The Visiting Vet

Business Summary: 

The Visiting Vet is a mobile vet service for people who are unable to get their sick pets into a main veterinary building. This is mostly aimed at the elderly community. Their business consists of a main vet and a vet nurse to assist. They travel all across Werribee and surrounding areas providing stress-free routine checks or emergency practices at the comfort of your own home. 

The team consists of 5 other people who can travel from Werribee to Yarraville and everywhere in between. The team works Monday to Friday from 8 am to 6 pm and on Saturday from 8 am to 1 pm. Each and every household can negotiate an extended time period where they can get support for their pets if needed. There are many ways to contact the Visiting Vet. Their email is, info@thevisitingvet.com.au This is where you can contact them with questions on information that isn’t found on their website.

Personnell information: 

Owner:

Sandy founded The Visiting Vet in December of 2012 when she saw how hard it was for some people, especially the elderly to bring their pets in case of an emergency. Sandy holds a Bachelor Degree in veterinary science.

Veterinarians

There are 5 other qualified vets that work at the business and all hold a Bachelor Degree in Veterinary Science.

Tasks:

• Treating animals medically and surgically. 

• Prescribing drugs, analgesics and general and local anesthetics. 

• Locating and determining abnormal conditions by physical examinations, laboratory testing through imaging techniques including ultrasound and radiography. 

• Programs designed to inform communities about the spread of diseases. 

• Testing animals for infectious diseases and notifying authorities of outbreaks in the community. 

• Performing surgeries, dressing wounds on the body and delicate areas. setting broken bones. 

• Informing community on new pharmaceutical products that may help the animals depending on what type of issue they have. 

Vet Nurses:

There are 5 Vet nurses within this business. Each time a call-out is made a nurse attends with the Vet. 

Tasks:

• Holding and keeping animals still to allow examination and treatment by Veterinarians without struggle 

• Cleaning and sterilizing examination tables and equipment to make sure that there is less chance if infection

• Preparing instruments and handing them to the Veterinarian to make it easier for them to stay focused

• Assisting Veterinarians to administer anesthetics and oxygen during operations as it is safer to have someone monitor it while an operation is taking place

• Placing animals in cages for recovery from operations and monitoring their condition

• Giving medications to animals as the vets or very busy

• Maintaining stock control and records so the business can see how much the have to use on the animals

• Providing animal care advice, and preparing, delivering, and reviewing animal care education programs

• May perform diagnostic laboratory tests to assist vets

• May act as receptionist, accept payments and undertake clerical work

Employment opportunities (Including work Experience) 

To enter the veterinary industry all students studying veterinary medicine will have to spend at least 4 years in university and another 4 years in veterinary school to earn a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine or D.V.M degree. This will be the minimum qualifications to get a job as a vet or vet nurse. This has been said to be very hard to pass and even some have said it's easier to become a doctor than a vet. The future of the industry is looking good as more medicine is getting released which can make people's lives easier to look after their pet, a shortage of vets has been visible not mainly in Victoria but other parts of the country so if a rise is possible with future workers it could help the industry a lot. Work experience is not something that we do as stated before, we are a mobile service that takes a vet and a vet nurse in the car with tools in the back. It's not possible to arrange a way they can come with one of the employees.

Management and OHS concerns: 

Each and every employee has to read and understand the conditions of their contract. Each contract outlines safety protocols that comply with the OHS Act 2004. Every 6 months we review our risk assessments and every year work with WorkSafe Victoria to ensure we are up to date with all the laws and regulations that can get sent out by the government. A weekly meeting is taken place with all the employees and employers and to see what the employees can add to the business in terms of safety procedures or something that can help the community in how the business works especially now with the pandemic. 

Personal protective equipment is all supplies by the business for the employees and employers to use when working. Some of the equipment that gets used while working are protective glasses in case any chemicals get into the eyes. Gloves to protect the hands from bacteria and dangerous chemicals that can burn the skin. Masks just for general safety and to keep in guidelines with the government’s regulations during the pandemic. Throughout the business workplace, we have posters and pamphlets stating the information on all the OHS acts and guidelines and what to follow when entering the main workplace to keep the customers, employees and employers safe. If an incident was to occur a form has to be filled out and given to everyone that was there to get an understanding of what occurred. Sandy has to be contacted and will have to have a meeting with everyone to make sure nothing like this can happen again. It’s a very long and detailed process of finding out all the faults that contributed to the incident occurring. 

Owner's  OHS Responsibilities

• Generate employee contracts

• Provide training 

• Provide PPE

• Provide medical equipment

• Hold meetings every 6 months

• Conduct risk assessments

• Liaise with WorkSafe

• Conduct Risk Assessments

• Work with staff on duties/job

• Communicate OHS procedures with staff.

Vet and Vet Nurse OHS responsibilities:

• Wear PPE that is provided

• Get to work on time 

• Understand the OHS requirements

• Report any risks and hazards

• Let the owner know if they feel uncomfortable

• Keeping up to date with training course

• Good hygiene practices 

Entitlements:

MA000118: Animal Care and Veterinary Services is the award that we receive as qualified Veterinarians or Veterinarians nurse.  

Allowances: Clothing and Laundry allowance if you get your clothes dirty from working with the animals. This is an extra $6.51 every week. If you are working overtime such as a high demand for surgeries that day. they pay you an extra $10-20 to pay for your meal after. A work phone is given to the employee by the employer but the employee must reimburse the employer through the next couple of weeks as it must be used to call for information while on duty.  

Pay and Wages: Veterinarians with 20+ years’ experience earn the largest wage of $54.11 an hour. Veterinarians with 1 year or under experience earn the lowest wage of $27.91 an hour. Which makes the average wage $38.72 an hour.  20+ years of experience gives you $92,000+ annually. Veterinarians with 1 year or under experience earn the lowest wage of $52,000. This makes the average annual wage $66,499. Veterinary Nurses with 1 year or under experience earn $20.77 an hour and Veterinary Nurses with 20+ years of experience earn $25.61 an hour. Annually, people with 1 year or under earn $35,000. Veterinary Nurses with 20+ years of experience earn $64,000+ a year.   

overtime: 

• Overtime rates must be paid to full-time and part-time employees in accordance with clause 20.1(b) and to casual employees in accordance with clause 20.1(c) as follows:

• to employees other than shiftworkers—for all work performed outside the ordinary hours;and

• to employees engaged on shiftwork—for all work outside ordinary hours or in excess of 8 hours. Overtime rates for shiftwork are paid instead of the shiftwork penalty rates in clause 21.2.

Job Longevity: You would need a year 12 VCE certificate and go to university and study veterinary science. this would give you the qualifications to get a job within the veterinary industry. A very high skill level industry is needed to get a job in this industry as you need a lot of study and practice to even get close to getting somewhere and you must have a passion for it. This job has a very strong future growth which basically means that in the future more and more people would become vets and then help the industry grow throughout the world as new discoveries will be made. Veterinary nurses need a certificate III or IV in veterinary nursing to become a veterinary nurse in the industry. they have a medium skill level on the job with high growth in the near future.