MWCC Vet Tech Professor Shares Her Journey From Art to Animals
By Isabelle Mascary | Assistant Editor
Once your passion meets your purpose, work no longer exists when you’re doing what you love. Meet Hilary Blair, the Mount’s new Veterinary Technician Professor who began at MWCC as an adjunct professor for two years and is now full-time.
Working as an emergency and critical care veterinary technician for the past fourteen years, Blair chose the Mount because of an opportunity to teach a subject she is passionate about. “I am deeply familiar with [the subject] just because of my profession in general as a veterinary nurse,” Blair said.
Prior to becoming a veterinary nurse, Blair worked in a large referral hospital in emergency critical care for animals. As a graduate of Becker College and Mass College of Art, Blair’s passion for animals began when she was a child. “I have always loved animals, and we had a bunch growing up. Cats, dogs, rats, hamsters, gerbils, snakes, chinchillas, and birds. My favorite magazines were Ranger Rick and National Geographic,” Blair said.
Although she achieved a degree from Mass Art first, Blair shared, “I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do when I was in high school, so I decided to pursue a thing that I always enjoyed doing, which was taking pictures and art.”
Blair shared that the art department was a refuge for her. She said that while she was at MassArt college, she realized she did not really enjoy the art world and the struggles associated with it, so she made the decision to pursue a career with animals. “My passion for the career [Veterinary Technician] grew as I was working in it,” Blair shared. “The longer I did it, the more I enjoyed it and wanted to expand my knowledge and skills.”
This realization led her to choose a career path that provided flexibility to be able to pursue many different offshoots, like emergency and critical care, exotics, zoo medicine, and research. It also sped up her ability to graduate in a shorter amount of time than an art degree.
When working in the healthcare field, whether it is for servicing humans or animals, obstacles do exist. Although it depends on the situation, Blair has faced a few difficulties within this field of work. She said it is hard “Watching [animals] suffer and the owners having a hard time letting go.”
Blair also shared, “Every hospital everywhere is understaffed with veterinarians and technicians.” She continued, “It’s really hard to have to turn people away because we just don’t have the staff to care for that pet.”
Due to the lack of staff, resources and accommodations, Blair shared that, “Some people can be incredibly abusive towards us.” She continued, “Yes, there is animal abuse out there, but also towards those of us trying to help in some degree or form, because usually, it comes down to financial problems. But the pandemic brought out some of the worst in people.”
Another major difficulty for those working in the Veterinary field is suicide. “It was always bad before the pandemic. The veterinary profession actually has the highest rate of suicide of any other profession. If you talk to anybody else in the field, everybody knows somebody that committed suicide,” Blair said. In fact, some sources have ranked the profession in the top five with the highest rates of suicide due to the repetition of seeing this suffering repeatedly.
Blair’s way of destressing includes, “I enjoy my home life as much as I can. I hike with my dogs. I cuddle my cat. I go for a long walk in the woods. I really need time to take a deep breath.” She said family time is a must but most importantly, “I leave work at work.”
Aside from being a veterinary nurse, Blair is a mother of four and enjoys mushroom hunting with her children. She said, “My children really like exploring, and they really enjoy mushroom hunting. We have learned quite a bit about the different mushrooms that are around.”
She also added that she enjoys home life as much as she can. Her home life includes her two dogs, her cat, and her chickens. “I grew up with lots of animals, and having dogs and cats is just how things feel like home to me,” she shared.
Considering her profession, Blair is less likely to panic about minor things and injuries that may occur to her own pets when off the clock, but at the same time, she is very aware of all the terrible things that could be happening. Blair has the skills to assess things rationally. “I think how I treat my animals ends up being similar to how human nurses exist with their kids,” Blair said.
When taking care of her patients, Blair shared that her favorite hospitalized patients to treat are cats. Blair said that she does find good things to like about all of them [animals], but her least favorite animals to treat are sugar gliders. “They are mean and not very nice,” she said. Although sugar gliders are adorable, she added, “They are a nightmare to treat in the hospital” and “If you look at them the wrong way, they will scream for no reason.”
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