100 | What medical nursing REALLY looks like as a veterinary nurse: my academy students interview me!

What happens when the microphone gets handed back to the person who usually asks the questions? 

For the 100th episode of The Medical Nursing Podcast, the tables are turned. Instead of leading the conversation, I hand the microphone to Cat, a registered veterinary nurse and Medical Nursing Academy student, who interviews me about career identity, internal medicine nursing, advocacy, and what the future of the profession could look like.

This episode is a celebration of far more than hitting 100 episodes. It reflects on how our nursing careers evolve, how our confidence is built through experience, and why we play such a vital (and often underestimated) role in internal medicine. I hope you enjoy this honest, vulnerable and reflective conversation, and that it helps you, no matter where you are in your veterinary nursing career.

Meet Cat!

Catriona Muir RVN FdAward(Med) NCert(MedNsg) is a veterinary nurse at The Oaks Vets in Scotland. She’s been an academy member since 2023, completing the Foundation Award in 2025, and she runs a large, successful diabetic clinic service. You can learn more about Cat in her podcast episode here.

Cat: “Can you remember the exact moment you decided to start your own educational platform - and what made you do it?”

Yes - I can, although it wasn’t as straightforward as people might expect. Veterinary Internal Medicine Nursing wasn’t the first platform I created. Earlier in my career, I was working as a medicine nurse when my workplace went through major changes and dedicated medicine nursing roles were removed altogether. I suddenly felt like I’d lost my identity as a nurse.

At that point, I created a very general nursing page with no real direction - it was more of an outlet than a plan. The real turning point came later, when I was revising for my VTS exam. I was learning huge amounts of information and realised that if I needed to organise it to make sense of it, there must be other nurses who wanted access to that same knowledge. That’s when the platform became medicine-focused - both as a way to help others and as a place to put my passion for internal medicine at a time when it wasn’t fully recognised clinically.

Cat: “What advice would you give to nurses who want to start their own social media or educational platform?”

My biggest piece of advice is not to wait until things feel perfect. When I started, there were very few nursing-specific platforms, and I learned almost everything through trial and error. Making mistakes is part of the process, and the worst-case scenarios are usually far less dramatic than they feel at the time.

I’d also strongly encourage nurses to familiarise themselves with professional and legal boundaries - particularly around sponsorship, product endorsement, and staying within your legal remit as a veterinary nurse. Creativity is important, but protecting your registration and your wellbeing matters more. And finally, don’t let fear stop you from starting - because if you do, you’ll never get to experience the good things that come with it.

Cat: “How do you balance content creation with clinical work without burning out?”

Honestly - with boundaries, and with help. Running an educational platform takes a huge amount of time, and I don’t do it all myself. I have support with podcast editing, post scheduling, and emails, and that’s made a massive difference.

There’s a lot of pressure online to feel like you should always be posting or producing something, but if you don’t protect your time, it can very quickly become overwhelming. Balance isn’t static - there are periods where things are busier and times where they’re quieter - but learning when to step back has been essential for me.

Cat: “Do you have a favourite internal medicine condition to nurse?”

That’s such a hard question - but if I had to choose, I’d say endocrine disease, particularly Addison’s disease. These patients often come in incredibly unwell, sometimes in full crisis, and they need intensive nursing care. But once they’re on the right treatment, the turnaround can be dramatic.

What I love most is the long-term nursing involvement. These patients need ongoing monitoring, client education, and support, and nurses can play a huge role in that. I also have a bit of a love-hate relationship with IMHA - it’s incredibly rewarding when things go well, but emotionally tough because the outcomes can be unpredictable.

Cat: “Which cases have taught you the most as a nurse?”

Probably my own cats. Caring for them gave me a completely different perspective - not just as a nurse, but as a caregiver navigating chronic disease. I experienced referral medicine from the client side, dealt with repeated hospital visits, and saw how ongoing treatment impacts an animal’s wellbeing over time.

Those experiences taught me to look beyond the disease itself and really think about quality of life, stress, and how our nursing care affects the whole patient - not just their blood results or diagnosis.

Cat: “What nursing skills do you think are the most underappreciated in internal medicine?”

I think it’s our assessment skills and our ability to advocate for our patients. Technical skills are important, and I love them, but the biggest difference often comes from noticing subtle changes, recognising patterns, and trusting that gut instinct that something isn’t quite right.

We spend the most time with our patients, and the information we feed back to vets can directly influence treatment decisions - but that contribution isn’t always fully recognised.

Cat: “How do you advocate for nurse-led interventions within multidisciplinary teams?”

A lot of it comes down to communication. I don’t think most vets don’t want nursing input - I think they often don’t know how we can help unless we tell them. Being clear about what nurses can do, where skills overlap, and how nursing involvement can support workflow and patient care is key.

In referral settings especially, there are training demands for interns and residents, so it’s about finding a balance that works for everyone. Nurse-led clinics and proactive conversations make a huge difference.

Cat: “Internal medicine can feel intimidating - what would you say to nurses who feel that way?”

I think most nurses are already doing internal medicine every day without realising it. Renal disease, diabetes, GI disease, respiratory disease - that’s all internal medicine. The label makes it sound more complicated than it is.

Confidence grows through exposure and conversation. Ask questions, talk through cases with your vets, share what you’re seeing. You don’t need to understand every biochemical pathway to nurse a medical patient well.

Cat: “Is there a nursing myth you’d love to debunk?”

Yes - the “three-day rule” around nutrition. Waiting several days before intervening nutritionally often ignores the fact that many patients arrive already compromised. In a lot of cases, feeding support should start far earlier than we’re used to.

Cat: “What do you hope internal medicine nursing will look like in ten years?”

I hope we see greater recognition and utilisation of nurses, with more nurse-led clinics and clearer career pathways. I’d love to see expanded roles that sit between what nurses currently do and what vets do - with formal recognition of advanced nursing skills. Ultimately, I hope nursing expertise becomes fully embedded in patient care, rather than something that sits on the sidelines.

Thank you for celebrating episode 100 with us

This episode felt like a full-circle moment - not just for the podcast, but for my career. Being interviewed by a nurse who’s grown through the Academy was incredibly special, and I hope this conversation reassures you that uncertainty, curiosity, and the lows that come with the highs are all part of growing as an RVN.

Thank you SO much for listening, and for being part of the first 100 episodes. I can’t wait to see where we are at episode 200!