Veterinary Assistant - Emergency and Critical Care

Duties & Responsibilities

Provide basic patient care in a professional and courteous manner under the supervision of a veterinarian or veterinary technician.

• Work as a team with veterinary technicians, students, interns, residents, and faculty to provide care for patients which may include, but is not limited to, post-surgical, chronic conditions, and isolation, which may include methicillin resistant organisms and zoonotic diseases.
• Provide food, water, and exercise as directed by either written hospital orders or given verbally by veterinarian or veterinary technician.
• Use problem solving skills to assist with patient care in emergent and non-emergent situations.
• Directly monitor patient status, under veterinary supervision, including those hospitalized and recovering from anesthesia.
• Recognize and report physical abnormalities such as, but not limited to, respiratory difficulty and distress, change in mentation, abnormal physical exam findings, and signs of shock.
• Recognize and report pulmonary or cardiopulmonary arrest.
• Restrain patients using appropriate restraint techniques.
• Facilitate patient transport between clinical areas.
• Provide support to veterinary technicians using basic monitoring equipment such as indirect blood pressure (doppler and oscillometric), electrocardiogram (ECG), pulse oximetry, and continuous temperature monitoring.
• Complete and review patient monitoring and treatments as directed on the patient''s care plan, such as a patient care flow sheet or patient record. Report abnormal findings when something is not within the set call parameters.
• Report issues and assist veterinary technicians with the set up and maintenance of indwelling urinary catheters, Jackson-Pratt grenade style drains, intravenous catheters, feeding tubes, nasal oxygen, nebulization, fluid and syringe pumps.
• Assist veterinary technicians with the set up of IV fluids, continuous rate infusions (CRI''s) and other medications as directed by the veterinarian.
• Provide support to veterinary technicians in set-up and administration of enteral feedings through nasogastric (NG), nasoesophageal (NE), esophagostromy (E-tube), gastrostomy (G-tube), percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG), or jejunostomy (J-tube), as directed by the veterinarian.
• Assist with set up for patient treatments and procedures under the direct or written orders of the veterinarian.

Facilities maintenance:

• Maintain the cleanliness of animal and work areas, instruments and equipment based on set infection control protocols and hospital standards, as well as complete daily, weekly, and monthly cleaning assignments.
• Stock and maintain clinical supplies and maintain inventory records.
• Assist with documenting and troubleshooting issues with equipment.
• Maintain patient logs.

Clinical service and facilities support:

• Record treatments, procedures, supplies and thorough notes on the patient''s medical record.
• Record and enter charges.
• Serve as a backup to the front desk: answer phones, register patients into HIS, and collect payments.
• Perform electronic submission of samples to clinical pathology and the diagnostic laboratory.
• Facilitate processing of laboratory samples such as venous and arterial blood gases, packed cell volume (PCV)/total solids (TS), blood glucose (BG), lactate, ketostick, etc.

Other duties as assigned.