Patient Care Assistant

Your role and responsibilities

The role of a Patient Care Assistant is to support the nursing and wider practice team in achieving the highest standards of care. The Patient Care Assistant role will involve working in a variety of areas within the practice to support the team. It will be necessary to accept instruction from a variety of people including Management, Veterinary Surgeons and Registered Veterinary Nurses. Working enthusiastically within the team you will help maintain a happy, efficient, and effective working environment.

Roles and Responsibilities:

· Assist with patient handling and restraint.

· Ensuring that all handling and restraint is carried out in a ‘patient friendly’ approach to ensure no unnecessary stress or discomfort to the patient.

· Involvement with handling medications and preparing these for dispensing.

· Prepare and maintain patient accommodation considering the condition and welfare of the patient, environmental enrichment and additional supporting aids as necessary.

· Cleaning and disinfection of patient accommodation and all necessary areas of the practice.

· In-patient care to include exercising, feeding, and grooming of hospitalized patients.

· Assisting with laboratory diagnostic techniques to include preparation and maintenance of equipment, processing samples and packaging for external laboratories.

· Assisting with diagnostic imaging to include maintenance and preparation of equipment and patient preparation and positioning.

· Cleaning, packaging and sterilization of sterile supplies.

· Maintenance of theatre to include preparation of the environment and equipment and cleaning.

· Assist the Veterinary Surgeons, Registered and Student Veterinary Nurses, Reception staff and any other team member who requires support, where and when required.

· Attend and contribute to practice meetings and events.

We encourage and support career development including training to be a Veterinary Nurse.

The successful candidate will have a minimum of 5 GCSES grades A-C or equivalent and will have experience of handling animals. An animal care qualification would be desirable but not essential.

We would love to hear from individuals who are keen to learn new skills to the full in a supportive environment. This role is for a 40hour week that does include weekends.

Salary and package

• £19,927
• Full time
• 40 hours per week
• 1 in 8 weekends
• Fixed term contract to cover maternity leave starting in March for 9 months

Benefits

• 5 weeks holiday + bank holidays + Birthday Leave
• RCVS & VDS fees paid
• External CPD funded
• Extensive free online Linnaeus CPD program
• Career progression opportunities
• Staff discount schemes
• Life Assurance
• Enhanced sickness pay
• Enhanced equal family leave
• Recruitment referral reward scheme
• E-car salary sacrifice scheme
• Employer contribution pension scheme
• Wellness program including:
• Employee assistance program
• Eyecare voucher scheme
• Free annual Flu jab
• Cycle to work scheme

About us

We are a tier 3, ISFM gold status, multidisciplinary veterinary hospital that prides itself on providing high standards of care to both referral and primary care patients.

Eastcott Veterinary Referrals is situated in Swindon. In 2020 we completed a major extension and refurbishment which means it’s a great time to join our dynamic and motivated team that has benefited from the support of the Linnaeus Group and Mars Petcare.

This investment in our state-of-the-art facilities has allowed us to provide the best care to our patients, and the opportunity to perform the most up-to-date and innovative procedures. We encourage our staff to undertake further professional and personal development and provide a friendly and supportive environment in which our teams can flourish and enjoy their work.

At Linnaeus, we are committed to supporting the physical and mental health of all our Associates. We have an amazing team of Mental Health First Aiders (MHFA) across our practices and central support office in addition to a confidential Employee Assistance Programme which is available for everyone.

Job Types: Full-time, Fixed term contract
Contract length: 9 months

Salary: £19,927.00 per year

Benefits:

• Company pension
• Cycle to work scheme
• Employee discount
• Gym membership
• On-site parking
• Referral programme
• Relocation assistance
• Sick pay
• Wellness programme

Ability to commute/relocate:

• Swindon, SN3 3FR: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)

Education:

• GCSE or equivalent (required)

Experience:

• Veterinary Receptionist: 1 year (required)
• Customer Service: 1 year (required)

Work Location: One location

Application deadline: 16/02/2023