Experienced Veterinary Nurse

Job Description

Job Description

Experienced Veterinary Nurse

Companion Animal Hospital of Lafayette | Full-Time

Companion Animal Hospital of Lafayette is looking for an experienced veterinary nurse to join our growing small-animal practice. We are a locally owned, one-doctor hospital built around the belief that excellent veterinary medicine should come with excellent relationships. We are intentionally not trying to become a high-volume practice. Instead, we want enough clinical support to care for more patients without sacrificing the time, warmth, and communication our clients expect. We are growing quickly, with plans to expand into a larger facility and eventually become a two-doctor practice, and we are looking for someone who wants to grow with us. This is not an entry-level or lead position. We prefer 3+ years of small-animal experience and are looking for someone with a strong clinical foundation who is comfortable with venipuncture, IV catheter placement, patient restraint, diagnostics, treatments, surgical support, anesthesia monitoring, medication calculations, and the everyday responsibilities of a veterinary hospital.

Technical ability, however, is only part of what makes someone successful here. Our nurses interact directly with clients, and we place as much importance on making the person holding the leash or carrier feel comfortable as we do the patient inside it. You should be comfortable introducing yourself, talking with clients in person and on the phone, listening to concerns, explaining what is happening, and helping families feel at home in our hospital. We want someone who takes initiative—someone who notices what needs to be done, helps coworkers, follows up with clients, maintains clinical areas, works with inventory, and solves routine problems without waiting for the veterinarian to provide every answer. You should be confident in the experience you bring while remaining receptive to coaching and constructive feedback. Our current veterinary nurses help establish our clinical standards, and an experienced new team member must be willing to learn from them and adapt to the way our hospital practices.

One of the most important parts of our clinical culture is understanding why something is done rather than simply memorizing how to complete a process. Whether you are restraining a patient, calculating a medication, or monitoring anesthesia, we want you to understand what you are observing, why it matters, what the expected outcome should be, and how to recognize when something is going wrong. We ask questions, discuss cases, teach one another, and want our nurses to develop clinical judgment rather than simply follow protocols. You won't be expected to know everything when you arrive, but you will be expected to remain curious. Experience here should give you a foundation for learning—not a reason to stop learning.

We take the attitude we bring to work very seriously . Veterinary medicine gives us hectic days, difficult cases, emotional clients, unexpected emergencies, and mornings when everything seems to happen at once—but those pressures are never an excuse to make the workplace unpleasant for everyone else. We expect our team to show up ready to contribute, communicate respectfully, help one another, and maintain a welcoming and constructive demeanor with clients and coworkers. Toxicity, chronic negativity, and the attitude that everyone else simply has to tolerate someone's bad mood do not fit our culture. That doesn't mean we expect anyone to pretend life is perfect. We know our coworkers as people, support one another through difficult seasons, and communicate openly when someone needs help. Even after our hardest days, this is a team that can pat each other on the back, smile on the way out the door and come back the next morning ready to tackle another day together. We want to preserve that as we grow. We want the quality of medicine you might expect from a much larger hospital while maintaining the warmth and relationships of a small veterinary practice.

Position & Benefits

• Full-time position

• Compensation discussed during the interview process

• 90-day introductory period to ensure a good long-term fit for both you and our hospital

• Paid holidays following successful completion of the introductory period

• Opportunity to participate in available supplemental insurance benefits

• Continuing education and professional development opportunities

• Opportunities for increased responsibility and advancement as our hospital grows

Before applying, we encourage you to take some time to learn about Companion Animal Hospital of Lafayette . We receive many applications, and maintaining the culture of our hospital matters deeply to us. We want to hear more than where you have worked or what technical skills you have. Tell us why this particular practice interests you and what you believe you would bring to our team.

We're not simply looking for someone who wants another veterinary job.

We're looking for someone who wants to become part of our hospital.

Pay will be based on applicant experience.