One shift available Monday through Friday: 1:30pm-6:00pm with occasional 8 hour days.

We are a busy veterinary hospital looking to add to our technical team of, 11 Veterinary Assistants and 3 RVTs.

While we are not AAHA Accredited, we do follow the majority of AAHA standards of care.

Job Title: Veterinary Assistant

Position Overview

The purpose of this position is to ensure quality care for pets and promote greater efficiency by relieving technicians and veterinarians of technical and administrative work. The Veterinary Assistant performs a variety of patient and client care duties and conducts patient assessments, oversees animals recovering from anesthesia, and performs procedures and treatments.

The Veterinary Assistant uses sound judgment when making decisions about patient care, responds quickly and calmly to emergencies, and maintains high standards of patient care. This person communicates clearly with the veterinarians, other hospital personnel, and clients to ensure that patients receive the care they need. Veterinary Assistants are friendly and flexible in the face of varying expectations from clients and coworkers. They multi-task, prioritize tasks well, and think creatively.

Veterinary Assistants strongly believe in the quality of care provided and communicate this sense of assurance to clients. The Veterinary Assistant provide for patient and clients, comfort by keeping the hospital clean and presentable by going above and beyond for our clients and patients while still complying with clinic policy and ethics, AAHA standards and California laws.

Veterinary Assistants provide outstanding client service

Patient Care

· Provides compassionate patient care, keeping patients clean, dry, and comfortable.

· Alerts the veterinarian(s) to changes in patients’ condition.

· Recognizes patients with contagious disease and follows relevant procedures.

· Provides safe and effective patient restraint.

· Medicates patients.

· Uses proper safety techniques and positioning for radiological procedures.

· Recovers patients from anesthesia.

· Assists veterinarians and technicians in surgery and dentistry.

· Performs basic emergency care, CPR, and intensive care as needed.

· Assists with and documents patient treatments.

· Walks, cleans, and feeds patients.

· Sets up and assists with procedures, such as IV catheterization and other common treatments.

· Bathes patients as needed.

· Assists with patient admits and releases as needed.

· Ensures patients leave in better condition than when they arrived (e.g., clean and with IV catheter removed).

· Maintains knowledge of drugs and their uses.

· Calculates drug dosages and fills prescriptions accurately; asks for guidance if necessary.

· Assists with lab tests as needed.

· Completes medical records accurately and efficiently.

· Performs procedures such as pedicures and fluid administration.

Personal Conduct

· Adheres to all hospital policies, standards, and procedures, including but not limited to uniforms, grooming, smoking, and personal calls, as stated in the hospital procedures manual.

· Serves as a representative of the hospital, displaying courtesy, tact, consideration, and a positive attitude in all interactions with clients, patients, and other staff members.

· Demonstrates initiative in everyday duties by seeking other work during down times, assisting other employees, and filling in for other employees as needed.

· Adheres to work schedule. Arrives for work promptly and begins work at the start time. Follows hospital policies for reporting lateness or absences.

· Utilizes the time clock to clock in and out at the beginning and end of each day and during breaks.

· Organizes work area and exercises time-management skills to maximize personal efficiency.

· Prioritizes tasks and handles multiple tasks in a calm, organized manner.

Major Duties

· Kennel: Care of boarding and hospitalized animals including cage cleaning, exercising, feeding, observation for signs of illness, parasites and disease control, laundry, bathing and dipping procedures, keeping animals clean.Assist kennel assistant as necessary.

· Hospital Physical Plant: General cleaning of public and employee areas, building and yard maintenance to maintain clean, odor-free, and attractive environment. Housekeeping and laundry duties for all areas. General housekeeping, maintaining the cleanliness of the treatment room, laboratory, dental room, technician room, exam room, and pharmacy area at all times. Stock treatment room, dental room, and exam rooms as needed.

· Animal: Ability to restrain patients for procedures performed by registered veterinary technician or doctor, knowledge of common diseases, their symptoms and means of transmission, administration of oral and injectable medications, assessment of change in animal status.

· Public Relations: Professional, cheerful, and helpful attitude when contacting pet owners, knowledge of preventative health care recommendations to answer questions and assist in marketing veterinary services from which their pet would benefit.

· Reception: Knowledge of cashiering out-patients, boarding and hospitalized patients from admission to discharge, knowledge of patient folders, vaccine schedules, other front desk procedures in order to assist receptionists. Keep medical records and logs updated.

· Laboratory: Performance of in-house laboratory tests, completion of forms for outside reference laboratories, filing of laboratory reports and clean-up of laboratory area. Draw blood and assist with blood samples. Obtain skin scraping/taping samples, urine samples, ear swabs, and occasional fine needle aspirate samples. Prepare and process laboratory samples, such as urinalysis readings, hematology readings, and ear cytology reading.

· Assisting: Animal restraint, nail trimming, ear cleaning, client education, prescription filling and computer transaction entry during office hours or treatment times. Monitor patients during surgery and postoperatively. Keep surgical packs, drapes and instruments cleaned and autoclaved. Assist registered veterinary technician in taking and processing radiographs. Induction and monitoring of anesthesia. Administer vaccines and IM/SQ injectable medications. Calculate drug dosages and intravenous rates under direct supervision of the attending doctor.

· Inventory: Unpack, label and stock hospital supplies, inform manager of order needs

· Record Keeping and Pharmacy: Prepare prescription medications. Keep medical records and logs updated as required by state regulations and AAHA.

· Team work: You are expected to work well with others, support your team members, and ensure your actions support the doctors’ and the practice’s philosophy.

Unregistered assistants in an animal hospital setting may perform under the direct or indirect supervision of a licensed veterinarian or the direct supervision of an R.V.T., auxiliary animal health care tasks when done pursuant to the order, control and full professional responsibility of a licensed veterinarian. The degree of supervision by a licensed veterinarian over an unregistered assistant shall be higher than or equal to the degree of supervision required when an R.V.T. performs the same task and shall be consistent with standards of good veterinary medical practices.

Additional Duties

· Attends departmental and staff meetings.

· Demonstrated ability to accurately manage and record detailed information in medical records and other data-management systems.

· Ability to properly restrain patients.

· Knowledge of spelling and meaning of commonly used veterinary medical terminology and procedures.

· Ability to complete assigned tasks in the time allotted without direct supervision.

· Demonstrated ability to show empathy toward clients and treat animals with respect and compassion.

· Excellent interpersonal communication skills.

· A commitment to outstanding client service.

· Ability to stay on task and work energetically for entire shift, sometimes exceeding 10 hours per day.

· Keep drug inventory current.

· Prepare patients for procedures or surgery.

· Assist in surgery including anesthesia monitoring and occasionally scrubbing in to assist with instruments.

· Maintain surgery room equipment, anesthetic machine, monitors, dental equipment, etc.

· Prepare and autoclave surgery packs and surgical support items.

· Take and develop dental radiographs.

· Fill medication pending refills.

· Double check pending prescriptions for accuracy.

· Responsible for the cleanliness of the hospital.

· Complete assigned maintenance duties; in the absence of another team member, take over their task list.

· Assure hospitalized patients are clean and comfortable at all times.

· Assist with dog walking, cage cleaning, and general hospital cleaning.

· Restrain for euthanasia.

· Clean and sanitize exam rooms between patients.

· Be sure supplies are always available in exam rooms and treatment room.

· See that necessary literature is always available for staff or doctor to give to client.

· Routinely check on in-patients and boarders reporting any abnormalities or concerns to the doctor throughout the day.

· Perform dental cleanings.

· Perform surgical call backs.

· Assist our Veterinarians at the Animal Shelter.

· Assist our Veterinarians with Zoo animals.

· Attend community events.

· Assist customer service representative as needed.

· Work with AviMark.

· Veterinary Assistants share the role of being on call to work the Kennel Attendant’s weekend shift. On call for the kennel attendant consist of caring for the animals over the weekend in the event one of our scheduled kennel attendants cannot work. On call is paid at a rate of $20 per day if you do not get called in. If you are called in, you will be paid your standard rate. The number of times you will be on call is determined on the number of Veterinary Assistants we have on staff; typically, you will be on call 4 to 6 times per year.

· Veterinary Assistants may be required to start an on call rotation for hospitalized patients. On Call Technicians provide after-hours care for hospitalized patients and assist doctors during emergencies outside of regular business hours. Typical patient care visits last 30–60 minutes and may include treatments, monitoring, and documentation. On call is paid based on whether you are called in, with compensation provided in time-based increments for hours worked in the clinic. On call days with no patients - $10.00 per day On call days with patients - $25.00 for the first 15 minutes, then $5.00 for every 15 minutes there after.

· Any other duties assigned by supervisor, management or doctors.

Controls Work Flow

The practitioners provide continuing or individual assignments indicating generally what is to be done, limitations, quality and quantity expected, deadlines and priority of assignments. The practitioners provide additional, specific instructions for new, difficult or unusual assignments in animal health care, including suggested work methods or advice on source materials available. The Veterinary Assistant uses initiative in carrying out recurring assignments independently without specific instructions, but refers deviations, problems, and unfamiliar situations not covered by instructions to the practitioner for decision or help. The practitioners assure that finished work and methods used are technically accurate and in compliance with instructions or established procedures. Review of the work increases with more difficult assignments, or if the veterinary assistant has not previously performed similar assignments. Administrative supervision may be provided by the Registered Veterinary Technician, Shift Lead – Veterinary Assistant / Technician, Assistant Managers and/or Practice Manager.

Skills and Knowledge

· Knowledge of the procedures used for receiving, treating, and scheduling patients, and requesting laboratory tests.

· Knowledge of the use, care, and storage of veterinary instruments, materials, and equipment.

· Knowledge of sterilization techniques to sterilize various instruments and materials.

· Knowledge of the instruments, materials, and standardized procedures used in the full variety of treatments to make preparations and provide “tableside” assistance.

· Basic computer skills.

Physical Effort

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the primary functions of this job. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to bend, stand, stoop, walk, sit, talk, and listen; will be required to walk or stand for long periods of time; will use hands to manipulate in repetitive motions, handle, or feel; will reach with hands and arms. The employee is often required to lift and carry animals or materials weighing fifty pounds or more; handle dogs weighing up to 200 lbs. and must be able to lift 50 pounds. Must be able to take radiographs. Must be able to tolerate and clean up odorous body fluids and blood. Must be willing and able to learn how to restrain exotic animals.

Work Environment

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is exposed to hazards associated with aggressive patients; hazards associated with infected animals and controlled substances; exposure to unpleasant odors and noises; exposure to bites, scratches and animal wastes; possible exposure to contagious diseases.

Qualifications

· Must pass a pre-employment drug test

· Must be qualified to obtain a VACSP

· Must follow core values.

· Must have some experience working with animals

· Must be able to follow directions both oral and written

· Must be able to work unsupervised and be a self-starter

· Good organizational and math skills

· Must have good communication and people skills

· Must have reliable transportation

· Must be able to work unscheduled over time

· Must work well with others, support your team members, and ensure your actions support the doctors’ and practice’s philosophy

· Possess a love for animals and passion for their well being

· Efficiently multi-task in a stress-free manner

· Must be able to sit or stand for longer periods of time, bend and/or hunch over, squat, kneel throughout day and use hands in repetitive motions.

· Will not complain or vent unless complaining or venting to someone that can address the issue. Will do best to bring a resolution along with the complaint.

· Direct and honest communicator.

Reporting Structure: Reports to Practice Manager, Assistant Managers and Shift Lead – Veterinary Assistant / Technician.

Entry Level Starts at: $18.50

Job Type: Part-time

Pay: $18.50 - $21.50 per hour

Expected hours: 22.5 – 26 per week

Benefits:

401(k)
Employee discount
Health insurance

Work Location: In person

Atwater Veterinary Center

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