketed on social media and sold tickets to for people to attend on Zoom, and they got the recording and a workbook and a CPD certificate and things, and I really enjoyed doing them and I did maybe three or four in 2022. And I thought, well, actually it doesn't make sense for me to just be putting these out there kind of just kind of randomly and it would be nice to make this into more of like a structured thing. So that was the initial reasoning kind of behind the Academy and it's now.

Speaker 2: 38:44

It's like a subscription platform basically, where qualified nurses, student nurses, can join and they get two aspects to it. So they get the platform that has all of the CPD in it, which is every month. There's like a workshop or a webinar. We have a Q&A call as well, and we also have like a book club or study club call where I basically summarise sections of a medical nursing textbook and present them to everyone. So those are the live calls and then obviously they go into like a recording bank for people to access. But there's also a community platform that comes with it. So there's a discussion forum where all of the members can get together, share ideas, chat through cases, talk about anything and everything really.

Speaker 2: 39:31

And the reason that that side of things was so important to me firstly because of the community being so inspirational, that we have on social media and things in veterinary practice anyway.

Speaker 2: 39:43

But also lots of the nurses I was chatting to were saying they were struggling with things like confidence, imposter syndrome, feeling like they were doing everything on their own. And I remember feeling like that when I first became a medicine nurse and I was the only nurse interested in medicine in my practice and I had no one to learn with or chat through cases with other than my clinicians, who were amazing, but there were no nurses that had that same passion and I didn't want any other nurse to be in the same position. So I thought, well, if I can put something together that would have benefited me when I first became a medicine nurse, then hopefully I take that away. So, yeah, so you know we share some non clinical stuff as well. I've got Katie Ford, who's a coach, who's very big on social media, coming in to do a session next week on imposter syndrome and things. So although it's medical CPD, I really want it to be something that people personally get a lot from as well.

Speaker 1: 40:40

Absolutely so. It has not only the professional development but the personal development aspect as well, and so how can people find out or get in touch with you, you know, if they are interested in finding out more about the academy?

Speaker 2: 40:56

So people can either just get in touch with me directly through social media or my website, or they can just go to medicalnursenacademycom, which is the link to actually access the whole platform itself, and there's information on there as well, amazing.

Speaker 1: 41:12

So I'll be sure just to share all of those links in the show notes, so the links to Laura's amazing Instagram page. If you're not following her already, you really need to, because it is absolutely amazing. Oh, thank you, no problem, laura, you are so passionate about what you do and, like I said, you are actually contributing so much to our profession and giving so much to the veterinary community. What does veterinary happiness mean to you?

Speaker 2: 41:44

I think for me, veterinary happiness is finding what you love about the profession. Like that doesn't necessarily have to mean clinical work. Like you know, I think most people would think, oh well, I really love nursing these patients or I really love doing this skill, and actually for me it's about taking a step back and looking at why I do what I do. So looking at the patients that I make a difference to each day, because I think it's easy to fall into the habit of just coming in doing your job, focusing on the tasks that you need to complete, and then going home again probably stressed from your day.

Speaker 2: 42:24

But actually, if you take a step back and you go, actually I'm gonna pick one patient today and I'm gonna think about the ways in which I made a difference to that patient's life today. Like that is huge. So that's something that I try and do. Whenever I'm feeling a bit kind of tired or stressed out or I've had a bad day, I really try and strip it back to why we actually do what we do and the difference that we make. So really for me that's a big one. But also the community side of things as well has brought a whole new level of kind of veterinary happiness in some way, because although it's not clinical, it's actually such an amazing thing and it's brought like a level of inspiration and empowerment to the profession and happiness to the profession that I don't think we've had before.

Speaker 1: 43:13

Yes, absolutely. And what is your view on mentorship? Do you think that having mentor, like a mentor or multiple mentors kind of, really do help also improve your career satisfaction? Or maybe help you develop to develop more than perhaps what you might do if you didn't have a mentor?

Speaker 2: 43:38

Oh yeah, absolutely, yes, yes, definitely. I think we can all probably look back on points of our careers where, even if we've not had like a mentor with that kind of label on or something, we've all worked with those influential people on our lives that have changed the way that we've viewed our careers. And for me, like, there are still days where I look back and I think about people that I've worked with or alongside in the past and I can see ways in which they continue to influence me now. And I think that back in the day, always years ago now, when I was training, you were limited to the people that you had actual face-to-face exposure to, and now, in the age of social media, where we have so many people with public platforms, it's brought a whole new meaning to mentorship in some way, because actually you see so many people that you've never met before, but you see them doing these things and inspiring you and impacting your career, even though you don't work with them.

Speaker 1: 44:40

Yes, I think it's so important and I just wonder from a sustainability perspective and again, I'm talking about all veterinary professionals, not just uniquely vet nurses but I do feel that if we and I think we all, well, for many of us we probably do have unofficial mentors, but I do wonder that if we were all to have or develop more mentor relationships, so whether that being you become the mentor, you're the mentee, then I just wonder, is that going to help as far as improving longevity within our careers?

Speaker 2: 45:24

Oh, absolutely, I definitely think so, and I think that now times are starting to change, where that is hopefully a lot more commonplace. So, for example, in my hospital now we have a plan where new starters have a mentor that they work alongside and that person checks in with them, and it makes a huge difference, especially, I think, for us being in referral, and we have nurses that have never worked in referral before coming in to quite a jump in their career. But you see the support that they get and you see the kind of the way in which they're encouraged to develop and you see them come alive because they feel supported, and I definitely think that that is something that will make our profession more sustainable, and I hope we reach a point where that just becomes a completely normal thing. That happens with every new starter, in every practice.

Speaker 1: 46:17

Oh, I could not agree with you more, because how often I mean this goes for our new grads, regardless of whether you're a vet or a vet nurse. But how important is not only that first job, but when you do change jobs, or maybe you are changing niches or disciplines, it makes such a difference. It's make or break, isn't it? That environment that you're stepping into, with the support that you're given in those first couple of months when you are somewhere new. It's so important, isn't it?

Speaker 2: 46:52

Absolutely, I think it's really vital.

Speaker 1: 46:54

And what about, or what do you think could be, some other contributing factors to longevity as a veterinary professional?

Speaker 2: 47:05

I think this is probably a bit of a backwards answer because it's not necessarily clinical, but I think having something outside of veterinary life to focus on, because in my experience, people who tend to pick this profession are usually the same type of people.

Speaker 2: 47:23

They're the type A personalities, the perfectionist types, the ones who are prone to things like burnout, for example, prone to compassion fatigue, because they care so much and they're so passionate, and it becomes very, very easy to overwork yourself, not only physically, but to go home and then not mentally switch off.

Speaker 2: 47:43

And I think that I used to think that I was immune to that, and then I've only realized in the last few years that I'm not and that I need something that's just for me to keep my passion for the profession and to ultimately keep the profession as a sustainable, long-term career for me.

Speaker 2: 48:03

So I would always encourage people to, yes, of course, be passionate about their careers and be passionate about their development, but also not to forget you yourself, the human being at the end of the day as well. Yes, have things like a routine that you use to switch off when you end your shift at work, so that you're not mentally taking all your cases home with you, for example, and as well as the kind of clinical development and the professional development you do, don't forget also your own personal development for you as a human. So, looking at things like confidence, imposter syndrome battling you know a lot of us battle with self-confidence issues, like I still have imposter syndrome now, which I think some people probably find a bit mad because, you know, no one talks about that on social media. But we all need to also look after ourselves and keep ourselves physically and mentally healthy to have a sustainable career.

Speaker 1: 48:59

Absolutely. And I think that kind of hit home for me a couple of years ago when, you know, someone said to me oh, what you know, like what's your hobby? And I kind of was like, oh, I don't actually have one, you know. I was like, oh, okay, that's not good, you know, like that's not a good thing.

Speaker 2: 49:22

Well, a year ago, my answer would have been Instagram, so I could be on the star.

Speaker 1: 49:26

So I was like oh, yeah, okay, I think I need to like yeah, just take a look at you know. I think I mean I identify, you know, as a vet. It's such a huge part of who I am. But certainly over the last couple of years I've been working very hard on, you know, having boundaries and things that are outside of the profession, and I agree, it is so, so important. It doesn't mean that you don't love what you do, but you also need to have a bit of love for yourself too. Yeah, absolutely so. Laura, we are almost out of time and it has been such a pleasure talking to you. I'm so thrilled that we did get to have this conversation. I mean, it's been great. But just before we go, I'm sure you've got many, but I was just wondering if you could share with us a career highlight or one of your most favorite veterinary memories to date.

Speaker 2: 50:19

Gosh. I'm going to go with a clinical one, I think, because I feel like quite a lot of my chat today has been nonclinical and so I was thinking about this this weekend, actually because I was writing some social media posts and I wrote one about a patient that I saw when I was a brand new qualified nurse, so 14 years ago now, and they were actually just like a little border terrier puppy in for like puppy checks, worming, second vaccine, the usual stuff that you think is completely routine and then put out of your mind, yes. And then I, this dog, came into my current practice end of 2020 with DKA and after that he came in every two weeks for two years and saw the nurses for diabetic stabilization, continuous glucose monitor placements. He had, I think, another three episodes of hospitalization with recurrent DKA's because he was a nightmare diabetic to stabilize and our nurses saw him every two years, every two weeks, sorry for pretty much the whole two years, and I got to like develop this relationship with him later on in life, having seen him as a puppy, and develop this relationship with his family and things.

Speaker 2: 51:35

And you know, ultimately he's no longer with us and I was able to be there at that point and kind of the end of his life too, and it I just think the veterinary, the veterinary world, has a funny way of bringing things full circle, and I think you know you have those patients that will never, ever leave you, like they stick with you and they change the way that you fundamentally act as a vet or as a nurse. And so Badger was it still is absolutely one of those for me. So I think looking after him is probably my favorite veterinary memory to date.

Speaker 1: 52:11

Oh, isn't that. So special though and it is one of the things that I love so much about our job is not only those relationships that we build with our patients, you know where I have no doubt that, yeah, badger probably saw you and, you know, loved spending time with you, I'm sure but also just that bond that you develop with the family.

Speaker 2: 52:33

Yeah, absolutely. That was just a special, I think, in my opinion.

Speaker 1: 52:37

Absolutely. I think it's so, so special and, yeah, just another of the amazing things about our wonderful profession. Laura, it has been such a pleasure talking to you. Thank you so much for joining me and I'm just so looking forward to seeing all the wonderful things that you're going to be doing in the future.

Speaker 2: 52:55

Oh, thank you so much. It's been such a pleasure, thank you.

Speaker 1: 52:59

Oh goodness, isn't Laura just amazing? And if you haven't checked out her platform or her socials, then I strongly urge you to, because they are so, so good. I absolutely love this conversation, and one of the things I feel so strongly about is that we should all have a professional development plan, no matter what stage of your career you are in, and this plan really should be reviewed on an annual basis. This is something I'm really passionate about, which is why we have incorporated this into our membership programs. So when you join our membership community, we will sit down with you, either in person, if you are based in Perth, or virtually, and we'll conduct a clinical audit before helping you create your development plan.

Speaker 1: 53:47

But what only does this? Give you some valuable direction and goals to work towards. It also provides some focus for your CPD, meaning your investment or your practices. Investment is going to be intentional and highly productive. So if you're keen to find out more, then send us a DM on socials at platinum, underscore CPD, or email Emma at platinumcpdcom. Wishing you a wonderful week ahead. Bye for now.