| Job Description: |
UF Small Animal Hospital is seeking passionate Veterinary Technician Specialists (ECC) to join our incredible ECC team. We are a VECCS-accredited Level-1 hospital providing care for over 46,000 patients annually. Our ECC team is one of the largest in the world consisting of VTS (ECC) technicians, board-certified criticalists, emergency clinicians, residents and interns, and over 70 veterinary technicians and technician assistants, not to mention the client services team that supports the service 24/7. ECC collaborates with 16 other specialties within the small animal hospital including internal medicine, integrative medicine, diagnostic imaging, surgery, neurology, and oncology. The hospital is also supported by a full diagnostic reference laboratory and an impressive veterinary pharmacy support team.
Our mission is quality patient care from admission to discharge. To optimize care, our emergency room and ICU are split, permitting focused assessment and prompt intervention for both walk-in and referral patients. While we do maintain an ECC team environment, the ECC technicians rotate time spent in both the ER and ICU to ensure full utilization of all their clinical skills and promote critical thinking strategies. We strive to provide a positive environment and are proud to promote a culture where technician input, knowledge, and skills are valued and respected We have a patient safety and quality care program and technicians play an integral role in ensuring high standards of patient care and safety.
Our VTS technicians play an important role in reviewing cases with our criticalists and strategizing the nursing management of our most critical patients such as post-op mitral valve replacement patients, post-op hypophysectomies, hemodialysis/TPE patients, unstable ventilator cases, complicated DKAs, snake bite envenomation cases with complications, septic patients, polytrauma patients, critically ill exotic/zoo med patients, etc. Their contributions to training our veterinary students include sponsoring ‘lunch and learn’ case discussions of critical cases in the ICU for freshmen and sophomores, assisting in various clinical skills teaching labs for students including BLS/ALS training, pharmacology/medical math, and professional communication courses, and all the advanced technical skills used in the ECC department. Orientation to the ER rotations and conducting didactic rounds with students lecturing on topics such as fluid therapy, shock, sepsis, etc. are other ways our VTS techs assist in the development of veterinary students. Depending on their specific interests, there are also opportunities to participate in a large array of research studies in the ECC department.
Another challenging role for our VTS techs involves mentoring and providing ongoing training to new ECC technicians and to our VTS hopefuls who are working on their AVECCT applications. Our VTS techs assist with reviewing application packets, case logs, and case reviews along with providing insightful guidance on case management of critical cases. We have an in-house ECC CE lecture series that consists of a monthly lecture on ECC/Anesthesia topics with lectures presented by VTS techs in both departments, as well as ECC faculty. Every October the UF Veterinary Hospital sponsors an all-day veterinary technician conference and many of the VTS present lectures/masterclasses on topics they are passionate about or present inspiring case reports on challenging cases seen in the ECC department.
As part of our ongoing commitment to the professional development of our VTS technicians, there is a generous stipend yearly for continuing education and we are highly supportive of those who want to present case reports, topic lectures, or assist with teaching labs at international conferences throughout the year striving to provide time off for these additional opportunities as they arise.
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