Head Nurse - Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire

Experienced Head nurse and clinical coach that can develop and lead our nursing team of 7 nurses, training nurses and animal care assistants. We are searching for a positive, energetic character that is open minded to improve and change protocols to provide gold standard treatment in support of our experienced vets and 3 certificate holders. Unlimited support is given by the partners who are not afraid to get their hands dirty.

The Practice
My business partner and me bought this mixed practice that had been there for more then 30 years and has more then 4000 clients  15 months ago. Since then we have sold the large animal and horses and are now a 6 full time vet 100% small animal clinic in Leighton Buzzard. Since then we have employed 3 new experienced vets.

Our vision for the practice is to become the best clinic in the home counties after Davies and the RVC. We have currently 3 certificate holders. I have a certificate in small animal surgery and have been taking surgery referrals for the last 6 years. Meri my wife has a feline medicine certificate and is studying towards a general medicine certificate and Alvaro has an emergency and critical care certificate. Currently we have 7 nursing support staff and are actively employing qualified nurses because unfortunately there were no qualified RVN when we took over. Currently the ACA’s/nurses are on call with the vets and are doing a 1 in 6 on call with mobile only. Full time is 40 hours a week, 1 in 5 nights and 1 in 6 weeks on call. 20 days holidays a year, bank holidays are equally shared amongst the nurses/acas. Once the ACA/nurse team grows the shifts will be equally split so will become less frequent. Since last month we have become a VN training practice.

We have weekly clinical meetings with the vets and nurses to improve the quality we offer to our clients and share knowledge and skill. We actively encourage and fund CPD and certificates for vets and nurses and have joined the miVETclub 3 months ago which offered the MiNurseclub which envolves good nursing cpd and social media platform.

The opening hours of the practice are 8 am until 7 pm and shifts are equally shared and flexible. On Saturday  we only open from 9 untill 12 and emergency afterwards.

We are a very busy practice and see a lot of cases, on average we have  about 8 operations and 60 appointments daily.

We believe a strong team approach and therefore prefer horizontal and short communication lines. The partners are daily on site and quick decisions to improve or solve situations can therefore be made.

Before I forgot to mention, we have a staff room with free and unlimited nespresso coffee and biscuits.

The Role

• Leading the nursing and support staff team and developing this
• Clinical coach
• Organising nurses rota/illness/holidays
• Overseeing stockcontrol and ordering drugs
• Check DD drugs
• Active involvement in future planning of staff levels and recruitment
• Involvement and development of protocols and the practice
• Helping and assisting reception and working along side head receptionist
• Overseeing all areas/departments theatre and hospital duties
• Assessing and adjusting general work schedule for support staff

40 hours weekly, equally divided in early and late shifts from 8am-5pm and 10.30am-7.30pm. Every 6 weeks one weekend on call with the mobile and one separate Saturday morning (8.30-12.30) on call on average. On calls, Saturdays and on calls are equally shared amongst nursing staff (currently 7).

The Package

• CPD 5d off, £500 annually
• 50% discount on own pet treatment
• Pension scheme
• 20 days holiday annually

Positive and energetic charismatic person with experience as a head nurse and great leadership skills. The applicant needs to be open minded and proactive with the animal and the client as focus of our treatment plan.

A caring approach towards clients, pets and staff is considered important considering that we are a training practice and that we have a strong team focus throughout the whole practice. We consider the head nurse as a corner stone of our clinical team and part of our senior management team.

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