VN Awareness Month interviews: Charlotte Rodia RVN

For VN Awareness Month in May 2023, we are profiling RCVS staff members who are registered veterinary nurses, to talk to them about their careers in vet nursing, the experience they bring to their role at the RCVS, and why it's so important to celebrate the vet nurse role. This interview is with Charlotte Rodia, who works for the RCVS Academy online learning platform as a Digital Learning Content Writer. 

1. Tell us about your career as a veterinary nurse prior to joining the RCVS?

I qualified in 2008 and during my 11 years of working in practice; I worked in general practice, two referral hospitals (the RVC and one in Newmarket), a charity clinic and out-of-hours clinics. I also worked in Italy for a week, which was interesting as they weren’t used to having qualified VNs. My last clinical role was as Head Nurse of a brand new Vets4Pets clinic, a unique opportunity to help set up a new clinic.

In 2017, I left clinical practice to work for a veterinary software company. I then moved into the world of learning and development and was a project manager and medical writer for a company that created digital learning experiences for the animal health industry.

2. What is your current role at the RCVS?

I am a Digital Learning Content Writer for the RCVS Academy team. My role is to work with subject matter experts in the various departments within the RCVS to help write and edit courses for the Academy. I am also responsible for quality assuring the courses and for writing some of the communications to promote the courses both internally and externally. 

3. How does your veterinary nursing career impact how you approach your job on a day-to-day basis?

My background as a VN helps me immensely in my day-to-day job; I frequently draw on my experience of my time in practice in order to write relevant content that I know our learners can understand and relate to. 

4. Why do you think it is so important to recognise and celebrate the VN profession?

One of the things that I found disheartening when I was nursing in practice was the lack of recognition from the general public. I frequently got asked if I was training to be a veterinary surgeon, or people assumed that as nurses we just cuddled people’s pets all day! For our human nurse counterparts, the general public has a great understanding of what they do, and I really hope it gets to the stage where veterinary nurses have the same level of recognition for the important job they do.