Jocelyn Pratt makes her move
Blood banks are a critical support network for the medical community, and the veterinary world is no different. Pet owners are increasingly choosing life saving techniques to help save their pet, which often includes blood transfusions.
Without a proper blood bank in the area for a pet, this can mean taking blood from a donor animal without any sort of safety screening. This can lead to health problems down the road for the pet. Blood banks are the lifeline for animals who need transfusions, providing safe blood for pets in need.
Jocelyn Pratt is the manager of one such critical blood bank, and has been helping dogs get the blood they need since 2011. On top of her role in managing the lifesaving blood collection and distribution for pets, Jocelyn Pratt is also in charge of educating vets on the importance of this service.
Although the blood bank is a large part of her life, there’s more to Jocelyn Pratt than her work. She is a loving mother to her children, and enjoys caring for others in need. She also used to enjoy singing and dancing, as well as supporting people giving birth, although she can no longer do many of these things.
As a person, Jocelyn values empathy above many other human traits. She makes an effort in all of her dealings to put herself in the other person’s shoes, and really see where they are coming from. This trait is one of the reasons she has risen to the top in her field, and makes her the person she is today.
This empathy has sometimes gotten Jocelyn into trouble. She realizes that sometimes she can be too empathetic—to the point of letting others walk all over her. She is working to balance her empathy with a strong set of boundaries, and is also learning the value of saying no.
Advice for her younger self?
If she could give advice to her younger self, she would pass on this value of saying ‘no’ a little younger. In her younger years, Jocelyn wouldn’t take her PTO, instead choosing to work every possible moment. This came at a cost in many respects, and she wishes now she’d taken the time she deserves.
Work/Life balance is a very important and often neglected side of the veterinary industry, with too many people in the field forgoing their own life in favor of helping just one more pet. This in itself is dangerous, because there will always be more pets, but only so much of that person to go around.
In the future, Jocelyn is concerned about the number of blood banks available. There are simply not enough veterinary students learning about this incredibly important niche, and not enough new people taking on these roles. As older people retire, there may be even fewer blood banks available to help a growing number of pets.
Her hope is that more education will be made available about blood banking and the importance of bloodwork in general. That way when a dog needs blood urgently, there will always be clean, safe, properly processed blood for their transfusion.