Hi, I’m Alex Taylor, a registered veterinary nurse and President of BVNA Council. I thought I would introduce myself to you and tell you a little bit about my hopes for the coming year. I qualified in 1997 so I am celebrating 25 years of working as a qualified veterinary nurse next year. What’s strange is that I have been qualified longer than some nurses have been alive, but it doesn’t feel that long! I joined Council in 2018 and have just progressed to become President at BVNA Congress in October.
I started my training in a first opinion and referral veterinary hospital in London and stayed there for 11 years progressing to Head Nurse. I moved to another London practice for 6 years before moving to Milton Keynes. I worked in a couple of practices before deciding to locum in the area. This really suited me because I like meeting new people and you always pick up something new at each practice. Once I joined Council, I thought it was best to settle in one practice for stability and continuity, so I picked one of my regular locum clinics and decided to stay because I love the team there. I think as you become more experienced you realise the importance of working with a good bunch of people, it really is all about teamwork. You can have all the fancy equipment in the world, but the people really do make a practice! I work two long days a week 08:30 to 7:00pm as well as one in four weekends. This allows me time to complete my work for the Council.
My main interest is feline nursing and feline behaviour. Something not a lot of people know is that I was actually quite scared of cats when I first started in practice. I didn’t mind handling friendly cats or those that weren’t having lots of treatment done; but as soon as they showed signs of not being happy, I would get someone else to restrain them. It wasn’t until I was completing the IFSM Feline Certificate, followed by the Diploma and then the Advanced Certificate in Feline Behaviour that I gained a better understanding of looking at the world through the eyes of a cat. I’ve realised that cats are quite misunderstood as a species, and I now recognise the triggers that can cause them distress and to behave in a certain way. Cats like to feel in control because they are little survivalists at the end of the day. They tend to go from not doing anything to completely freaking out but if you can pick up on the signs early, then that can be prevented. I think we are getting. much better at reducing stress in feline patients now thanks to the ISFM cat friendly clinic scheme. My colleagues are great as they delegate the feline first aid and preventative behaviour cases to me, as well as getting me involved in managing the cats with chronic conditions. I do a lot of consulting, which I love, especially when there are kittens or golden oldie cats involved!
Because of my interest, I have selected International Cat Care as the chosen charity for my Presidential year. What is interesting is that I didn’t start out in Council with the intention to become President. My plan was just to fulfil my manifesto, which I’m proud to say, I think I have. One aim was to create more awareness about cat friendly handling, so I wrote a literature review in the VNJ about this very subject, and it has been read online in other countries such as the USA and Australia which is great. I love it when someone comes up to me and says that they have read it and it made a difference to the way they restrain or care for cats in their practice.
The other aim was to raise awareness of what it is like to suffer from a chronic illness whilst working in veterinary practice because I suffer from endometriosis. We have just finished a Chronic Illness Campaign which produced a toolkit for people to use themselves, or in practice to support colleagues. What was amazing was the response we got from a survey we sent out and it has evolved into something much bigger than we anticipated. The data we collected from nearly a thousand respondents has fed into the toolkit we have created, and we will make sure that there will always be a well-being champion on BVNA Council.
I’ve had several operations to try and manage both endometriosis and another similar condition called adenomyosis. I’ve had hormonal treatment which brought on an early menopause and all the side effects that brings and a hysterectomy that reduced a lot of the pain. It did affect my work, but I sometimes found it difficult to discuss how badly it was affecting me with people other than friends and family. I now realise how sick I was but at the time I just got on with it, which in hindsight was not the right thing to do. It was difficult managing chronic pain whilst working and that, combined with the constant fatigue caused me mental issues as well. The problem is that you get used to managing the pain and symptoms and don’t really notice how bad you feel until you start feeling better.
I have to be honest that the thought of being President slightly terrified me but I do like to push myself so I thought I would take this opportunity as it may not come along again. If I want to see things change and make a difference with things that I think are important then it’s probably the best way to do it.
As you know, each year the BVNA President has a theme and mine is ‘building resilience’ which I know is a broad subject.
The problem is that vet nurses are not good at looking after themselves; we naturally look after other people and their animals and keep going because we don’t want to let patients and our team down. If you don’t actually take that breath and think, ‘I need to look after myself so I can do my job better’, there is a danger of making mistakes. We have a caring nature, and we tend to put everyone else before ourselves and I think now more than ever, due to the pandemic, we really need to reflect and think about our own wellbeing.
I’ve worked with nurses who have given up working in practice after only a few years. It’s really sad but for some, working through the pandemic has caused them to burnout and they have left the profession altogether. I have experienced something similar myself, I was doing lots of shifts in a previous practice because we didn’t have enough staff and I got to the point where I couldn’t do it anymore. If I had known then what I know now, I would have looked after myself better.
I want to help vet nurses today so that they don’t burn out; to give them the tools they need so they can stop and take a breath. We need to thrive rather than just keep going, recognise when we are in trouble, accept it and do something about it. We shouldn’t feel guilty if we are struggling mentally or physically, as this is not our fault, but it can prevent us from working to the best of our abilities. It’s important to find time for ourselves, I’ve taken up running although I do get distracted by the local cats! There is a particular cat that isn’t far from the start of my run that is very chatty so I have to stop and stroke him. I have managed to run a half marathon where I raised over £1,000 for Cats Protection. I’m hoping to do another half marathon in December. I find that exercise does really help, it doesn’t need to be running, even going out for a walk can make a difference.
My Presidential theme will run through Congress 2022 along with the Dinner Dance theme of cats (no surprise there). BVNA Congress is an amazing event, it’s a chance to meet friends, complete CPD and engage with the VN community. We are always looking for new speakers so if you have ever thought that you would like to present at BVNA Congress, get in touch with us. We will give support and training to ensure you feel comfortable standing up and talking in front of others. I didn’t used to enjoy talking in front of crowds, but I have forced myself to do it because I know the experience is valuable and now, I really love it.
I would really value your feedback on any of the topics I have mentioned, please contact me on: [email protected] Remember that we represent you in the working groups we attend, the stakeholder meetings we contribute to, we need you to let us know what you think. 2022 will see the Protect the Title campaign gain momentum, keep an eye out for how you can get involved.
President, BVNA CouncilDOI:10.1080/17415349.2021.1997254