Hello everybody, and thank you very much for joining us on today's episode of Pet chat. We're very fortunate today to have Remy who's joining us. Remy, hello, welcome to this episode.

Hi Al, thanks for having me. Oh, no problem at all. Did you want to start off just by telling us a little bit about yourself?

Yeah, sure. So, my name's Rey. I'm a registered veterinary nurse, so I qualified back in 2019.

I don't know why I still consider myself like a baby nurse, even though I've been around for a while. And I've kind of diversified-ish into studying veterinary medicine. Basically, I started last year.

So I've kind of never left university before. So I haven't really left yet. Brilliant.

How did you, how did you sort of come to decide that you wanted to be a veterinary nurse? So, typical story. It's with my cat, my boy Tiger, I still got him.

So he gets out into cat fights as per usual, and he had an abscess in his leg. So I took him to the vet. It's very local to me, and he's absolutely horrible.

So it's just the way that the nurses handled him. It was actually like putty in their hands. He was just lovely.

And it's kind of that point that I actually saw a veterinary nurse and who they were and what they did. Because before that, I hadn't really been to the vets before. So I kind of just started talking to the nurses and got an idea of what they did.

And the next step was basically getting work experience just to see what it's like. I applied about 5 times and I was going to give up. And, my mom just said, just do it again, just apply.

And I did apply, and, thankfully they took me on. I started as a practise assistant. And from there, the nurse I actually saw in that concert with my cat, he ended up becoming my clinical coach.

And it's only when I looked back at the clinical notes, back then, I was like, Oh, wow, full circle. You're the reason why I'm here. And then kind of progressing on with the career, I've been seeing what nurses do, especially in referral practise.

I think I went into referral in my 3rd year of nursing. And it's like, wow, this is amazing. Like seeing nurses being utilised very effectively, kind of like, they'll suggest to the vets, you know what, I, I don't think this is working for Fluffy.

Have you considered doing something else? And I really like that because it's just a bit of a different change from what I've seen in other practises. So yeah, that's the beginning half of, I guess, my, career in veterinary veterinary medicine.

And then I moved to studying veterinary medicine last year, still at the same university at the RBC because it's still very local to me. I kind of just decided to change, really, because I guess at the beginning of the time when I started nursing, I hadn't really got a full idea of what the career was, and I think I just wanted a different, type of responsibility, cause I got to see other surgeries, and that was cool. Scrubbing in, I loved it.

But I think I just wanted different change of responsibility, and I kind of wanted more quiet interactions as well, which is very weird for someone to say, I guess. But yeah, and also, I just think in the future, I would like to see if I can, it's a bit weird twist. I would like to see if I can do something else with the nursing profession with the RCBS.

Cause I have seen the nursing profession develop, but I do think the future as well. I do think there can be big changes there. And I think Luckily that I've had the idea of, you know, I've been a nurse and I'm still learning more about the profession.

I, I don't know, I think maybe I can get involved in that in the future. That's long down the road. Yes.

Yeah, but also, I, weirdly, as I, as I like to say it, I love university, even though I'm going back in a few weeks and I might regret saying this, it's all I know. I want to do an education as long as possible. So I'm just buying my time.

You definitely sound like a lifelong learner, Remy. Yeah, I mean, well, that's a profession, but, yeah, so I don't know. We'll see if I keep doing other things afterwards.

Oh, no, that's great. So what does, what does a typical day look like for you? I mean, it sounds like you've got so many different things going on.

How do you kind of keep on top of it all? Well, if I didn't have a calendar on my phone, I wouldn't know how to survive. If it's not on my calendar, I, it's not happening or I've forgotten about it.

So, my days are quite varied. So if I'm If I'm not in university, then I'm working. So this has been like this since I've started, studying nursing anyway.

So I was either on placements or I was actually working as a nurse or a student nurse at the time. And then, what else did I do on top of that, I recently started working with Bets they go Diversify with Ebony and the rest of the team as well, and that's been amazing. So I actually met Ebony as talk, in person back in the day.

And, I, well, I missed took her for a student because I didn't know. I've heard of Ebony, but I didn't know what she looked like. So I asked her, Oh, you're a student?

She said, No, I'm a qualified vet, but she didn't like to compliment. So since then, actually, I started talking with her and got involved with the, the SGD team as well. So I do some part-time, work with that online.

What else do I do? And then, when I'm back at university, I'm studying, I kind of like how it's been with the pandemic because everything's been a bit online. So it's been a lot really flexible.

So I've kind of just been working part time as a nurse anyway, around my lectures. So it's made it quite good for me. And as I'm going back to university in a few weeks, I'm gonna be just back to locuming as well.

So I'm still, still working out there and keeping up with the profession as a nurse. Yeah, fantastic, that's brilliant. When you sort of, you know, graduated as a new nurse, you know, how did you sort of find help and support if you needed it?

So, I, well, I was quite nervous. No one tells you that once you're qualified, you know everything. You, you don't.

I think in my first year, I learned so much about myself, and I built a lot of confidence as well, cause I wouldn't say I'm a confident person clinically, and I'm still developing that. And, yeah, after graduation, you're excited that you're like, Oh, no, it's my first day in practise as a qualified nurse. Now you've got to look after the students.

You've also got to make sure that everything's just OK around you. And I've been in practise when I've had students ask me questions. And of course, you wear that green.

You always look up to people that wear, you know, your green, green, tunics, like, oh, they must know everything. And I've had students ask me questions and I'll be like, You know what, I actually don't know the answer. But I'm now slowly learning to say, I don't know the answer, but let me look it up, or let me find out, or just say, you know what, this person knows.

Let's both go out and find the answer. So, learning that it's OK not to know everything and don't feel embarrassed, and I think that's. Probably one of the biggest lessons I've learned, since I qualified really.

Yeah, absolutely. Would that be your kind of biggest piece of advice would you say to, you know, to give to new nurses who are just kind of, you know, graduating and starting their journey? Yes, definitely.

Take it in a stride, you're always gonna keep learning things. And, yeah, just don't be afraid to get involved and just ask questions. Yeah, I think.

I, I think you'll do a lot better than you think, cause you know the stuff, you've passed for a reason, and it's an amazing qualification as well. Yeah, amazing. No, that sounds, that sounds great.

So in terms of your kind of, you know, professional career and your experience so far, you know, would you say that you've had to work really hard to kind of create your own opportunities to get to where you are now, or have you got any sort of tips and guidance for people around that? Yeah, so I'm the type of person, I love doing projects and stuff like that. Again, that's probably why I stay at university, because I've always got the time to flip between practise and, do my lectures.

And then I've also got extra time to do projects when I probably should be studying. So, networking's probably one of the biggest things, I'd say, in helping to create your opportunities. So, just meeting people, whether it's online or if it's on in person, in congresses, because it's such a small community, you're gonna see each other again.

And your member names be like, Oh, hey, I heard you're doing like this job in, I don't know, industry. I'm really interested in thinking about it. Can you let me know more?

Cause, people are just happy to tell you about the experience and people will help you. So I've definitely learned that. But, and a side of like, opportunities, stuff like that, I've done, I've kind of had to make them, make them myself.

So back in 2019. My friends are at university, we were just wondering, like, everyone else has their own congress. You got, BDNA, BSAVA.

But why isn't there anything just for student nurses? Because there is something there, and, you know, we're happy to go out and learn things online, but I think we wanted something targeted just to us. So, Back then we created SVN Fest.

It was the it was the first student veterinary nurse congress run by student veterinary nurses, but the mouthful, that's why we called it SVN Fest. And we held it over a weekend at the Royal Veterinary College. And it was just students, we hadn't had any management or any events expertise.

We're just like, let's just go for it. We had a lot of support as well from BBNA. And, yeah, we had, I think it was about, I think just under 100 people that came, to Camden.

We had a day of talks, and then we had a night out as well in, in Camden, and that was just so much fun. I learned a lot as well, management. I learned a lot of, managing people, managing time.

That was really fun as well. Amazing. Oh, it sounds incredible.

So along with everything else, you're a little bit of an entrepreneur as well, coming up with all these new ideas. Oh, OK. Oh, I've almost forgot as well.

So last year, I set up with my friend something called Scrub Mentors. So it's kind of like a A mentorship online mentorship service for anyone interested in, like, a veterinary career, either in nursing or in veterinary medicine. And my friend also runs the dentist dentistry side, sorry.

And we did this just because we didn't find that in school, so between like years, year 11 to year 13, a lot of schools were just like, OK, everyone's going to medicine, let's help them go that way. I found that there wasn't really much on, in the veterinary side, especially veterinary nursing. So I kind of just set this up as well to help anyone that's interested in year 11 or year 13, to kind of just understand what it's like being in practise, especially because in the past year, people haven't been able to go out to get work experience.

So, I've been offering, Quite helpful, like, personal statements, or also just doing monthly newsletters as well, just to give people an idea of what's going on in the world. So that's been really fun, because I do like, helping people because I had a lot of help to get where I get to where I am today. Yeah.

Oh, that's brilliant. I know, I was gonna ask, I mean, how, how has this whole COVID, you know, time been for you? How have you, how have you sort of found everything over the last, last 18 months or so?

It's been different. I'm sure a word, what everyone else would say, but I actually think I've met more people during this period than I have before in the profession. So again, online, webinars or just talking to people, has been actually really cold.

I've met people I wouldn't have met before. You know, I got involved back last year, I got involved, with the unhappy Hour, which goes on, runs every month. And it's just a lovely hour, basically, for the whole nursing community to get together.

So I was on the panel panellists, and this is, it was just weird cause I was like, why me? I'm still, I'm still a baby nurse. But from there, I've talked to, like, Andrew Jeffrey, And, Jackie as well.

And it's just been amazing to talk to people. And it kind of just sucks you up for getting back into work. You're like, you know what, I love my job.

I love what I do. And, and I've met people as well, and just been like, if I find an opportunity, I'll say, Oh, hey, I saw you in, in, in the Zoom chat. I think this would be great for you.

So I think if anyone's feeling a bit disconnected from the community, definitely reach out to, going to those online events, like, Yes, you might have had a long day, but even just talking to people to have a positive feel is probably one of the best things, you can do, and it definitely psychs you up as well. Yeah, absolutely. No, I couldn't agree more.

It's, it's bizarre, isn't it, how quickly we've all kind of adapted to just get used to Zoom and team calls. One thing that we do kind of, you know, say within the webinar and are quite, you know, we really do want it to become part of our culture while we're working in this way is to just always try and have your camera on in meetings because I think it's so difficult if you can't have that, you know, face to face connection with people, you know, we've sort of been insisting that that happens and it, you know, it's. Had a really positive, you know, impact on our day to day as well, rather than just speaking to, you know, a black screen.

I feel sorry for my lecturers, because we've had a lot of lectures online and nobody turns the camera on. So if, if there are any students here listening and you have a lecture online, please just turn your cameras on cause it's just awkward. Yeah.

Definitely came on and engage lots. Lovely, that's great. So obviously, you know, there's, there's times, isn't there, where, you know, things get quite stressful and, you know, work life balanced and stuff.

Would you have any sort of tips for everybody listening on, you know, how to manage these things from your sort of experience? Yeah. So, I've had different types of stress.

So stress when I've been in work, in practise, and it's just too much, or just stress when I've been trying to study. So, first of all, I think I'll start with studying. Know your limits and don't push yourself too much.

I think I, I was trying to rush two weeks of lectures into 1 week, which was very stupid of me. I didn't say I wanted the time off, but then it ended up working out that the time off I wanted, I just sat in bed, I couldn't do anything I actually wanted to do. And I felt bad about it, but I needed to realise that doing nothing doesn't mean that I'm wasting my time.

It means I'm. You know, try to refresh myself. So take it at your own pace.

And if you need to stop, just stop. Don't keep working until 3 a.m.

Because that's not gonna help a long run. And you're not gonna take anything in anyway. So hopefully, Fu Rey will listen to that.

And, when it comes into, in practise, yeah, I kind of just like asking for help, just say, you know what, I cannot do this. Can you help me? Because yes, everyone's busy, but you know what?

It's all about teamwork. If someone can help you, by all means, you can help them when they're stuck as well. And plus, it's probably gonna take less time to get through it.

And also, you can take 5 minutes, just take at least 5 minutes to stop and think and be like, OK, let's regroup. Why I'm actually stressed? Am I stressed about something or am I just stressed about being stressed?

So I kind of relates you back to, a few days ago, which was just It's just so busy in practise. I'm sure everyone's seen this. You've got emergencies coming in, you've got a full consult book, and I haven't got time to see, see the normal consults and emergencies at the same time.

Just stop, breathe, look at everything. If everything's triaged, are they going to be OK to wait? You know what?

Yes, they can, and just go through everything and just explain to the, explain to owners, but like, we're, we're busy. Your pet's stable and OK. We're gonna get through it, and then everyone's just a lot happier rather than people complaining, saying, oh, you've left, left me for an hour, yeah, people will understand.

So just take 5 minutes just to breathe and probably regroup with everyone else, I think. Yeah, yeah, that's brilliant. I totally agree, you know, it's so easy, isn't it, to have days where you just feel like you're just firefighting and you, you know, you're constantly, your to do list is, is just getting bigger and sometimes you just need that 5 minutes just to pause and just, you know, take it all in and actually put things into perspective a little bit.

I know it's much easier said than done, but I think, you know, 5 minutes is so important, isn't it? Yeah, I was gonna say another thing as well, . Well, this is probably future advice for myself as well cos I literally just did it.

I sometimes find that getting stressed because you're taking on too much, you are allowed to say no. I don't do this, but like if someone asks you, can you pick up a, if, if it's like the day after someone's like, can you pick up a few hours? You may not have anything planned, but that's your time to yourself.

You are allowed to say no. Yes, it's about teamwork and stuff like that, but you're not doing the team justice when you go back into work and you're stressed because you haven't had time to recuperate. So, just chill out.

You're allowed to say no, and the world's still gonna keep turning. So, yeah, don't panic about that. Yeah.

No, I think that's brilliant advice. Brilliant. So what does the future kind of hold for them?

What are you, what are you hoping the next kind of couple of, you know, months and years will look like? Yeah. So I'm starting 3rd year of vet school this year, which is gonna be interesting, I think.

I think balancing between, you know, being a qualified vet nurse and also as a student. Because I only know small animal, just about, I guess. So I think going into a farm and a practise is gonna be interesting.

But also bouncing between. I think, what can I mean? Like, fact between saying, OK, is this too much for me to say as a nurse, or is it too much for me to say as a vet, a pet student?

That's gonna be a weird balance, I think, especially when I start doing my EMS practises. It's like, can I, can I do this? Is that OK?

And I've also recently found I like chickens, because I did a poultry placement recently. So, I don't know. I'm, I'm gonna see if I can do a replacement chickens.

We'll see if I go into that. But future, future plans, it's probably gonna be a small animal. And I do like emer emergency critical care and also soft tissue surgery.

So we'll see which way I go. Then on the other hand, I'm thinking about the future, future, I, I do like teaching things. I do like talking to people, especially just about things I'm passionate about.

So, who knows? I might want to see if I can go down the electric route as well. So I'm probably gonna stay at university forever at this point.

But yeah, I don't know, cause I can't see lots of career, lots of jobs coming out. I'm like, Oh, that'll be interesting in a few years. So I might do something completely different.

But at the moment, I'm taking opportunities as they see. And, just trying to get through university, I think. Yeah.

Absolutely. Oh, well, I'm sure whatever you do will be, will be brilliant and, you know, it sounds like you've had a, you know, incredible kind of career so far to get where you are. And I think, yeah, I'm excited to see what you do as well.

Thank you so much. Oh, no problem. Thanks again, Remy.

Lovely to chat and yeah, keep in touch and we will hopefully speak soon. Oh, thank you. Lovely talking to you.

Goodbye, bye.