Professional identity and leadership

I am currently studying towards a PhD. I have no reason to do it, other than it's a personal goal of mine. It won't help my job prospects, or career development, but it will afford me the opportunity to continue to push my own boundaries and delve deeper into areas where I can apply my knowledge so I can better contribute to my professional community.

It's hard for me to admit, but when I look back on the past 15 years, I see I have completed around 100 peer reviews of veterinary publications and I have been published more than 80 times. As I was catching up on recording some recent publications, I noticed for the first time that I have also been cited on many occasions. Being cited is like gold in the scientific community and I really never expected I would receive such an honour from my peers. It's somewhat embarrassing to write all of this, but I wanted to share it as I realise that a lot of my own journey has been inspired by people showing me what is possible and teaching me that as veterinary nurses we can indeed go as far as we are willing to take it. Pushing for higher qualifications in our field is becoming a goal for many of us as we develop our united professional identity.