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Posted: 13-Aug-24
Location: N. Grafton, Massachusetts
Salary: Open
Internal Number: 20828
Cumming School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University provides 24-hour care for pets 365 days of the year. Since 1985 we have offered high quality medical care, consultation, referral, and emergency veterinary services for the care of dogs, cats and exotic pets. The Foster Hospital for Small Animals is home to one of less than 30 veterinary dialysis facilities in the United States. The Dialysis Center service has expanded over the years to an extracorporeal therapy service providing not only hemodialysis treatments but also therapeutic plasma exchange for immune mediated disease as well as hemoperfusion treatments for emergent toxicity cases. For small patients requiring treatment, Cummings School is the first veterinary school in the country to have a Carpediem™ enabling treatment of patients weighing 2-10kgs.
The Dialysis service is currently supported by two full-time VTS (ECC) technicians, one of which is also a VTS (SAIM). They are also supported within the Internal Medicine service by two additional VTS technicians and multiple CVT’s. We are now looking for an additional VTS tracking or current VTS to join this talented team.
This position qualifies for a $2,000 sign on bonus following successful completion of 6 months of employment for newly hired employees.
What You'll Do
Under the direction of the Internal Medicine veterinarians, the Hemodialysis Veterinary technician works as a part of a team performing extracorporeal therapy services as well as providing intensive care to the services’ inpatients. The Hemodialysis technician will perform and assist in all areas of patient care in this section including but not limited to; placing central IV catheters, sedating patients, placing dialysis catheters, feeding tubes, initiating treatments, monitoring and performing serial patient assessment and bloodwork. In addition to managing patients during treatments, the Hemodialysis technician provides integral support to the ICU team by providing intensive and advanced patient care to patients receiving extracorporeal therapy.
At the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, the Veterinary Technician IV; provides high level technical support for all clinical facets of caring for the animals entrusted to our care and is responsible for providing advanced veterinary patient nursing care and performing highly advanced specialized technical procedures on general direction from the attending veterinarian, but without direct supervision.
The Veterinary technician IV demonstrates strong leadership skills and uses independent clinical judgement regarding nursing care and technical tasks and reports the result to the attending veterinarian.
Essenetial Functions as a Veterinary Technician IV will be:
Nursing Care:
- Provide high quality patient care including the following:
- Prioritize management, monitoring and treatment of any dialysis case in a progressive, high-quality manner.
- Implementing and facilitating clinicians’ care decisions and treatment plans to ensure prompt, thorough, and accurate patient care.
- Development, training, and coordination of technicians capable of providing back up extracorporeal therapy case cover
- Provide quality technical assistance for clinical, academic and research applications daily and as needed.
- Although focus is extracorporeal therapy services and managing intensive care inpatients, cross training to provide care to patients in any other section is expected.
- Ensure adequate record keeping and ensure the submissions of proper charges for each case.
- Responsible for ordering supplies and ensuring that the dialysis unit is clean and well stocked
- Collaborate with administrative and clinical care team members throughout the hospital to coordinate and prioritize patient care.
- Complete diagnostic testing as ordered by clinicians including bench-top lab tests.
Teaching:
- Instruct veterinary students and student technicians in all technical aspects of treating extracorporeal therapy cases.
- Assist in the training of medicine/ICU technicians in high level skills and care.
- Maintain and update the service SOP’s and digital files to ensure consistent and high-quality care by all staff and clinicians.
Client Service:
- Serve as point of contact for the Extracorporeal Therapy Services and Internal Medicine services.
- Communicate with clients and referring veterinarians to answer questions and relay patient information as directed by clinician
Department Maintenance:
- Coordinate and prioritize daily care of service inpatients and maintain adequate inventory for the Dialysis service.
- Clean/stock/maintain service areas.
- Maintain equipment and ensure that all equipment is kept in good working order.
- Facilitate the maintenance of clinical equipment by identifying malfunctioning equipment and scheduling service.
- Oversee service contracts if applicable for equipment.
- Establish and maintain infection control protocols for the service areas.
Research:
- Assist in faculty and house officer studies and projects as needed including treating research/laboratory animals.
Other:
- Participate in hospital wide initiatives such as infection control, patient care improvements and staff training
- Cover in other areas of internal medicine or the ICU as needed
The minimum rate of pay for this position is $35 per hour with a 35-hour budgeted work week. Compensation above this rate will vary based on education, experience, and credentials.
The Hemodialysis Veterinary Technician is considered an essential employee within the hospital and the schedule may include providing University and calendar holiday coverage on a rotating basis.
Once trained, this position will participate in a rotating on-call emergency schedule which includes weeknights, weekends, and holidays with generous shift differentials for hours outside of standard business hours as well as pager and emergency call in stipends and emergency hourly rates.
What We're Looking For
Basic Requirements:
- Certified Veterinary Technician in good standing
- Veterinary Technician Specialist Certification in Emergency and Critical Care or Small Animal Internal Medicine
OR - Certified veterinary technician in good standing, 6 years as a certified veterinary technician in a large specialty hospital, demonstrated mastery of specialist technical and procedural skills associated with internal medicine or emergency and critical care
- Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to work effectively as a member of a diverse team of clinical and administrative professionals.
- Expert understanding of medical terminology and veterinary pharmacology and the ability to effectively share that knowledge
- Demonstrated ability to provide exceptional service to both internal and external customers, and to work collegially as part of a team.
- Demonstrated ability to provide mentorship and leadership to other technicians.
- Demonstrated ability to instruct students, as determined by student feedback.
- Able to work well independently as well as part of a team.
- Ability to work in a busy, stressful environment with diverse personalities while maintaining a calm, professional demeanor.
- Expertise with Microsoft Office and electronic medical records.
Required technical skills include: Advanced IV catheter placement, feeding tube placement, urinary catheter placement, sedation and general anesthesia of animals of all ASA statuses, transfusion medicine, intensive care patient monitoring and treatment
- RECOVER certified and be able to independently initiate and carry out CPR
Ability to lift up to 50 lbs with or without accommodation
Preferred Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in veterinary technology preferred
- Experience working in an academic environment or teaching hospital
- Experience with extracorporeal therapies
- Demonstrated ability teaching other technicians, veterinary students, veterinary technician students
Pay Range
Minimum $32.40, Midpoint $38.50, Maximum $44.70
Salary is based on related experience, expertise, and internal equity; generally, new hires can expect pay between the minimum and midpoint of the range.