A priceless gift that I highly recommend!

Veterinary nurses are a hardy breed. Our day ranges from cleaning up excrement (a lot), to watching anaesthetics for hours, to assisting clients in their happiest and saddest moments. We carry out blood tests, scale and polish teeth, monitor hospital patients, carry our nurse consults, welcome clients ate reception - you name it, we do it! It is often physically tiring and emotionally exhausting. We go through college and/or university to qualify. We work unsocial-able hours and tell inappropriate work stories at the dinner table. We earn not much over the minimum wage considering our professionalism. And 90% of us wouldn't choose to do anything else :) Veterinary nursing is a labour of love (There'll always be them 10% who are miserable buggars!)



So, when you get a thank you, whether it be verbal, a touch on your arm, a card, or as I did this week, an

award nomination, it means a great great deal. It says "Thank you for what you did", "You made a difference to us" or "You're doing a great job". And in a career when more often than not you're be on the brunt of peoples' anger, frustrations and grief; the positive feedback wipes out everything, no matter how bad your day has been. I work with a fantastic team of nurses and I've seen them be on the recieving end of clients' and colleagues' frustrations, taking it on the chin and getting on with their day. I admire them. I admire all the nurses I've worked with. I've had times where situations out of my control that had broken me, I had one last week, so I know my fellow nurses have too. So, I'd like to say thank you, to all those clients and colleagues that take the time to say thank you, it may not mean much to you, but it means a lot to us :)

The award nomination I received was a Petplan Veterinary Awards nomination. These awards are a bit like the Oscars of the veterinary world. I know I'm not going to win but every nomination receives a certificate, and even that on its own is still a huge honour. Sadly you're not told who nominated you, so I'm none the wiser as to who it was, so instead I'm just going to say thank you to the big wide world in the hope it gets back to that sweet, lovely client of mine. Although Petplan nominations have closed for this year, you can always nominate someone special next year and there's always the Ceva Awards for Animal Welfare which have veterinary categories too!