I was in consultation just 3 days ago - I described the recommended procedure, complications, prognosis and costs. The owner then called his wife - "I've just been speaking with the nurse".
I'm taking the kids with me to 'Vets on Tour' in NZ (where I am a keynote speaker at the ski conference), so I've been hitting up FB Marketplace for kids ski gear, picking items up on my way home in my scrubs. I've been asked twice in the last one week if I enjoy being a nurse.
Now don't get me wrong - when I hear these words there is no offence taken. I secretly (or now not so secretly) take it as a compliment that I look like a nurse. This is probably because of my own subconscious bias, based on actual reality, that nurses are kind, caring people. I like that this is how I look.
But I'm not a nurse. I have loved and studied Surgery from the moment I graduated as a vet 20 years ago. I sat my Memberships in Small Animal Surgery 14 years ago then subsequently examined this subject (then became head examiner for this subject). I then gained a residency in Small Animal Surgery (at which point I was the only female resident/registrar or specialist surgeon of 10 surgeons in the group). I went through a vigorous training programme where I published my research in veterinary journals, presented it at international conferences, and submitted a 450 surgery case log to credential to sit Fellowship exams. I then studied surgery 13.5 hours a day for 3 months locked in a room away from my young family and passed my Specialist Surgical Examinations. I was the only person in my year to pass. All other candidates, that looked like surgeons, did not pass in my year. I am now the President of the Surgery Chapter and I am helping set up an incredible Brachycephalic Care Unit at my hospital that I am immensely proud of.
I love that I look like a nurse. But I also hope that one day, there will be so many female surgeons that look like I do, that I will arrive at someone's house in my scrubs on the way home, and they will say "Do you enjoy being a surgeon?"
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