Transcript (Cleaned)
Introduction
Hello everybody, my name's Jill and today with me here I've got Lacey, Lacey Pitcher, and we're just going to have a chat as part of our VN Futures career case studies section on Lacey's career and what's brought her to where she is today. So hi Lacey, thanks for coming along today and chatting to me. It's really nice to talk to you. Tell us a bit about you and who you are and what you do.
Meet Lacey Pitcher
Well firstly, thank you so much for having me. I think these conversations are so valuable, so often, and I'm honoured to be part of them.
So my name is Lacey. I'm an RVN. I've been in the profession now for 14 years, which has gone very quickly. And I have somewhat pinballed around the profession, but I love my wiggly career. And I currently work as a senior outreach and engagement officer for the Mind Matters Initiative, alongside some time locum-ing in practice still.
Mind Matters Initiative
That's really cool that you keep up your work in practice as well. I wish I could say I had the energy to do that too Lacey. I don't know how you manage to do both things. But so I was delighted to see when you joined the Mind Matters Initiative team. So tell us a little bit about your role there and what you do and what it involves.
So it's a really broad role but one that I love. So I was working a night shift in November and saw the advert and thought, well, I'm passionate about mental health and research, and I'm starting to look more into evidence-based medicine. It was actually the knowledge team that have really inspired my interest in evidence-based medicine. Having earlier in my career thought, well, I'm not an academic, I'm not a natural academic, and so that's not a place for me. And so I've spent the last few years redefining what the place for me in veterinary medicine is and exploring different areas.
And I was on my night shift and I saw that advert and I thought, well, I don't really know what happens at the Royal College. I want to know more. And this is an area that I'm particularly passionate about, so I'm going to apply and go for an interview just so I can actually start understanding more about the college. I've met some brilliant people at conferences. I've been really lucky to have some really interesting conversations, but I want to know what's happening for the professions. I've grown up in veterinary nursing. Lots of my friends are in the veterinary community and I want to know more. I want to know how we can do something about it.
And I attended my interview and was really blown away by how welcoming and accommodating and how people really wanted to know what I thought and what my thoughts and feelings were on the professions and the challenges faced by the professions, especially around the pandemic. And I accepted my job in January and it's been a bit of a whirlwind.
But essentially we look after the mental health and wellness of the professions. We look at research, protection, training around mental health and mental illness now as well. And it's a really broad umbrella but one that I am so passionate about. And my primary role is outreach and engagement, so I still get to actually come and see people, so whether that be practice visits or conferences. Or I was honoured last week to attend Surrey University to listen just as much as to talk. Lots of my job is actually about listening to how the professions feel, how things are resonating, what training's needed, where people need some help, and being able to further help facilitate that. So it's a broad one.
It's a fantastic initiative. I've always massively admired Mind Matters and the work they do. And I think it's just fantastic that they employed a veterinary nurse in that role as well. I mean, obviously I'm a little bit biased, but I think it just brings a new perspective to the initiative. I'm sure you're going to be amazing Lacey.
How Lacey got into RVN
So how did you get into veterinary nursing? Just briefly, how did that all start and how did that go? Because I know we talked about that before and I think it's quite interesting.
Yeah, so I grew up in a small valleys town. There wasn't a huge amount of career development or opportunities. We did have compulsory work experience, just two weeks. And I initially wanted to go into law, but a law work experience meant photocopying for two weeks. And I am not a person that does very well with monotonous tasks or tasks that are very much similar day to day. I like variety.
And so I chose a brilliant, wonderful veterinary practice to go on work experience. I thought I like animals and had interest in veterinary medicine. I wanted potentially to explore being a vet. And this tiny practice in Abergavenny actually took me under their wing. And the nurses were so proactive and passionate about what they did that I left that practice having seen some amazing people work what looked like magic to me. Until that point I'd never known that anaesthesia was nurse-led. I hadn't realised that lots of the diagnostics were with nurses and then sent back to the vets. I didn't know that most of the hospital care was this. I just didn't know the nursing role was there. And I had a blast.
I went back in my own time, in my own holidays, to spend more time at that practice. And it was three buses each way, so it took a lot of work to go. And I loved it. And they were so enthusiastic that they took someone that was certain that that's what they wanted to do. And I really looked at nursing. And then I went to college and was told the only way I could get out of the valleys would be to follow my initial path and go back to law. And I got a scholarship for Oxford to study law.
Wow.
I was really interested and I really wanted it. And I sat down at my A-level exam and realised it's not what I wanted at all. And I got up and I walked out, which I wouldn't advocate doing to anybody. But that was on the Monday. On the Tuesday I walked into the local vets and said, "Do you have any work? Is there anything? What can I do? I can clean. I just want some experience." And they said, "Well, you can start next week on Monday and you can start as a kennel hand and that's the job we've got at the moment."
And I did. And I did a year at that practice. I saw some phenomenal things and it really fed my passion. But what I hadn't been told was that practice were never eligible to train me. They weren't a training practice at all. And I didn't know. And I didn't know how to find out for quite a long time.
Yeah, so a year later I found a phenomenal training practice who said, "Well, you can come but you've got to start at the beginning again. You need to do a year. You need to work for us for a year to earn a training place. And when we know if you want it, then you can have it. And the reason we don't want to put you in for it sooner is because you've already left one and we can't turn other students away if you might waste the place."
And at the time I thought it was really unfair, but it absolutely was the right thing to do for me because it cemented the fact that that's what I wanted to do. And I went into training knowing that I wanted it and started my training there and they were brilliant. I never looked at law again.
Yeah, it's quite a change that isn't it—law to veterinary nursing.
Lacey's training
So tell me about your training then. Did you enjoy training? Did you find it difficult? What was the best thing about it?
So for me, I've done well in school and I've done well in education, but I wouldn't say I was a natural academic. I really have to work hard at it. All the practical elements were brilliant. And I trained through the diploma route, so it was very practical, very hands-on. I trained while I was working. A lot of the time I got to go away to college, which really worked for the way my brain works. I like busy and I like pace.
But there were lots of things in training that I found really difficult and really challenging. And for me, lots of the structure was really hard to navigate. And I didn't, at the time, I didn't know why. And I was, I started training quite young, so I still hadn't really explored very much. And as I alluded to, I grew up in an area where schooling was underfunded and lots of things slipped through the net. And because I'd achieved well, I was never looked at as someone that maybe needed some extra help.
Deadlines were incredibly tricky. I often left things till last minute, and that came across to my peers as not caring, when actually I cared incredibly deeply. I really wanted it. Veterinary nursing was everything at the time, and I've explored why that isn't great now. But it was really frustrating to be told you didn't care when I cared so much.
I also found the way that training was laid out really hard. I'm not a tables and order person and but thrived in all the practical elements. And I really enjoyed going to college and the social aspect of training. I liked training with others. I liked mentoring others. And it was only later in my training—so I went through three colleges in total, having quit training halfway through. I went to work in car insurance and hated it. And this one thing that I desperately wanted was to be a veterinary nurse and get my greens. And it felt like it had been taken away.
And it was at my third college where someone sat me down, a brilliant tutor who I owe a huge deal of credit to, and I've later been able to thank them in person. They sat me down and said, "What do you need? How can I help? Because you've got all this enthusiasm and all this potential, but you're finding it difficult. So what are you finding difficult and how can we make it better?"
Lacey's struggles
I was just going to ask you what was it that could have helped at that point. And that's exactly it isn't it?
I just needed someone to talk to me. Yeah. And I didn't know how to ask for what I needed because I didn't know it could be done any differently. And it's later that we've explored that I am neurodivergent, so my brain is wired differently. And so all the people that I was meeting along the way were neurotypical, so their brain was very similar to each other, but mine just worked differently. And it's almost like the best way I can explain it is like everyone is working on Android and I'm working on Apple, and no one gave each other the manuals. They're both perfectly well-functioning, but they just function differently.
So later exploring, we now understand that I am dyslexic. It was missed for years simply because I was a high achiever. Everyone assumed, when actually lots of the tell-tale signs were there. So I'd never like reading aloud. It's just not something—I know I've got an aversion to it, but I didn't know why. And there is, things that I would get frustrated about, little things. But we now know that that's one of the problems that I was having.
I initially started on portfolio, which is a long time ago now, but my work was marked with a red pen. And all I could see was I'd spent hours and hours and hours collating case studies and working really hard. And I'd get them handed back with all these mistakes on them. And I felt that that was a reference to the quality of my work. And it actually wasn't. My work was already at the right standards. I just had lots of spelling mistakes and words around the wrong way. So I saw lots of red pen and thought, "Oh my gosh, what have I not done? Why am I not good enough?" And actually when I looked at the marks of those papers, they were fine. They were passes. I just had an excellent proof-reader as a mentor and neither of us told the other that was really frustrating.
And we now know as well that I have ADHD, that I am comfortable speaking about openly. Lots of people aren't and that's not a reflection. And lots of people don't have a formal diagnosis. And we could talk about that for hours in terms of privilege and waiting times. And so I completely understand it's not something that everyone can explore immediately. But my ADHD made things make sense. It's almost like someone had just given me that manual as to how things didn't work.
So I now know that things like deadlines are very difficult for me. I will leave everything until last minute. And I know that it will cause me lots of undue stress, but I will still leave things till last minute. And that is just the way my brain works and it's infuriating. I find it infuriating.
But my lecturers had just seen that I was leaving things to last minute, missing deadlines, and my practice had seen I was just missing deadlines or leaving things till last minute. And I could see it, but it was almost I was paralysed by not being able to. And it just led to so much frustration that I couldn't get to where I needed to be even though I could see it.
And so one person sitting down and saying, "What do you need? How can I help?" meant it probably changed the whole trajectory of my career. Because for anyone that's seen me talk on anything, I will always ask, "What do you need? How can I help?" And it's something I think, whether it's in the neurodiversity conversation or not, I think it's something we need to talk about more because it encourages listening.
Yeah, absolutely. Well thanks for sharing that with us Lacey. And I'm sure that'll help a lot of people. It's, veterinary nurse training as we both know is difficult enough. It's incredibly challenging and sometimes really overwhelming, isn't it?
Lacey's advice
So tell me about, just briefly, what do you think has got you to where you are now in terms of your new role? And what maybe piece of advice would you give to somebody who's working in practice or maybe working outside of practice? How could they, what piece of advice would you give them to help them find something that they love and achieve it?
I love this question. So throughout my career there have been many people that I've looked up to. And for a very long time I put them on pedestals. I really looked up to them and I almost wanted to follow their trajectory. And I wanted to do some of the things that they've done. And I thought, "When I get there I'll be successful and then I'll be happy." And for quite some time I did that.
One of the nurses I looked up to had been a head nurse and that's what I aimed for. And then when I got there I wasn't happy. So I thought, "I'll do some further certificates and when I get there, that'll be success and I'll be happy." And so I wasn't.
And the one thing that I've done differently is trying to work out what success means to me. Success now to me is very different. And so my piece of advice would be to look at what drives you, to look at what actually makes you happy, to look at what fills up your cup and build it around that.
So I love seeing patients walk again for the first time. That for me is invaluable, seeing those first steps after spinal surgery or major trauma patients. It's something that I treasure and it's a very special place to be. But if I had fulfilled my "I must be a great surgical nurse," I wouldn't see those moments because I wouldn't be working in wards. And they're really important to me.
And other nurses, I love emergency and critical care. Problem solving is where I thrive. And if I'd have fulfilled lots of the other areas that I thought, following those nurses on pedestals, I wouldn't get to do that. And I'd have been chasing someone else's success, not mine.
So while I wholeheartedly believe that we have to have people that inspire us and people we look up to, we have to remember that we are all individual. So for me, my advice is bespoke people need bespoke careers, and we need to look at what drives us and what values we have as individuals. Treasure those people, look up to them, absolutely, but don't try to be a carbon cut-out of somebody else because you're never going to find you're happy that way.
Yeah, I love that advice Lacey. I love that and it's so true. I'm the same. You look up to people and think I really aspire to that. And then actually when you really reflect and think about it, it's not something that would fit you or what you actually want. But it can be quite hard can't it to really think about what you do want?
Exactly. It's really hard. And I have, as I alluded to, I've pinballed around my career. And to start with I thought starting something and realising it wasn't for me was a fail. I now completely turn that on its head. If I start something and realise that's not for me, saying no is a massive win. Yeah. I can then take it off the list and go, "Oh that wasn't for me, not a problem." I can move on to the next thing and I can know that it's not for me.
Yeah, yeah. Oh thank you so much Lacey for talking to us today. I've really enjoyed our chat. I know we'll be having lots more chats as well that won't be recorded and posted online, but hey ho.
So to everybody, I hope you enjoyed my chat with Lacey today. And take a look at our other career case studies that we've got available on the VN Futures website. And I'm sure we'll see you all soon. Take care for now. Bye, bye.
