Jo Mackenzie has achieved a lot for someone so young.
Not only does this Scottish Veterinary Nurse have a long list of international volunteering experiences under her belt, but she is also the founder of the Veterinary Volunteering Facebook group, the Romania Programme Manager for the charity IAPWA, and the winner of the Animal Star Awards Vet Nurse of the Year for 2019.
And as though that’s not enough, Jo has recently completed her Diploma in Advanced Veterinary Nursing , all while volunteering, locuming and renovating her home on the Scottish coast.
I was lucky enough to meet Jo through mutual colleagues while I locumed as a vet in Aberdeen, and was blown away by her inspirational attitude to life and vet nursing. She invited me over to her cosy seaside cottage, and snuggled on the sofa beside her rescue dogs, we chatted her path to becoming an RVN, treating dogs in Chernobyl, setting up a mobile charity clinic in Romania, and how its possible to incorporate volunteering into your everyday life.
First up, tell me a little about your background.
I grew up a small village on the outskirts of Inverness. I’ve always been crazy about animals, my family don’t know where it comes from. I’ve just always loved them.
Originally, I really wanted to be a vet, I wanted to do that since I was about six years old. But I really didn’t enjoy school at all, and ended up leaving at the end of fifth year. So I went and worked at a stable, and also part-time at a nursery with small children- which put me off children [laughs].
I had a bit of a background with horses, and did some horsey qualifications as well. I thought about going down that route.
And then I found out about vet nursing.
At the time I had thought you could just be a vet, and that was it. When I found out about vet nursing, I thought that was a good compromise that I could go for.
And now, looking back, it’s not a compromise at all. Some people are either a vet or a nurse, and I’m definitely a nurse.
I don’t think I would have been a very good vet, I prefer the hands of patient care which is what nursing is all about. So I think I was lucky that it went that way.
And where did you study vet nursing?
I went to college at Barony in Dumfries, so opposite end of the country from where I grew up.
The closest option to home was Thurso- but travelling and getting away to different places has always been high on my list.
I found a training practice in Cumbernauld, just on the outskirts of Glasgow, so I moved and did my training there.
And what was the training like for vet nurses in Dumfries? Did you have to spend quite a lot of time in practice during your studies?
Yeah, it’s a changed a little since I went through in 2006. We had to a handwritten portfolio, rather than the online progress log that student nurses do now. And we studied in blocks- so we’d go to college for about 6 weeks, then work in a practice for 8-10 weeks. And that was over two years.
Fantastic. And so what was your first move after graduation?
Before I graduated, I was already getting itchy feet, so I was looking at jobs and saw one advertised in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I applied and I got it, even though I wasn’t actually qualified yet. I’d sat my final exams but I didn’t have my results yet. So I ended up going there and being the first registered nurse that they’d ever had, which, in hindsight, was not the most sensible option. But it was one of those sink or swim situations where it could have broken me, but I really enjoyed it.
I actually worked in a couple of practices in Belfast. The second one was much better suited to me in that it had many more nurses, and it was much more supportive and nurturing. They really knew what nurses could do and were able to help me develop.
And when did you first get interested in volunteering?
It must have been when I’d been qualified for two or three years, and I’d always been really interested in travelling. I’d always wanted to go abroad, but I didn’t really know much about how I could use my vet nursing qualification. A lot of the [opportunities] that I had looked at previously had been those programs where you spend £3000 to go and build a pen for a rhino or something. But you’re not necessarily getting hands on or properly involved.
I was starting to feel just a little bit disillusioned with nursing. I’d had a couple of jobs and …it’s hard to describe. I was just feeling a little fed up with stuff that comes with working in practice. It’s not what you imagine it’s going to be, and I think I was probably starting to suffer from compassion fatigue.
So I quit my job without having another one to go to, not really knowing what I was going to do.
Then I saw an advert for TOLFA in India, looking for volunteer vet nurses.
I didn’t really know how it was going to go, the logistics of how I was going to get there, if I could afford it or anything! But I made it happen, and it totally gave me back my spark, my love for nursing. It was the first step.
And it sounds like since you’ve been at TOLFA (Tree of Life for Animals), you’ve been involved with a number of other charities?
Yeah, after I came back from TOLFA, I decided “I want to do more of this”.
So I started locuming, so that I could give myself more flexibility and time. I initially planned to do one trip a year [laughs].
It worked for a couple of years, then I started to get more and more involved. I went and did some work with cats in Greece, I took my sister with me to Croatia where we helped out at a dog shelter. I went to Bosnia with Dog’s Trust to teach on their training program for local vets- I went back there several times. And the more that I did, the more opportunities that came up.
I’ve found that too. Volunteering gets under your skin and it can be hard to stop!
Yeah, and you make contacts as well! When I first went to Romania that was through a vet who I’d met in Bosnia. We had worked there together teaching, and then she asked for some support teaching anaesthesia skills to vets. So you make those contacts and you build on it.
That’s an under-rated part of volunteering- you really do become part of the volunteering community.
And I believe you also took part in a volunteer project in Chernobyl. Can you share with us a little bit about that experience?
Yeah, last year I volunteered in Chernobyl for a couple of weeks. It was really cool, and just goes to show you the kind of places that your qualifications can take you!
Yeah, living the dream eh? [laughs]
It’s not a typical tourist destination [laughs].
But it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life, genuinely.
We worked in the actual [Chernobyl] power plant itself, in one of the abandoned buildings. There were people going around with Geiger counters. It was pretty unnerving.
There were certain sections of the buildings that were taped off because they were too radio-active, so we didn’t go in there!
It was a spey and neuter project. It was something [I did] on a total whim. It just came up in my Facebook volunteering group, and I thought, oh, lets do that!
There were a lot of challenges because we were working with lots of restrictions in the power plant. So you can’t catch a dog and just take it to the clinic, you’ve got to through lots of check points. Then the dogs had to be scanned for radiation before we could handle them. So there was lots of waiting, it wasn’t the smoothest running because of that. And you’d find that you had six dogs coming, and then you’d have nothing, so it was a bit stop and start. But I think we got quite a lot done.
Can you explain why there was there such a need for a spey and neuter project at Chernobyl?
A lot of dogs were abandoned there [following the disaster] in 1986, so we were working with their offspring. The [local officials] did originally try to cull them, but the ones who were left behind had been living pretty wild. The disaster was over 30 years ago, so that’s a lot of time to breed.
But it was a proper once in a lifetime experience.
It sounds like a fantastic experience.
It really was. I’m completely fascinated by anything related to Chernobyl now. It had never really been on my radar before.
I think that’s one of the really cool things about volunteering. You learn about places.
When I went to Sarajevo, Bosnia, I didn’t really know about what had happened there. And then going in, speaking to people who actually lived through the war there, you see all the reminders of the war, and you get a real sense of how things were. You learn so much about the place that you might not necessarily learn as a tourist because you’re speaking to locals, people who were actually there.
I believe that you’ve recently launched a new project with IAPWA (International Aid for the Protection and Welfare of Animals) in Romania. Can you tell me a little about that role?
Yeah, so I’ve been involved with IAPWA for four or five years. I started off just doing little bits of admin for them at home, and it’s just developed to the point where I’m now their Programme Manager for Romania. We’ve got a really ambitious long-term plan in Romania.
We want to improve the animal welfare situation in Romania as a whole. We’re going to need to do that in multiple different steps, covering lots of different areas from education, to neutering, to improving welfare in shelters, to changing government legislation. There are so many different facets to it. But the mobile clinic is the first step.
We first started planning the project nearly two years ago. There’s been a lot of fundraising done by IAPWA supporters, and a lot of work behind the scenes to find the right vehicle, get it kitted out, and sort out all the logistics. It’s a great feeling to see it all coming together!
We’ll use [the mobile vet clinic] to drive around and visit rural communities and shelters who don’t necessarily have access to [veterinary] care- spaying and neutering as a focus but also providing some animal welfare education, teaching them a little about how they can improve the situation.
We’re working with some amazing Romanian vets who are totally dedicated to animal welfare, and we hope to collaborate with other local vets, shelters and other organisations to make the biggest possible impact.
Thats fantastic! It sounds like a really huge project.
Huge! [both laugh]
But its coming together well?!
It is coming together. We launched it in November, and we’ve already started neutering in it. From early next year we’ll be looking for volunteer vets and nurses to help with it throughout the year.
Find out more about how you can get involved through the links at the bottom of this page!
Ok, now I’d like to ask you a little bit about the Facebook groups.
You are the founder of the Veterinary Volunteering Facebook group, which, as of this morning has almost 5000 members, and its sister group, Volunteering with Animals.
What inspired you to start these groups?
The original group, Veterinary Volunteering, [began] just because so many people kept asking me- “how can I get involved? How can I do some volunteering? I’ve always wanted to do this!”
And it really just started as a group for me and my friends so that we could pool all that information together and save me constantly having to send links to people. We could easily chat about opportunities, and ask for advice, or recommend a place where they’d been. And it really grew arms and legs, I never expected it to such a big thing!
Then the sister group, Volunteer with Animals, started because we had a lot of member requests from people without a veterinary background and I wanted to offer them something similar. It’s been slower to grow but we’re getting more and more member requests.
Now we have four admins that do such an amazing job! I just couldn’t manage to do it all myself. They are very active groups, and a lot of work goes into the admin side of it. We have to check every person to make sure they are actually working in the industry. Projects that are posted, we want to check that they are ethical, so we have to research a lot of background info for a lot of projects. And that can be quite difficult! When you’re looking at a website it can be easy to present the impression that you are an ethical group, but without actually having been there, it can be quite difficult to know for sure.
There can be a little controversy about it as well- every person’s ethical line is a little different. What one person might consider to be an ethical program, somebody else might not. So there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes discussion with the admins, debating which posts we should accept, or how to deal with different posts.
The team really seems to do a really thorough job. I see them posting in the group everyday, even with just reminders or encouragement.
Yeah, constantly!
I genuinely couldn’t do it without the admins- I’m just kind of there getting all the glory for having set it up but they do the bulk of the work!
After hearing about all your experiences as a volunteer, I’d like to ask you to share some of your advice!
Imagine there’s a young person who has never volunteered before, has gone on the Facebook page and seen all theses opportunities, and feels a bit overwhelmed. What guidance would you give them that would help them choose the best opportunity for themselves?
I think if you’ve never [volunteered] before, it’s probably a good idea for your first project to go through [a group] that’s really well established.
Companies like WVS have really well-organised projects and give loads of support, especially if you’re a little bit nervous about travelling by yourself. Their support and guidance is really invaluable.
Often it’s the smaller charities that maybe are more in need of help, but often don’t have such a structured volunteer program. So it’s maybe better to go through them later on when you’re a little more comfortable and know more about what to expect.
Because unfortunately, some people can be put off by, for example, if you arrive somewhere and you’ve never done anaesthesia off-the-needle before, and you might just be expected to get on with it. Whereas places like WVS or Dogs Trust International will give you guidance on that before you go, which helps to ease things.
Also, try to speak to people who have been there before, see what kind of experience they’ve had and how they’ve found the support network.
And the Facebook group is great for that as well, as people often comment to say they’ve been there and they recommend it. So that’s a way to connect with past volunteers too.
Yes! Going with friends is a great way to start as well. I mean I’ve often gone by myself and I’ve always come home with friends [laughs].
But if you are a little nervous, having someone else with you can really help. But [volunteering] is such a bonding experience, I’ve made genuine friends for life, and I’ve maybe only worked with them for a week in a random country.
And the thing that I love about it as well is that you meet the locals as a volunteer, and they’ll take you to all the off-the-beaten-track places that you wouldn’t necessarily see as a tourist.
Yes! When I volunteered in South America, the locals were wonderful and they would bring us gifts like eggs or home baking. It was a much more genuine experience than I’ve had on just regular vacations!
I want to talk a little about how you’ve managed to incorporate your charity and volunteer work into your normal everyday life in the UK. I think that’s something that a lot of people struggle with, especially as I know you’ve been balancing volunteering with time with your partner, along with renovating a house and completing further study. What’s the secret!?
Yeah, it’s difficult. But I think if it’s something you really enjoy, you’ll find a way to make it work.
I love a list, my to-do list is never ending but having everything I need to do written down helps me to prioritise and manage my time.
It was definitely great when I was locuming. I would work solidly for 6 months, then I could take 6 weeks off and go somewhere. I appreciate that’s not for everybody. I’ve also worked in full-time jobs and still managed to fit it in.
You don’t necessarily want to use up all your holidays to [volunteer], although I’ve certainly used a few. I do find that if you just go and speak to your practice, they often will be happy to give you unpaid time off, especially if you’ve been there a little while. The thing is- they should want you to be happy. If you’re unhappy because you’re not able to do what you want to do, you’re not going to work as well. I always find that the bosses I’ve asked for unpaid time off have been happy to accommodate that- as long as I’m not asking for months and months!
I think a lot of people think that they can really only make a difference if they go somewhere for three months, but it doesn’t have to be like that! You can go for a week to a neutering clinic in Romania and achieve a lot in that time.
You still make a real difference. It doesn’t need to be this big, once in a lifetime trip, that you have to build-up to for years.
You can just go! A lot of the European countries are cheap to fly to, cheap to survive once you’re there.
Yeah, and if its money that is your limiting factor, a lot of the projects will actually provide you with either food, or accommodation once you’re there, so it actually can be cheaper to volunteer than to go on a holiday anyway.
Yeah, often you are just literally paying for your flights. The only reason that I was able to go back to Bosnia as a volunteer so many times is that Dog’s Trust projects are fully funded, so they pay for your flights and accommodation and even feed you. It’s not often that you find projects that are fully funded- but they are out there.
And you’ve also managed to participate in some projects from home as well, like becoming a speaker for the Blue Cross, and doing some online admin for IAPWA. Can you tell me more about that?
Yes! So volunteering with the Blue Cross was a bit of a challenge to myself. I don’t like speaking in front of groups of people, it makes me really uncomfortable. So I was looking for an opportunity that would push me out of my comfort zone and give me some new skills.
I came across the Blue Cross opportunity [for volunteer educational speakers] on the Facebook volunteering page, and I thought it would be a really good idea. There’s nobody in this area that was currently doing it, and dog safety is such a huge topic for kids to learn about as well as animal welfare in general. So I signed up for it, and I’d say that while I’m still not super comfortable with public speaking, it does get a little easier every time. So I am gaining skills and confidence, and it is really rewarding.
Volunteering can be a really great way to push yourself out of your comfort zone. And I think a lot of members of our profession are introverts, we often find it easier to get on with animals than with people!
Definitely!
Do you have any advice for veterinary professionals and students who are feeling inspired and would like to know how they can get involved with volunteering while still living at home?
Even if you can’t go far, there is so much that you can do at home!
That’s how I got involved with IAPWA. I noticed that they were advertising for nurses to go out to Borneo, and I emailed and said, “I’d love to come to Borneo but I can’t at the moment. If there’s anything I can do from home, please let me know.”
They got back to me and said, “Yeah, that’s great, there’s so much you can do”.
So I started to help to write protocols, typing up some of their data from community surveys, and then being the point of contact for their volunteers. There are so many little bits and pieces that you can do from home that are really really helpful. They don’t necessarily take a huge amount of your time, and you don’t really need to get out and about to do them.
I think veterinary professionals are really well placed to help advise on policy, and on the right protocols, and how we should be doing certain things as a charity. So you can definitely make a difference that way as well.
Yeah, working in our profession really does teach you a lot of skills, not only in a clinic. For example, we’re used to working with people, organising things…
Even talking about simple things, like how can we sterilise kits in the field? We need a vet or veterinary nurse to know what the minimum standards are for that, and think of ways to do it. You need someone who really knows what you need, and what equipment you can get away without- what we need to buy, and what can we save money on.
And so in that case, I’d recommend having a look through [the opportunities on the Facebook page]. Find some charities that you like their ethos and the way they work, and just contact them to see if there’s anything you can do for them!
In general, what would you say is the biggest struggle or frustration that you face as a vet nurse?
For me, the thing that I find most frustrating is owners who complain about costs and how things are done. It just makes life really difficult when you are constantly being told that you are just in it for the money. Or that you don’t have genuine care. And I find that the mental health in this profession is so poor anyway, that it’s a really big thing.
I also struggle with the amount of money that is spent on individual animals here, after seeing how far money can go overseas. You see people who just want to do everything because they can, not just because they should. That’s a struggle as well.
I found that once I’d worked overseas and seen the difference in standards, my perspective of what’s a normal, healthy animal has really changed.
Yeah, its gives you a completely different perspective.
You see how minimal [veterinary care] is sometimes provided overseas and the animal can still have a good quality of life. But you come over here and people are so upset over the littlest thing.
Exactly, and that becomes an exercise in communication with the owners as well, to help them realise which things are important, and which things we don’t need to be concerned about.
So tell me, what’s your favourite part of being a vet nurse?
Hmm. That’s a strange question, because I really love it, I’ve always loved it, but I’ve never really thought about what I love about it in particular.
I love when you see an animal that you’ve nursed, that has been on death’s door. And you see it walking out at the end. That’s the most rewarding thing. You see that all the hard work your team has put in has been worth it, and its come good.
And also, being able to go and travel and use my qualification overseas.
Absolutely, this career really does enable you to have a lot of opportunities to travel. That’s something I didn’t realise when I was a student.
Yeah, [vet nursing] is definitely more than just a job. I feel like being a vet nurse sort of defines who I am. Its not, just a thing that I do for a living and forget about when I come home. It is who I am.
That’s the same for me too! I often meet other vets and nurses who say that they don’t tell new acquaintances what they do for a job because they don’t want to talk about it outside of work. For me, I feel like I want to talk about it all the time! I just love it! [laughs]
Yes! You’re never off duty, its always on my mind!
What advice would you give to a young vet nurse about how to enjoy or get the most out of their career?
Don’t be afraid to move practices if you’re not happy where you are. I think a lot of people do get bogged down and think this is how it is, and they just have to get on with it. But really, different people are suited to different practices, and if you’re not happy where you are, never be afraid to move on. I’ve had lots of jobs, and people have said to me- “does it not affect you negatively because employers think you’re not going to stay?”. If anything I think its helped me because it gives me that wider range of experience.
And volunteer! Go and volunteer and see how things are done in different places. It really makes you a better rounded nurse, and I think it does give you a passion for nursing as well.
Especially, working overseas with very limited supplies, you can see how much of a difference you are making to the animals.
And don’t take yourself too seriously! You’ve got to have a sense of humour about it- a bit of a dark sense of humour sometimes. But yeah, don’t take yourself too seriously.
Excellent advice! And so the very last question is, what’s next on the cards for you? What can we expect for you in the future?
So from 2020, our mobile clinic will be up and running, and I’ll be going out to Romania fairly regularly to work on that. I want to get the benefit of working in it myself, rather than just sitting at home and organising it all.
And yeah, making plans for the next steps with IAPWA.
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences and advice with me. I think there’s a lot we can learn from your dedication to volunteering, and its been really inspiring to chat with you!
Further Information
Thanks so much for reading- I hope you feel as inspired as I do talking to Jo!
If you’d like to know more about any of the fantastic charities that Jo has worked with so far, check out these links:
- IAPWA’s Mobile Vet Clinic in Romania
- TOLFA India (not currently taking volunteers)
- Dog’s Trust
- Blue Cross
- WVS (Worldwide Veterinary Service)
- Dogs of Chernobyl- Clean Futures Fund
Want to read interviews with other inspiring volunteers working on different international projects? Head back over to the Volunteer page.
Or check out the Global Vet Interview Project for discussions with other veterinary professionals who work in unique places around the globe.
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