YegVet Inc is hiring a Internal Medicine Animal Care Attendant (Full-time)

Reports to

Internal Medicine Team Lead

Prerequisites
• High school diploma
• Able to stand for long periods of time (10 hours)
• Able to lift 50lbs (22kg)
• Compassion and patience
• A strong desire to pursue an animal related post-secondary program
• Strong patient restraint skills
• Understanding of veterinary hospital flow
• Strong communication skills
• Basic understanding of medical terminology
• Ability to be on time and prepared to work at the beginning of your scheduled shift
• Ability to communicate with clients to provide general patient updates (both verbally and electronically), collect and process invoices, and arrange visits, discharges, etc.
• Manage, direct and sort incoming calls and messages to the appropriate specialty/department

Summary

To provide support to the Internal Medicine team, including gold standard nursing and comfort care to our patients with clear and effective client communication.

This will be a very important accessory role to our Internal Medicine team and will include assisting with restraint for procedures and additional treatments and updating owners as requested by the medical team. This role will work under the direction of the RVT’s in charge of the patient’s medical care with a primary focus on comfort care for internal medicine patients.

Some cross-training and assisting in other departments will be required as requested.

Essential Job Functions
• Ability to safely and comfortably restrain a variety of species of animals for procedures such as endoscope, ultrasounds, blood collection, IV catheter, etc.
• Prepare suite and supplies for and clean up following treatments and procedures as required- Set up/Cleaning of Scopes, Clipper Blades, Ultrasound, CT, etc.
• Have knowledge of biosecurity protocols
• Ensure that exam rooms are always clean, stocked and ready for clients and patients
• Notify the medical team of any concerns with attitude, stress, changes to appetite etc.
• Cross train in other areas such as Oncology, Surgery, etc. to provide additional support as required.
• Become familiar with and use internal messaging and invoicing functions
• Document in detail dietary intake, walks, urination, defecation, and other fluid losses
• Provide mentorship and support to the Kennel staff team
• Perform aftercare of deceased patients, to be double checked by RVT
• Provide a variety of oral nutrition options and hand feed if necessary
• Provide environmental enrichment (Kongs, toys, treats, iPad, music, Feliway etc.) for hospitalized patients
• Grooming and cleaning of patients as necessary
• Monitor and encourage natural bathroom breaks
• Facilitate safe, organized family visits for hospitalized patients
• Clean Kennels and ready them for new patients
• Other supportive tasks as deemed necessary
• Calling clients for updates or to book follow up appointments when needed

Background for development and importance of this role

The need for this accessory role has risen due to the shortage of veterinary professionals. When examining the day-to-day work of registered veterinary professionals, we need to highlight was is in their scope of practice and place an emphasis of time on those activities for them. When the hospital is busy, their medical expertise is prioritized, and the non-medical activities become less of a focus.

Boreal Veterinary Centre feels that those “non-medical” activities are often under emphasized. Things like nutritional intake are often part of what confirm end of life decisions for clients. Sometimes this is due to increased costs related to prolonged hospital stays, or what the client perceives as quality of life.