Veterinary Surgeon

David & Lucy Bull, practice partners at Vets4Pets Lincoln are looking for a vet to join their team. Read on to understand whether this role sounds like a great fit for you.

"We work hard to create an environment where everyone can perform at their best. We're very protective of our team; their welfare is important to us, so when we opened the practice in 2014 we decided on a basic set of principles to move forward with. We want our team to have time to do their job properly and offer excellent client care. As standard, we run 15 minute consults and schedule regular 'block outs' to facilitate consults running to time, giving room for more complicated consults to over-run a bit, as well as extra moments to catch up with admin, calls etc if you are running to time. We routinely book 30 minute appointments for first vaccinations and euthanasia. Our diary is structured to try to ensure everyone gets a lunch break (1 hour); final morning consults are scheduled to finish 30 minutes before lunch to support this approach (with the same applying to consults at the end of your working day to enable you to finish on time).
We are also mindful of how many procedures are realistic to get through in a day and will vary available slots for this, depending on how much time is available and the experience level of the surgeon(s) on the diary for that day. We are aware that unpaid work above contracted hours is a concern for many vets. At our practice overtime is exactly that; if our team don't manage to take a lunch break or finish late due to extra caseload, we'll pay you accordingly - This applies across the team, including our vets.

It's important to us that everyone has a voice and contributes in all aspects of life at the practice, so we have a short daily meeting/huddle where the whole team can get together and raise any concerns and/or share information. All colleagues are encouraged to add any points they wish to raise to the agenda for this meeting each day. We feel this works well for us as we're able to address and respond to any queries promptly and ensure that thoughts and ideas are shared.

We are an RCVS Practice Standards Scheme accredited General Practice and an RCVS Approved Graduate Development Practice. Overall our team comprises of 14 colleagues and clinically, we have a strong, experienced blend of part and full time vets (4) and nurses (4 RVNs and 1 SVN). David and Lucy graduated in 2007, David has an RCVS certificate in General Small Animal Surgery and is an RCVS Advanced Practitioner in Small Animal Surgery. He also has a postgraduate certificate in Dentistry. Another of our vets is currently studying for an RCVS certificate whilst our nurses all have their own areas of interest.

Our client base is largely made up of dogs and cats and we see some small furries including rabbits, guinea pigs and rodents. We do not routinely see birds and reptiles. Assistant vets are not expected to do any OV work. The practice has 3 consulting rooms, a separate theatre and prep area, as well as separate cat, dog and isolation wards (with isolation mostly being used for keeping the small furries away from the cats and dogs, as long as we don't have something infectious in the building). Using x-ray during dentistry is standard procedure for us and we have an ultrasound machine (including Doppler and ECG), digital x-ray, electrocautery, suction, Hot Dog patient warming, blood pressure monitors, tonometer (TonoVet), ECG, capnography and a pulse oximeter.

We'd like to find a vet who shares our passion for delivering the very best care for our patients. Someone who is confident in their abilities and happy to share their expertise; someone who is proactive in their approach and thrives in a team environment."

Pets just see people. They aren't biased and they don't discriminate. We take our inspiration from pets, and we value and respect difference in all its forms. Our aim is to reflect the diversity of the communities we operate in, and every colleague can help us achieve this. We encourage our people to be themselves so even if your skills and experience don't perfectly align, if you think you can make a unique contribution through your values and behaviours, we want to hear from you!

Full time vets can work a 4 or 5 day week (depending on their preference) and share a rota of 1 in 3 Saturdays, to average 40 hours per week. Our out of hours and inpatient care are covered by Vets Now. We allocate £1,500 and 35 paid hours of CPD for our vets and we're happy to consider funding a certificate for the right vet. CPD hours and budget is calculated pro rata for colleagues working part time as we like to keep things fair. New and recent graduates may also have the option of joining the Vets4Pets Graduate Development Programme.

With our experienced team of vets and RVNs we are happy to support new graduates or colleagues returning to practice following career breaks, however we would also welcome more experienced colleagues into our team too, hence the wide salary banding. We can also consider colleagues looking for consulting only roles.