Having a job as a nursing assistant, patient care assistant, or animal care assistant, is an enriching experience. You’ll provide support to animals, clients and the rest of your veterinary team. In addition to performing a high level of supportive nursing care, veterinary care assistants also learn and develop the skills required to educate owners on maintaining their pets’ health.
In this role you’ll learn technical skills enabling the undertaking of a range of basic diagnostic tests, and supportive care procedures for the patient. Once qualified as a veterinary care assistant, you can use that qualification to progress onto a veterinary nursing qualification or continue to work as a valuable nursing assistant in practice.
An animal care assistant job description can vary. There are even several names for the role including veterinary care assistant, patient care assistant and animal care assistant.
The specific duties this role can involve vary depending on the practice or hospital, but generally speaking they are responsible for looking after animals in the care of the practice. This can include ensuring they are comfortable and clean, taking them out for exercise, as well as supporting vet and nurses in handling animals during consults or before surgeries.
You will support the rest of the veterinary team, perhaps helping in the running of diagnostic tests, speaking to owners, and other duties that support the running of the practice or hospital. Your main role is to keep the animals in your care as happy and comfortable as they can.
If you’re interested in entering into a career as a VCA, one of the first things you can do is start to build up a CV of animal-related work experience.
To find out a bit more about how to get started on a career in veterinary nursing, please have a look at the BVNA website as it has some excellent information on VCA training. You can also read about the experiences of our vets and nurses on our blog.
Without receptionists to greet clients, answer phone calls from owners, and support with all the important admin that comes with a busy practice or hospital, it would be much harder for our vets and nurses to do their jobs! Receptionists are a vital part of the ecosystem of our practices and hospitals and are often the first point of contact for animal guardians. They do really important work in triaging emergency phone calls, booking appointments, and other key tasks.
You don’t need a clinical background to become a veterinary receptionist, we offer training and support to all our support teams to ensure they have the knowledge they need to do their work. Good organisational and communication skills are important, as well as the ability to remain calm under pressure.