Veterinary Triage Assistant

Job Description

Job Description

Two of the people who have worked here are now in veterinary school. Another recently returned to human medicine on a promotion. When we asked her whether she could do anything now that she could not do before her time with us, her answer was simple. She said she could face an emergency confidently, and that she could not have done that before.

That is what we build here.

Urgent Care Vet Panama City is an after-hours animal hospital near the Hathaway Bridge on Highway 98. We are open every evening, all weekends, and all holidays, and we are staffed around the clock because we keep patients overnight. We offer diagnostics, IV therapy, oxygen therapy, and surgery to families who walk in without an appointment, usually frightened, often on the worst evening of their month. We are the hospital between your regular veterinarian and a full emergency center.

We will teach you to do this work. You do not need a degree and you do not need veterinary experience.

What the job actually is

This is a clinical position, and it is one of the most consequential roles in the building.

When a pet comes through our door, you are the first person to touch it. You take vitals. You look at gums, at capillary refill, at how the animal is breathing. You listen to the family. And then, with our doctors, you determine who is seen first.

That judgment matters more than anything else that happens at the front of this hospital. A patient that is failing does not always look like it. Getting that call right is the difference between an ordinary evening and one nobody forgets.

We want you to understand what we are asking, because most hospitals call this job "receptionist," and it is not that.

On a shift you would:

• Take vitals and gather history on every patient who arrives — temperature, pulse, respiration, weight, mucous membrane color, capillary refill, overall assessment

• Triage: determine who needs a doctor now and who can safely wait, and tell the team

• Handle animals safely and calmly, including the frightened ones

• Assist with patient care, including our hospitalized patients overnight

• Draw blood and place IV catheters — we will teach you, and most people are doing both within six months

• Build treatment estimates and walk families through them

• Maintain accurate, easy to follow treatment records

• Keep the treatment area clean and stocked to OSHA standards

• Help at the front with clients, phones, and payments

Physically: you will be on your feet for a six to ten hour shift, and you will need to lift at least 50 pounds.

Where it goes

• Within one month of hire, with good attendance and performance, you begin training toward veterinary technician.

• Your pay increases as you pass each checkpoint. Written standards, demonstrated to a veterinarian. You will always know exactly what you are working toward.

• After one year with us, we pay your tuition for an accredited veterinary technology program, in exchange for a two-year commitment once you finish. When you certify, your pay increases that same day.

About the hours, honestly

We are open when everyone else is closed. Evenings, weekends, holidays. That is the whole of our business and it is not going to change.

Most people who leave this profession leave for a day practice, and we would rather you knew that now than discovered it in six months. If our schedule is something you would merely tolerate, this will not work, and we would not want that for you.

But if you are a student, or your spouse works days and this is what makes your childcare possible, or you want three twelve-hour shifts and four days off, or you are coming from another around-the-clock job and already know what evenings/nights cost — then this schedule may be the best thing about the position.

About how long people stay

Most people are with us two or three years. Some follow a spouse’s orders. Some go on to school. We are proud of every one of them, and a great many of them still bring us their pets.

We are not going to pretend this is a job you will retire from. What we will promise is that you will leave here able to walk into the worst moment of somebody’s week and know what to do. That does not expire, it travels wherever you go, and no one can take it back.

If that is worth two or three years to you, we would like to meet you.

What we are looking for

• You can write clearly. Medical records are legal documents. A doctor has to read your note and know precisely what happened. This is a real requirement of the work rather than a preference.

• You stay level when things get loud. Families arrive frightened, and sometimes their animal does not survive. You will be the first face they see and often the last.

• You would rather know why. The people who do well here ask why we are giving that drug, not just which syringe.

• Steady hands, a good memory, and a willingness to learn things you do not know yet.

• Authorized to work in the US.

If you have done any of the following, your skills transfer: veterinary assistant, EMT or paramedic, CNA, phlebotomist, shelter or kennel work — or any work where you had to think quickly, handle animals, and remain kind to frightened people.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance. We pay 80% of your premium.

• Eligible at 30 hours per week, not 40.

• Accrued paid time off

• Generous SEP at 3 years

Urgent Care Vet Panama City is an after-hours pet hospital located near the Hathaway Bridge on Highway 98 in Panama City. We bridge the gap between general practice and full emergency care, offering same-day treatment and staffed overnight hospitalization. We accept walk-ins after hours and on weekends, triaging our patients based on acuity. We hire for character and teach the medicine — most of our team arrived without small animal veterinary experience, and two of them are now in veterinary school.

Company Description

Urgent Care Vet Panama City is an after-hours pet hospital located near the Hathaway Bridge on Highway 98 in Panama City. We bridge the gap between general practice and full emergency care, offering same-day treatment and staffed overnight hospitalization. We accept walk-ins after hours and on weekends, triaging our patients based on acuity. We hire for character and teach the medicine — most of our team arrived without small animal veterinary experience, and two of them are now in veterinary school.