It’s Vet Nurse Awareness Month, and to celebrate the brilliant Vet Nurses in our VMG team, we put them in the spotlight to find out more.
Next we have our VMG Office and Membership Support Assistant, Sarah Cramp.
What inspired you to begin a career in nursing?
From a young age I wanted to do a job that helped people and made a difference. This led me to start my career in nursing. After giving it a good go I decided that I would rather work with animals so I decided to look for a job in a vets. I was incredibly lucky as everything just fell into place. I applied for a trainee veterinary nurse job advertised locally and was offered it. I was so excited to get started.
From my very first day, it was clear this was going to be a steep learning curve! I completed an apprenticeship over the next couple of years and qualified as an RVN. The job continued to challenge me, it’s a lot of responsibility to be caring for someone’s beloved family pet, and I took that responsibility very seriously and was very tough on myself.
That being said, I absolutely loved my job as an RVN. I loved the fun and camaraderie that comes from working in a close-knit team and I loved that you are constantly challenged, and there is so much to learn. I loved anaesthesia and the satisfaction of knowing you played a part in keeping that patient safe, comfortable, and able to go home to their owners.
Not long after I qualified my head nurse left and I unceremoniously took over that position. I can’t even remember now if I was formally offered it or if over time it just became my job title. I think it was the latter, and I was completely unprepared, but I had a good team of nurses, and I enjoyed the additional admin tasks, so I gave it a good go and enjoyed it. I worked in this position for the next four years before accepting the practice manager role.
What did you find most rewarding about being a veterinary nurse?
In my experience as a Veterinary Nurse, a lot of the jobs in practice will fall to you and you just have to get on with things. This might be staying on until midnight to assist with an ex-lap or having to think on your toes to make things happen. This has really helped develop my initiative and resilience, which has helped me so much in my career.
What transferable skills have you found the most useful for progressing in your career?
In my experience as a Veterinary Nurse, a lot of the jobs in practice will fall to you and you just have to get on with things. This might be staying on until midnight to assist with an ex-lap or having to think on your toes to make things happen. This has really helped develop my initiative and resilience, which has helped me so much in my career.
Why did you leave nursing to get into management?
Moving into a practice management position felt like a great move for me. I quite enjoyed the admin involved with the head nurse position so I was keen to develop that. I liked being the person in the practice that people came to for advice and help, plus there was the draw of more predictable hours and no more night checks! I very quickly felt though, that I had gone from being in the thick of the team to feeling isolated.
I had always felt like compassion and empathy were some of my strong points. Supporting people was one of my biggest motivations and I found it really hard at times when my team were unhappy and dissatisfied. Unfortunately, I didn’t always have the skills to handle this in the best way which then led to dissatisfaction in my own role which is ultimately why I left the position.
I now work as the membership support assistant at VMG. Since working at VMG I realise that I was not alone in feeling the way I did, and I would have benefited so much from completing some leadership training such as the CVLM and by joining a community for support such as ShareSPACE. I think Veterinary Nurses make great leaders, often driven by empathy and compassion, but often forget to give it to themselves.
Thank you Sarah for reminding us that we are not alone. If you are looking for support with your leadership journey, or would like to develop your skills to help your team, have a look at our educational suite of CPD, the iVLM (introduction to leadership and management), and the CVLM/DVLM. Or if you would like to connect with like-minded leaders find out more about ShareSPACE here.
