Part-time Flexible work Veterinary Surgeon

Incredible Work Life Balance: Full or part time hours available. Proactive & Flexible Management: Frequent 1:1s and annual appraisals. Development is encouraged and supported.
The practice was established in 2014 and has grown to 6 vets (full and part time) and 6 qualified nurses.
The practice owner has 16 years experience, and an interest in surgery.
Having worked in 4 other practices as a permanent vet, and additional practices as a locum, the owner has seen the good and the bad of practice management. She also does frequent 1:1s and annual appraisals and is proactive in discussing pay increases with each individual. Sometimes a pay rise isnt just about skill development, its also the combination of being proactive, keeping clients informed, clinically being knowledgeable, knowing gold standard but being able to adjust your plan according to the needs of the client and what is best for the animal. In return, she not only rewards financially, but is incredibly flexible when it comes to accommodating peoples individual needs and requirements in terms of work life balance and maintaining a good quality of life. Whether its due to having a family, health issues or just personal preference, nothing is too much for her to consider and the team report that this isnt an effort for her; She respects peoples time and so if you work overtime, you are paid overtime, even if its just 20-30 minutes, the practice owner is the one reminding you to make sure you log it.

Youre actively encouraged to put in for overtime, even if its just 20-30 mins.

On a weekend, she always makes sure you know you can call her. The practice owner's values also shine through in the practices reputation of putting the pets first. Clients regularly comment on how welcome they feel and how much attention their pets receive. She leads by example, but its also the natural spirit of the team to want to do their best for the clients and their pets, going above and beyond to ensure they feel valued and supported.

This is where everyone pauses as a team, perhaps with a cup of tea or cake together. One of those days, the meeting is more structured yet casual where you would discuss what is going well for the practice, suggestions for improvements, case discussions and action planning/reviews. From this particular meeting, notes are made on their computer system so everyone can read, and this goes towards CPD. The other two breaks that occur you may end up chatting about practice related topics, however it is more general chit chat to help the team have moments of bonding as well.

The Facilities
In terms of equipment, they have a Doppler ultrasound machine (recently upgraded), digital x-ray, doppler blood pressure, fluid pumps and laser therapy. If someone has an interest in orthopaedics, the practice owner would be very happy to invest in the kit, and go on the orthopaedics journey with someone, as it's something she has already started to develop herself.
For clients who may not have the right level of cover or cannot afford treatment, the practice offers a 0% finance scheme with Close Brothers Finance which helps to spread the cost. For the last 6 years, the practice has worked to20 minute appointmentswhich allows for a thorough examination and the opportunity to enhance the vet-client and vet-pet trust.

Orthopaedic surgeries come in waves, usually on average one a month and they will be things like femoral head and neck, limb amputations, fractures, cruciate repairs.
From a medical point of view, they work a lot up in house. They see a lot of animals that present complicated cases and need a lot of time such as food intolerances and skin cases.
For example, in the last 7 days theyve done 12 x-rays and 6 ultrasound scans. A lot of their ultrasound scans are abdominal scans, including things like looking for bladder tumours, bladder stones, splenic masses, liver masses, pyometras, gallstones. In October 2021, they upgraded the ultrasound machine and a couple of vets within the practice have asked to go on CPD courses to enhance their skills and do more advanced scanning, which is being fully supported by the practice owner. They used to have a visiting cardiologist but they have now set up their own practice for cardio scanning locally, so pets requiring cardiac scans travel over to their practice.

For the last 6 years, the practice has worked to 20 minute appointments which allows for a thorough examination and the opportunity to enhance the vet-client and vet-pet trust.
Professional Development and Support
Theres a good balance of interests within the team and with a number of vets working less than full time and a large amount of cases to go around, there is flexibility for vets to share similar interests and still feel like they are carving out their own niche. Previously, they had a vet doing acupuncture in the practice and this is something they would look to do again if someone had an interest in it, or in another area.
The practice owner is supportive in terms of creating learning opportunities for people too. For example, a vet joined the practice from more of an equine background and wanted to enhance their small animal surgical abilities, so the practice owner and this vet operate together one day a week. Theres always someone on hand to help and you always have a chance to either learn or help somebody else out. More recently, as a result ofthree vets wanting a bit more surgical support, they decided to double up on vets operating each day so an experienced surgeon buddy's up with someone who didnt feel quite as confident, to create that extra layer of support. This means there is probably 2 ops days a week on offer for the new vet, especially if they had an interest in surgery.
The practice owner would love to go on the orthopaedics journey with someone if their new vet had an interest in this. She will invest in new equipment and training to help someone get up to speed.
She would fully support the implementation of interest specific consultations, such as Dermatology.

Since 2015, Simply Veterinary Specialist Headhunters has introduced 3 vets to the practice, and all 3 still work there.
There are 5 qualified nurses and 1 student nurse, plus 3 VCAs. There is also a dedicated Practice Manager to help with the smooth running of the practice.
The nursing team is very stable, loyal, and supportive. They are all team players, and there is always someone on hand to help you. Work Life Balance
Full or part time will be considered, and a variety of shifts are possible here between the hours of 9am 7pm. We have been named as the Recruitment Firm of the year at the HealthInvestor Awards, Winners of the Professional Service Provider of the Year at the General Practice Awards, Winners of the Recruitment Award at the LaingBuisson Awards and named on the Recruiter Hot100 list, so in dealing with us you'll be in safe hands
For every placement we make, Menlo Park plants two trees We plant one on your behalf and the other on the surgery's behalf. By planting two trees we offset 0.6 tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of driving 1,466 miles in a standard car. We want to contribute towards helping save the planet