Question: what changed your mind about being a vet ?

Helen Faulkner answered on 11 Jun 2019:

I never really wanted to be a vet as I didn’t think I’d be able to handle the ‘death’ side of the job or rather being the one that had to put an animal down or be responsible for an animal making it through an operation. I was a lot more unsure of myself at that point.
I had decided that being a vet nurse was a safe half way point, I got to work with animals and take care of them but there was less responsibility.

So two things changed my mind.
Firstly I spent a week (and then my summer holidays) working at a vets and learning more about the day to day job. It was ok but most of my day was spent cleaning which I don’t really like. There were a few special moments like hand feeding a sick cat and I knew that with more training, I’d be able to do more than cleaning.
Secondly when I started looking round university’s at veterinary courses I went to an introductory talk about vet nursing which was crammed and the speaker, clearly trying to whittle out anyone who was not passionate about the job, said you will spend the next 3 years studying to be a cleaner first and foremost.

I decided that although I loved animals and wanted to care for them, I wanted more than to be a cleaner.

I sometimes think now I’d like to be a vet but I’m not sure I’d want to go back to uni for another 7 years, getting too old now 😂