Royal College Day 2020 speeches: incoming VN Council Chair Matthew Rendle

Thank you, Racheal, for all your hard work as chair over the last two years, especially in tirelessly supporting veterinary nursing during the pandemic. You have done a great job, thank you. 

Watch a video of Matthew's speech

I am pleased to accept the position of chair for VN Council and have the opportunity to continue the great work that has been achieved by my predecessors. I am honoured to have the opportunity to work both with and for my profession at the highest level, it means the world to me.

In the position of chair, I will continue to keep my fellow nurses very much at heart, whatever the species, environment and role they are working in.

Veterinary nursing is not an easy profession. When I talk to nurses, they often highlight their biggest frustration with the profession is the extensive lack of understanding about our role and what we can and are very capable of doing.

Achieving more clarity on our role as veterinary nurses, at all levels is my priority, as I know resolving this could in turn improve several other chronic issues in our profession.

I would like to take this opportunity to offer some thanks. First, to my Mum and Dad, who made lots of personal sacrifices in the early days that allowed me to train. That unconditional support continues to this day. 

Second, like most veterinary nurses, my career has not been without its challenges and I would like to thank those few people who supported and saw value in me, when others did not. You know who you are - thank you.

I would like to end with a quote that I reflect upon frequently when doing my conservation nursing. It’s from Baba Dioum, a Senegalese forestry engineer and conservation trail blazer. He said,

In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we are taught.

Thank you.