In October 2022 I worked the last day of my full-time management role and I haven’t looked back. I began my nursing career back in 2006 as a kennel assistant, I qualified in 2014 as an RVN, I then went on to complete two certificates and had a couple of job changes trying to find my place.
I finally found my ‘place’ in ECC, I had finally found my passion. But unfortunately night shifts, Covid 19, staff shortages and the commute took its toll on my mental health and I took the opportunity to move from nights and to work at a managerial level. I thought this was my dream job, but after two years of struggling with my mental health, mostly due to the work life balance, a relationship breakdown, missing hands on nursing and lack of down time I handed in my notice.
I had no real plan of my next steps other than my goal was to locum to regain some freedom away from the set days and hours. I wanted and needed more control over my career.
So I took a huge leap, I forced change in my life and bought a camper van. I moved my life into a van and so I started Embracing Change: Locum Veterinary Nursing& living vanlife with two Cats and a Dog.
Some people joke that I’m running from my problems but I like to think of it as chasing my happy. I’m a much improved and happier person since making this jump but by no means is it an easy life. It comes across as so carefree from the outside but it just has different problems to living in a house, for me the positives massively out way the cons. I had a few trial runs with just the dog initially, as this was all a little unplanned it was winter, and a very cold one!
The van is a long wheeled base ex work van, with double bed, tv, solar panels, shower, toilet and kitchen. Its small, and can often feel that way in the winter, the summer is a different story completely.
Winter in the van, its wet, everything gets muddy regardless of how often you clean and dry a dog, items then also take forever to dry, you have to rely on
mechanics/electrics to be warm and things can fail. There's minimal solar power in the winter so everything is that little bit harder. There's been a few occasions where the water tanks frozen, so I’ve had to rely on bottled water for all our needs. Luckily the diesel heater has been doing its job well and it soon warms back up, and for those really cold nights you cannot beat a hot water bottle in the duvet.
During my triaI runs I spent a lot of my time down at a wonderful practice down in
Hampshire working nights, I joined a national gym so I had easier access to showers and I discovered the gym was a great help to my mental health. When this all went smoothly I moved the cats in and made some modifications to the van as the cats happiness in this situation was always vital, and if they didn’t settle then I was willing to scrap that plan. Luckily for me they took to it so well, I was very proud of them all.
One cat was much more outgoing so I worked on harness training him, and now he joins me on walks with my dog (he has a backpack to go into when he’s had enough) and the other cat has never had any interest of leaving her space (even when at home). This gave me the encouragement to accept my next job an initial 6 weeks nursing cover in Orkney.
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