b'EMPOWERED TO INSPIRE, ACHIEVE AND LEAD TOGETHEREMPOWERED TO INSPIRE, ACHIEVE AND LEAD TOGETHEREMPOWERED TO INSPIRE, ACHIEVE AND LEAD TOGETHEREMPOWERED TO INSPIRE,VETERINARY WOMAN CHAMPIONS FOR CHANGEACHIEVE & LEAD TOGETHERSamantha Lympany-Tier EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT OFFICER, OPTIVET REFERRALS Samantha Lympany-Tier has a passion for supporting colleagues wellbeing and progression, advocating for patient emotional welfare in clinical practice and advocating for the role of the veterinary care assistant (VCA). Working as Education and Development Officer for Optivet Referrals, she reflects on her career experiences from falconer, through VCA, to graduate in Clinical Animal Behaviour to make a meaningful impact on animal welfare and empower others to advocate for themselves, and their patients.Please summarise how you are working towards changeat Optivet are great at recognising the need for anxiolytics, in the veterinary professions and why do you feel this isbut there is no measured framework to try and clinically important? understand and recognise how our patients felt during their Coming from a weird and wonderful background into an entrystay. My MSc thesis looked at the attitudes and perceptionslevel position gave me a unique perspective on how VCAsof veterinary professionals towards emotional welfare, and are viewed within the veterinary industry. I did not come intowhilst I wont offer any spoilers it certainly raised some S U M M A R Y the role to be a nurse one day; I came with a specific view tointeresting points. directly impact of welfare of the patients in my care. I wasSo, alongside my colleagues we developed an emotionalI tick the other box as a veterinarylucky at Optivet; they allowed me to pursue my interests andwelfare assessment for our patients, to encourage us to paraprofessional, and I certainly didntultimately, create a role and department based on my previous take the quick route into the world ofexperience. So alongside other likeminded professionals in thelook clinically at an individual patients mental state and companion animal welfare.industry, I am working towards recognition of the VCA as a roleevaluate how this might be impacting their behavioural andI started my career as a falconer andin and of itself, a speciality within our field. This will hopefullyphysiological responses. The aim is that this assessment will education officer, working withininspire not only other VCAs, but other businesses to allowempower and allow veterinary staff to recognise stress more zoological collections. Despite mytheir VCAs to grow and develop based on their skillsets andconfidently in their patients, and then offer a more holistic and enjoyment of the job, the industry wasntprevious experience.contextualised treatment plan to not only treat the physical quite the right fit for me, but I found a realproblem, but the emotional state of the patient. passion for education and welfare. Within Optivet, I am creating an internal knowledgeHow do you feel this is making a difference?After some consideration, I went back toframework to ensure our VCAs are offered the sameIt is early days for both aspects of change progression, we are university to do my MSc in Clinical Animalopportunities to develop and learn as our other clinical staff.still in the planning stage of getting all this off the ground, for Behaviour, as my lifelong companionshipThey have access to CPD allowance and regular developmentboth VCAs and patient emotional wellbeing. However, within of cats made me reflect on how myopportunities and are encouraged to take ownership ofour business we are already noticing a difference. background could apply to helpingprojects that they can take forward to whatever route they owners better understand their felinechose to take. VCAs work closely with both RVNs and vets to discuss the friends.holistic view of a patients clinical journey and feel empowered My true passion, however, lies in animal welfare.As a VCA, Iand respected within their role. Having an induction noticed that although we measured and controlled pain, weprogramme based on a solid foundation of learning has fell short in looking at our patients holistically. My colleaguesallowed our VCAs a more comprehensive understanding of 42www.veterinarywoman.co.uk'