EMERGENCY SMALL ANIMAL VETERINARIAN

That sounds like an amazing opportunity doesn’t it! You might have a few questions?  We can help with the most common that vets ask us about working in a referral centre:

Do I have enough experience to apply? Your vets seem really confident.  

Actually we have roles that are suitable for all levels of experience, so whether you’ve been in practice for 3 months or 30 years, all you need is a passion to offer the best care – we want to hear from you! It doesn’t matter where you are in your career journey,  we can offer you a really unique perspective to clinical practice, an opportunity to upskill and grow or rediscover your passion for helping animals and their owners through injury or illness in a really managed and supported way.
 

So will I be working on my own, and managing complex cases without anyone to ask for help?  
No, absolutely not – you’ll be joining a team who are here to support you. Half the challenge of a new job is working out where things are, who’s who, how the computer system works, etc… For this reason, even experienced clinical staff start off in consulting roles, where they see more straightforward cases and learn the ropes.

As you feel more confident about how the hospital works, you’ll start to take a more active role, managing the in-patients and eventually you might even work on your own overnight. But it’s all done at your own pace, and you aren’t asked to step up until you are ready.  

Will I be working only all overnights, and all public holidays – Is it possible to still have a good work-life balance?  
It’s true you’ll probably have to work some public holidays; we are open 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year – we all have to work some of them! But everyone shares them on a rotating basis which is very predictable.

All our permanent full timers work on a 4 on-4 off basis, with 10-hour shifts; on average this is a 35 hour week and taking a “week” off actually means 12 days off. We also have some staff on regular part time rotations to suit their non-work life, so don’t be afraid to ask if this appeals to you. Nothing is off the table, as long as it works for the team. They are very manageable hours with plenty of downtime, and our roster is published up to a year in advance so you’ll have plenty of time to plan your holidays ahead. And as noted above, we do have to cover the night shifts but you won’t even think about doing those until you are well and truly ready
 

All the specialists in the hospital look so busy… will I ever have access to learn from them? 
The short answer is yes, you will. All our permanent vets have a week training in the specialty of their choice to meet their CPD requirements (imaging, anaesthesia, surgery or medicine) scheduled at the start of each calendar year around the intern schedule, so there is formal allowance for this, but informally there is plenty of access to experts to help you manage your cases during the week – being open 24 hours means your hours cross, and it is much more accessible than you might think.

We also run a structured intern programme that enables our vets to make a career move into Specialist roles at the right time, and from next year we have introduced a dedicated mentorship role just for new grads who are heading to general practice or just aren’t sure what they want to do yet and are looking for a well-supported start to their veterinary career while they consider their options.