Registered Veterinary Nurse

Part-time RVN required for Orthopaedic Referral Practice in beautiful South Devon

The role is suited to a nurse who enjoys anaesthesia and surgical nursing, along with in-patient care and diagnostic imaging.

Referral experience is not essential - your flexibility, enthusiasm and self-motivation are more important attributes.

About Us

We are a small friendly team with lots of support available.  It is really important to us that our staff feel valued and enjoy the time spent at work but at the same time have enough responsibility to feel empowered and make the most of their skills and knowledge. We believe that having a good work-life balance makes a really big difference too and having no routine weekends or bank holiday shifts is a big bonus on this front! The practice is very organised and working shifts are clearly defined.  All areas within the main practice building are light and airy making for a pleasant working environment.

THE ROLE:

Main duties include:

Anaesthesia monitoring - Good level of confidence with anaesthesia desirable, multi-parameter monitoring (including oesophageal stethoscope, pulse oximetry, capnography, blood pressure, ECG, body temperature).

Surgical nursing – Setting up induction and theatre areas, preparing patients for surgery and assisting the surgeon as the scrubbed assistant.                                                                                                                                                                        

Maintenance of surgical equipment – Lots of orthopaedic surgical kits to look after and it is vital that these kits are cleaned, maintained and sterilised appropriately.  All kits have a photographic check sheet to ensure accuracy when packing and full training will be provided.  This is a big area of responsibility for the nursing team.

In-patient care – Caring for post-surgical patients and day patients who are having investigations/diagnostic imaging procedures carried out.

Assisting with diagnostic imaging (radiography, CT and ultrasound); you will be trained how to take radiographs & CT scans.  We sometimes offer out-patient CT scans which can be more complex and regularly require contrast studies to be performed, full training will be provided.

Admission/discharge of surgical patients – Ensuring that our pet owners are fully informed at all stages of their pets stay with us.

Telephone duties – mostly limited to liaising with pet owners about their pets’ recovery or discharge times but occasionally may need to answer the telephone if the referral liaison nurses (mostly office based) are busy on other calls.

The part-time position will include three main shifts -  Anaesthesia, theatre/scrub nurse or Kennels nurse on surgical days and Kennels/float nurse or anaesthesia nurse on work-up/imaging days

There is some cleaning to do but mostly related to equipment used.  We have a wonderful cleaner who comes in the afternoon/evenings to help with general cleaning of theatre, kennels, reception, consulting rooms, offices and staff areas upstairs.  The nursing team do however help her out sometimes in prep/kennels when time allows.

Successful Candidate

Flexible, enthusiastic, self-motivated, team player with an ‘attention to detail’ mindset.

The Package

• Part-time – 21 hour working week including paid lunch break
• Normal days of work - Monday & Tuesday (Hours may vary between 7.30am and 8pm).  Some flexibility to move working days around occasionally (with lots of notice) to cover staff holiday or CPD is desirable but not essential
• No routine weekend/bank holiday shifts – these shifts are covered by the business owners
• Salary £14,742 per annum (21 hours/week)
• Generous CPD allowance (which can include payment of annual memberships eg. RCVS, BVNA, BVA etc)
• Workplace pension

Location

Beautiful South Devon countryside, close to beaches and Dartmoor National Park. We are located in a rural setting, and you need to be happy to drive along narrow country lanes to get to the practice.

If you would like to discuss the position further, please call Tanzi on the number supplied in the contact details.

Alternatively, to submit your application (including your CV) please click the apply now button.