Who are we looking for? We are looking for a person to join our clinical support team at our busy small animal veterinary practice. This Animal Care Assistant role reports to the Head Veterinary Nurse. Main Responsibilities Patient care & cleanliness of the practice. Maintain hospitalisation areas, operating theatres, x-ray department, prep area etc. Ensure Consultation rooms are clean and restocked after clinical sessions. Cleaning surgical equipment, packing surgical kits and using the autoclave machine. Preparing surgical sundries such as drapes, swabs etc. Maintaining a high standard of cleanliness in clinical areas. Assisting Nurses & Vets with their duties. Assisting Reception cover when needed. Stocking of kennel consumables. Adhering to all SOP's. Communicating with clients effectively & maintaining a high professional standard of customer service and care. Maintaining a good working relationship with all members of the practice. Fulfilling the obligations of the rota, sick cover/on call rota & bank holiday cover. Carrying out any reasonable requests made by the Clinical Directors, Vets, Nurses or other members of the management team. Duties Patient / Inpatient care to include: TPR (Vital Sign Monitoring of Temperature, Pulse and Respiration rates) Assisting nurses with moving or preparing animals for operations or investigations. Walking dogs for toileting purposes. Cleaning kennels/cages and ensuring inpatients are comfortable and have appropriate food/water Handling and restraint of animal for nurse/vet procedures such as blood sample, cannula placement etc Keeping accurate records, including, updating the hospital forms and computer. Laundry Keeping the washing machines topped up to ensure a clean supply of animal beddings and uniforms. Folding and putting away washing in the appropriate cupboard. General Roles Ensuring the ambulance is clean and ready for transporting patients. Ensuring daily, weekly and monthly cleaning is carried out to a high standard in hospital, kennels, cattery & laundry room & recorded in the cleaning folder. Ensuring the outside is kept free from litter and kept tidy and clean. Assisting the Vets and Nurses as and when appropriate. Being fully aware of all Health & Safety issues and reading all information supplied. Participating in appraisals and reviews. Carry out stock orders when required and assist with the biannual stock take. Carrying out any reasonable requests made by the Clinical Directors, Vets, Nurses or other members of the management team. Our Practice, Our Team and Our Interests The Bilton Veterinary Centre is the oldest established practice in Rugby, having been formed over 75 years ago. Originally a mixed practice, we became small animal-focused about 10 years ago. We have recently become part of the Independent Vet Care family of practices and so we are welcoming all the benefits and investments that this can bring! Currently, we have a great team of nine veterinary nurses working alongside the eight vets. The vets have interests in Orthopaedics, Soft Tissue Surgery, Ophthalmology, Imaging, Cardiology, Feline Medicine and General Medicine. The nursing team is developing interests in Physiotherapy, Anaesthetics, Dentistry, Behaviour and Pain Management. Our single site practice offers ample opportunities for a variety of roles to be undertaken from within one busy hub. Where possible, we really encourage our staff to follow their interests and build up their own area of expertise. We are also ISFM Cat Friendly Accredited too! Our Facilities We work out of a single site and so there is no branch work. We have five consulting rooms, a large main waiting area, and a specific cat waiting room. We also have separate cat kennels, a separate large dog kennels and even a separate small furry ward too! We also have a recently refurbished dedicated isolation suite. We have two sterile theatres, and two dental/dirty stations. Days are comprised of a mixture of veterinary/nurse consultations with animals visiting with their owners on an outpatient basis, as well as hospitalised animals that are undergoing surgeries, tests or investigations. There is a mixture of routine, elective and emergency work spread throughout the day. The clinical team has to be ready to adapt to varying situations and each day is never the same There is a large "prep area" where a lot of the routine administrative tasks take place such as instrument cleaning and packaging, sterilisation, washing and laundry takes place. Training Full training will be given during your working week. There are always people available to ask for assistance and help should you be in a situation that you are not confident with. Your rota We are a busy practice and so your days will be varied and interesting! A good work-life balance (in what can be a highly stressful profession) is really important to us. Therefore we offer a 35 hour working week covering a variety of flexible shifts that can be discussed. The other stuff We are exceptionally proud of our practice, and it has a great reputation locally. Our thriving Facebook Page, along with the raft of Google Reviews and Vet Help Direct reviews are testimony to the standards that we aim to achieve. An interest in Social Media work would also be an advantage to our team! Rugby is ideally situated for motorway networks and rail links in all directions. We are surrounded by lovely countryside and despite being quite a way from the sea are lucky to be next to a large reservoir. Travel into neighbouring Leamington and Coventry as well as Rugby gives lots of options for entertainment and amenities. In addition to a competitive salary you will benefit from: 6.6 weeks annual leave Additional annual leave for your birthday which will be added to your holiday allowance Enhanced family-friendly policies, including maternity/ paternity/ adoption/ shared parental and surrogacy pay Cycle to work scheme Initiatives focused on employee wellbeing Non-accidental injury support Learning and development opportunities via the IVC Evidensia Academy Pawsome Benefits - reward gateway giving discounts and cashback with 100's of retailers Pension scheme Discounted staff pet care