Women in STEM Author Interview: Charlotte Pace
Posted on: March 22, 2023
What was your motivating factor to explore the STEM field?
I became a veterinary nurse when I was 27. I had been working in the corporate world, and was given the opportunity of voluntary redundancy. The redundancy pay out allowed me to follow a childhood dream of working with animals, which I had been reminded of when my cat broke his leg a year earlier. I was fascinated and amazed at how the veterinary practice fixed his fracture, and how he returned to a normal way of life in a matter of months. In my final year of being a student vet nurse, and just weeks before my wedding, my husband developed heart failure. I did not understand what happened, or why, and I certainly did not understand the severity of it. Our cardiology teaching had been fairly minimal at college, and so for personal reasons, I started to develop an interest in it. I was fascinated with the heart, understanding how it really worked, but also crucially, what happened when it did not work so well. Soon after, I got my dream job of working at the Royal Veterinary College, and I knew I wanted to work in the new cardiology department. However, after only a couple of weeks working in cardiology, my husband died. At 32, my world and my future had fallen apart.
Work was the only thing that kept me going as my passion for animal welfare superseded my own grief. I put everything I had into learning and studying everything I could about heart disease in small animal medicine. I sat exams in America to become the first veterinary technician specialist (VTS) outside of America. This love of cardiology, and sharing that knowledge, drove me to lecture and teach diploma and degree nurses. In this last year, a lifetime ambition of wanting to write a book, came true.
How many women do you currently collaborate with the in STEM field?
In the cardiology field, I have worked alone for many years. However, 2 female nurses have recently become UK cardiology VTS holders in the last couple of years, and I am helping one of them to write and lecture in the field. I am also now mentoring 2 female cardiology referral nurses, who are wanting to take the VTS route this year.
In my everyday work, I work with a lot of women. Some of those women are exceptional. My boss is a mother, a vet and chair of a board of senior partners, shaping the future of the company, and she inspires me on a daily basis. My profession is female dominated, and so I get to work with vets and nurses, who make a difference to the animals in their care every day. In my current role as President of the British Veterinary Nursing Association, I work with pioneering women who are shaping the future of veterinary nursing. I meet with, and work with, industry leading nurses, nurses who are managers and clinical directors, specialist nurses, educators and researchers. My Presidential theme is ‘empowerment’, and so I am spending a lot of my energy focusing on how nurses can champion their achievements and passions within veterinary nursing. There are over 22,000 registered veterinary nurses in the UK, so that is a lot of collaboration! One of the ways we engage is through BVNA’s Veterinary Nursing Awareness Month in May. This year we are highlighting 4 areas:-
- The journey of a student to qualification
- Being a registered veterinary nurse
- Client and public perception of veterinary nursing (in line with our Protect the Title campaign). I am currently speaking to politicians and industry leaders about the need for statutory protection of the title ‘veterinary nurse’.
- Career diversification
How can women support one another in the STEM field?
I do believe that we can be a part of the problem, or a part of the solution. There is no reason why women cannot achieve the things that men have. This means that we champion each other, just like this campaign is doing, and celebrate the successes that we have achieved. And these successes can look very different for every woman. It may be being a mother or caring for family, whilst being the best version of a veterinary nurse that you can be, whatever that looks like. For me, sitting with a client when they have just experienced a loss, can be the most empowering part of my job. Or helping a cat that presents in overt heart failure, to go home with its owner having helped the vets treat and diagnose it.
What needs to happen in the STEM field to attract more women?
This question is out of my scope, I think! My answer would be to have the conversations, and ask why not?! Having said that, BVNA do go into schools (the Vet Team in a Box campaign), to show children what being a vet nurse is about. By seeing women who enjoy their job, and are passionate about animal welfare, is one way of doing this.
What skillset is beneficial for considering a pathway in STEM?
Determination, cooperation, brush yourself off and get up after falling, and a desire to improve the world you are part of. For me, that has been and still is cardiology. These days, it is developing flexible working, encouraging good workplaces, and empowering veterinary nurses to follow their dreams.
When was your “ah-ha moment” when you realized this is the pathway you wanted to take?
Writing my book came when I walking around the British Veterinary Nursing Association (BVNA) conference. I was killing time before I was due to give a lecture. As I always do, I looked at the publisher exhibitor stands, and got to talking to a woman on the Taylor & Francis stand. I explained I was looking for cardiology textbooks, to see if there was anything aimed at veterinary nurses. She then asked ‘Why don’t you write it?’ Initially, I laughed at the suggestion, because I thought I could never doing something like that. However, I gave her my details, and a couple of days later, I was emailed by Alice Oven, who sent me a proposal document. Ever since I was a child, I dreamed of writing a book, and the question ‘why don’t you write it’ kept circling in my head. I changed that question to why not me, and 2 years later, Practical Cardiology for Veterinary Nurses has been published!
Which contributions to the field have inspired you to do more?
From a cardiology perspective, I have been inspired by Professor Virginia Luis Fuentes. She highlighted to me that men and women are treated differently in veterinary medicine. In her field, she has done pioneering research, and inspires and develops the many women she trains and collaborates with. Veterinary Nurses like Helen Ballantyne (a ‘human’ and animal nurse) and is a pioneer in the One Health approach. Linda Ryan, who was the first nurse to hold 2 VTS certificates, and now runs a successful business for behaviour, and lectures around the world. And finally Hilary Orpet, a nurse who developed the degree programme at the Royal Veterinary College.
They have inspired me, because they have not given up. They keep going, to improve veterinary medicine for all who choose to take that path.