Veterinary Nurse, Merton animal hospital
Permanent, full time (part time will be considered)

Permanent, full time

Blue Cross are one of the UK’s leading rehoming organisations for animals. We support sick, injured and homeless pets and care for more than 40,000 animals every year through our rehoming, veterinary and education programmes.

What is the role?
Have you been considering a move into charity, and helping those who are really in need?

We would like to recruit an outstanding registered Veterinary Nurse on a permanent basis, to join our team. We are a charity, who pride ourselves on delivering excellent patient and client care. The successful candidate needs to have good general nursing skills, ideally with a surgical bias, but we will happily support you in any areas you feel you need further opportunities to develop and train. You will need to be able to work under your own initiative, but will of course have the support of your manager and team to get the day’s work done!

We are looking for a conscientious RVN with good attention to detail, who can have a great rapport with clients during nurse clinics, someone who can utilise their nursing skills to the full during surgery and anaesthetics, as well as assisting the vets and animal care assistants in clinic and laboratory to keep everything running smoothly. It would be even better if you have a specific interest that you are already or would like to pursue! We have a varied caseload although there is less medical nursing as our critical patients are transferred to our main hospital in Victoria for round the clock care.

Our nurses cover some duties, which include evenings, weekends and bank holidays on a rota basis, at our Victoria and Hammersmith hospitals, so we need someone who can be flexible and be able travel to these sites when needed. At Victoria, you will be able to utilise your nursing skills to the full in our fantastic 24 hour hospital. Currently, our average weekend duty cover is 1:6 with lieu time off during the week.

Our recently refurbished, purpose-built hospital is well equipped, to include digital x-ray, endoscopy, ultrasound, two dedicated operating theatres, dental suite, separate cat, dog, exotic and isolation wards, in-house laboratory, multiparameter monitoring and dedicated nurse clinics. We pride ourselves on our high standard of veterinary care. We are also a training practice - supporting vet students on placement, as well as student veterinary nurses. We like to promote ourselves as being learning environment where everyone can be supported to develop their skills further. We have a clinical environmental team and are keen to promote awareness in this area and reduce our impact on the environment as much as we can.

We have a dedicated reception team, but some cover is occasionally needed from our VN team, so great telephone, reception and organisational skills are also really important to us. Our clients can be very rewarding to help and they are generally so grateful for all the care we are able to give their pets and appreciate the work of the charity. This really is a chance to use your skills to improve pet welfare for our unique client base!

Volunteers are integral to our charity, and we need your help to train them up to our high standards! They are indispensable to the smooth running of the hospital and you’ll soon find you turn your back and that prep room that looked like a bomb had hit it has been magically tidied up, disinfected, surgical kits cleaned and packed.

We are extremely lucky to have a great team of people who really look out for each other and care about their team-mates. We pride ourselves on our no blame culture and run monthly reflective rounds to help process difficult events and promote mental well-being. We also hold regular informal catch ups between line reports and their managers to see how you are getting on and how we can support you further.

Please note that this role can be considered on a part-time basis if you are unable to commit to full-time hours

What is required?
We are looking for people with the following:
• Fully qualified Veterinary Nurse
• Registered with RCVS
• Confident in all aspects of veterinary nursing and previous experience in a busy charity or hospital
• Demonstrable customer service skills

It would also be great if you had:
• Provision of nursing clinics, variety or surgical nursing and nursing of complex medical cases.
• Ability to work independently
• Ability to train and oversee others

Want to know more? Please download and read the attached job descriptions and the Vet Nurse recruitment pack to find out more. To apply for this role, all candidates must complete the online application process.

To read more about the benefits Blue Cross has to offer, please click on the 'What We Offer' tab or paste the following into your browser: https://jobs.bluecross.org.uk/BlueCross/Benefits

Please be aware that due to the current circumstances with COVID19, interviews will be held via virtually.

Salary: £22,360 - £27,000 plus £3,954 London Weighting Allowance per annum
Grade: 4.2
Closing Date: 15 December 2021

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early should we receive an overwhelming response.

Blue Cross holds inclusion as a core organisational value. We positively encourage applications from suitably qualified, experienced and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, transgender status, religion or belief, marital status or pregnancy and maternity. We actively embrace our differences and know that it is our differences that make us unique. You are very welcome at Blue Cross, without the need to hide any part of who you are.