b"PROFILEDR RUTH CAWSTON Dr Ruth Cawston MA VetMB CertAVP(SAM) MRCVS began her veterinary career in 2014 and has grown with Swayne & Partners, becoming Clinical Director. Now also Lead Clinical Advisor at Kin Veterinary Community, she champions evidence-based, contextualised care to support both patients and veterinary teams.Please give a brief summary of yourIn the clinic, a satisfying day is one where career path so farfeel free to shareI can improve my patients' well-being, what motivated your career decisions: provide their owners with a deeper My parents have often teased me (notunderstanding of how to improve their entirely unfairly) that I chose to gopets health, and help my team work into veterinary medicine as an act oftogether to achieve these same goals. rebellion because I wasnt allowed toMy Advisor role allows me to think more have a dog when I was growing up. Afterdeeply about how and why we make a series of small furry creatures, theychoices in our clinic, creating structures finally relented when I was sixteen, butthat make compassionate, evidence-by then, I was well on my way down mybased practice as easy as possible for chosen career path. our clinicians. I still work in the same practice group (Swayne & Partners) where I started asI got into veterinary a newly graduated vet in 2014. Im often told that this is quite unusual, but tomedicine for the animals, but me it has seemed perfectly natural. AtI stayed for the people. My each stage of my career, my practice group has offered what I needed, andcolleagues and clients are the I know and love my colleagues. I haveones who help me enjoy my successfully completed a CertAVP in Small Animal Medicine, gaineddays, both in the clinic and experience in first-option, hospital, andoutside of it. emergency work, and become a Clinical Director during my tenure here. WhyWhat is the biggest challenge to staying would I go elsewhere? passionate in your veterinary career Swayne & Partners became part of theyouve overcome, and how did you Kin Veterinary Community in 2023, andapproach it? alongside my work in practice, I joinedAround two years after qualifying, I the central team as Lead Clinical Advisordeveloped a series of health problems in 2024. This role has brought together quote my love of evidence-based medicinethat meant I had to reduce my hours and my long-standing passion forand take a step back from some clinical contextualised care, helping to developwork. Im definitely guilty of tying my self-diagnostic and treatment options foresteem to my role as a vet, and being our clients that are both effective andforced to do less affected my sense of appropriate for their individual needs.worth much more than I had anticipated.What is it about your work that enthusesI had to embrace two truths to get you and brings you satisfaction?through this. Firstly, and more obviously, my worth as a human does not equate to I got into veterinary medicine for themy value as a vet. There are many other animals, but I stayed for the people. Mymeaningful aspects of my life, and when colleagues and clients are the ones whoI stepped back and looked at it from a help me enjoy my days, both in the clinicdistance, I could see that my clinical skills and outside of it.are only one small part of my whole. www.inspiredvet.co.uk15"