Veterinary Surgeon

Veterinary Surgeon - Full Time - Dunfermline Vets4Pets

Job Description

Fun, friendly, hardworking team need a people orientated FT or PT vet with a similar outlook to join us in our purpose built small animal practice just outside Edinburgh.       

Do you take great fulfilment from helping people by giving them all the support and advice they need to help them make the right decisions for their pets?    

Do you have the daily feeling your clinical care is compromised simply because you are overbooked and unsupported (even worse, you’ve suggested way you could be more productive and improve your patient care but nobody listens)?

Do you enjoy the immense challenge of being a great GP vet but also have an area of interest you’d like to focus on more?  

Do you appreciate the complexities of people and get why a difficult client might actually just be a worried pet owner?

Are you looking for a flexible rota that fits in with your lifestyle giving you enough time outside of work to keep you energised, passionate and excited about working with your patients, clients and team when you're here?    

And finally, can you hold up your hands when you make a mistake, take it on the chin, learn from it and share the experience to make you (and us) better at what you do?  

About us     

We are a supportive and friendly team of 3 FT vets, 2 FT nurses, 1 PM, 3 FT VCA's, 2 FT CCA's when fully staffed and growing at a comfortable pace that is now allowing us to explore expansion. We're located in a purpose built practice in Dunfermline within a 25 minute commute of Edinburgh and believe in putting our team first, then the patients then the clients with our vision centred around longer consultations, clear appointment booking protocols, expected behaviours (from clients and each other – animals are bit more tricky!), taking lunch breaks and getting out on time (although maybe once a month an emergency changes that!) in order to keep us all energised.

We're under no illusion that it’s easy to paint a rosy picture in an advert and that a veterinary surgeons role (particularly in the current climate) can be stressful so we constantly try to identify and improve things whenever we can. Recently we have increased the length of our consultations (see details below), developed new and clear appointment booking protocols that everyone follows so that the diary is filled correctly leaving time for book on days, emergencies, call backs, lunch and means we always get out on time barring the odd unpredictable crazy emergency day. We also focus on developing a great team that is aware of each other’s pressures/strengths/weaknesses and are willing to help and support each other regardless of their role. If your current role isn’t offering enough support with diary management (or has zero protocols at all!) leaving you constantly stressed and running behind, or that your clinical service is compromised but your suggested ways of managing that aren’t being listened to then please contact us as we really want to hear your concerns and how you think things could work better for you to get back to enjoying your work and fixing all your patients! There is the option to focus most of your day on consults and medical care ( eg imaging), or consults and surgery or whatever it is that you are happy doing – simply tell us and we could see how that would work.

We are very much proactive and preventative in our approach to patient care which is supported with iM3 digital dental radiography( all dentals get full mouth rads), surgical loupes, brand new MyLab Omega vet ultrasound, in house Idexx lasercyte, microscopy, blood pressure monitor, pulse ox, capnography and are always looking to add more services as we grow. We would love to hear about any particular interest you have and want to develop to find out whether we could support you with it (if we can't, we'll tell you so we can both make the right decision as to whether we'd be a good fit).      

 About you:    

• You’re fed up with constantly running behind and seeing all your appointments for the day already booked up when you open your diary leaving you immediately stressed and anxious!
• You want to build trusting client relationships with 15-minute consults for boosters and 30-minute consults for 1st puppy and kittens’ vaccinations as well as clinical presentations and euthanasia's      
• You accept making mistakes then learning from them is part of improving rather than being a failure     
• You want your lunch break (it’s blocked out on the diary)
• You want time on the diary for call backs (currently 45 minutes)    
• You need a flexible rota so you can enjoy life outside of your job     
• You want full support from us with any complaint handing (they occasionally happen, we get that)        
• You want to work with digital radiography, iM3 dental radiography, high spec ultrasonography, in house idexx biochemistry/haematology/electrolytes, microscopy, pulse oximetry, blood pressure monitoring, dentistry        
• You love fixing rotten mouths and seeing those older animals that have 'slowed down' get their zest for life back once they're out of pain        
• You appreciate having a supportive team – you'll have bloods ready to interpret in less than half an hour, catheters placed, pre-anaesthetic bloods taken and ready for interpretation, pre meds drawn up and IV fluids set up and ready for operations to start on time. You'll also get support handling challenging patients in consults when you need it to reduce stress on you/the patient/the owner        
• You want a fantastic reception team booking your appointments that understands the pressures on everyone in the team and manages the appointments accordingly based on practice protocols. Unplanned consults aren't just squeezed in unless you specifically agree or if they are a genuine emergency. If clients are too late for their appointment, we simply offer a rescheduled appointment later in the day or the following day so there isn't a domino effect making you run behind but it still means the patient gets seen        
• You are happy to help others in your team do their jobs to the best of their ability        
• You haven't ever experienced a strictly controlled op's list. (We book op's on expected time to complete within a strict operations slot on the diary. Dental procedures are allocated a maximum time slot so they can’t run over, and longer procedures are split over two or more anaesthetics. Sounds simple but it's rarely done and makes a huge difference if you want to get your lunch which is what we want!        

• Are focussed on getting things done and seeing tasks through to completion        
• Are happy to share ideas you have on how to make things better for you, your team, and your patients        
• Have something you love in veterinary medicine and want to rekindle that passion or develop it further.        
• Are respectful, compassionate, and empathetic towards yourself and others        
• Recognise that you’re not perfect and when things don't go as planned it offers an opportunity to improve        
• Are confident with routine neutering surgeries    
• Are comfortable charging properly for your clinical expertise     
• Can extract teeth with mucogingival flaps or are keen to learn by going on CPD        
• Are extremely conscious of managing your time, recognise if things are starting to build up and overwhelm you (eg emergencies, call backs, an unpredicted difficult operation) and are happy to ask for help when it does happen.
• Have a curious and caring attitude towards people as you'll be working with a few, plus animals don't turn up to appointments on their own        

This job is probably not for you if you:              

• Get frustrated when clients don't understand your explanations and hate having to get creative with your explanations so that they do 
• Secretly wish you didn't have to deal with people. Ever.

Your package:          

• We are offering 20-40 hours a week with 1:4 weekends (currently just Saturdays, shut on Sundays) but no out of hours work.
• Salary is negotiable ranging from £42,000 to £60,000 pro rata dependent on clinical experience and demonstrable skillset
• Hours are negotiable too – longer days and more days off or shorter days and early finishes or later starts.
• CPD budget is currently £1500 although a certificate is something we would always consider        
• All the usual professional fees are paid as well as a company pension.    
• There are 20 days holiday per annum, plus bank holidays    

If you're still here and interested, then we really would love to hear from you. 

To submit your application click the apply button