Friendly, independent practice in NW London seeks new vet teammate to write the next chapter of our story
Do you still like being a GP vet, but feel you are not in the right place to make you happy?
Are you at home working in a friendly but focused team?
Are you a positive person who is enjoying their work as a vet?
Do you see clients as friends, not foes?
Are you ready to learn new things and be challenged to stretch and grow as a clinician and human?
If so, then read on, we may have the role for you.
About Roundwood Vets
Roundwood Vets exists to support and enrich the lives of the pets, families, and the community we serve. We’ve been on quite a journey since taking over the practice four years ago when there was just one vet and nurse! Since then we’ve more than quadrupled in size and over the next four years, we plan to do the same again.
Our objective is to serve more than 3000 families each year across London using a mixture of old and new methods of delivering healthcare - all blended together.
This means there are going to be lots of exciting opportunities for doing both meaningful work as a vet, but also more creative things helping complete the mini-projects we’re going to be working on to help accomplish our mission.
We are looking for people who look at old ways of doing things, put them under the microscope and ask, does this way still work? Is there a better way? We want people who are hungry to learn and we are happy to support and fund this growth.
Our new management team has created an ambitious new vision (we’ll share this with you) and we are now building the team capable of bringing this dream to life. At the core of our work are our values which are: honesty, kindness, conscientiousness, fun, teamwork, and growth.
One of the plans for 2021 is to implement an “employee-owned” co-operative ownership model so the people who work in the practice and contribute so much of their lives to making it a success, can benefit from any profits we make. Because let’s face it, we all put so much on the line to do this job, there really should be better rewards. When so many others are selling out to corporations, we think a co-operative model is a way forward in helping to preserve our culture and make sure everyone benefits in the long run.
Alongside the investment we’ve made in reshaping the team, we’ve also invested heavily during COVID in systems and equipment to further enhance our standards of care.
In terms of what we are like as a clinical practice, we think of ourselves as being a bit like a family doctor. We are definitely here to help the local community and their pets. We believe in giving clients the time and attention they need to make good decisions for their pets and building strong relationships with clients and each other.
Hopefully, the message we’re getting across is that we have a clear vision, believe in growth opportunities for individuals, and want to see all of our people thrive and be rewarded as we bring our vision to life.
How we work. A short case study from one of our clients who had a cat with periodontal disease.
About You
Now, back to you! We’re looking for a vet with at least two years of experience who loves solving pet problems and can play well with people too! We are quite busy so we need someone who is past the stage of needing their handheld for the basics and is an action-oriented person.
We need someone with charisma, who builds trusting relationships. Someone who can help clients understand what the right thing to do is, by telling great stories. Someone who likes to learn and help others to grow too.
We do have clear guidelines and expectations about how we work together as a team and, we do work hard - but we’re not looking for someone who will work themselves into the ground. The last thing we want is to burn any of our team out. So we need you to be aware of how to take care of yourself as well.
We’re trying to change the mould for veterinary medicine by creating a great working environment where we care about each other as much as we care about pets and clients. Profit matters, but it’s not the most important thing to us. Our people come first, then pets, then clients - if we get this stuff right, then we know that the financial side of life will look after itself.
So what can you expect from us?
Well firstly, you can expect to work with professional and friendly colleagues who want to help you grow. Growth and development is at the core of what we are doing.
We also work to a high standard with good equipment, so you can expect the chance to do good work. As an example, to perform our anaesthetics, we use the best practice meds and everything receives fluids. We use anaesthetic monitors, we use safe heating blankets, we train, we record incidents and we review our practice and process in a no-blame way. So it’s the safest it can be for our patients.
Another example is in our approach to dentistry; we take radiographs and photos of everything. We use the best, well-maintained equipment. We have access to brilliant online training materials. And we practice our skills on cadavers. (We do a lot of dentals - so if you are not a fan or not keen to learn to be a good dentist then we might not be the practice for you.)
You can also expect a friendly, welcoming, and open culture from top to bottom. Ego isn’t a welcome guest here. We want humble team-mates. But that doesn’t mean meek, our team are fun and have a good laugh. But none of us is the finished article, we’re all learning, growing, and moving forward. And we want to work with people who push us to get better, who call us out with compassion and kind intent when we might be wrong, and gently steer us back in the right direction.
You can also expect support and learning opportunities so you build your skills. This comes in many forms from one-to-one coaching, on the job mentoring, regular days when you will have no clinical responsibilities and freedom to work on you, and access to a wide array of CPD opportunities both online and at events. We have memberships of webinar vet, dental training, and also Thrive professional skills training from VetX.
You can expect a fair wage. We’re a small practice, but we want to pay our people fairly. So we have a package that includes a fair base salary with generous benefits package on top which includes pet care, health care, and perk box access, and CPD funding.
Learn a bit more about our history & philosophy in this interview with practice owner Dr Dave Nicol & Ebony Escalona from Vets Stay, Go Diversify
What we're looking for from you..
We are looking first and foremost for someone who “gets” what we are trying to achieve and can fit our team culture and values. On application, we’ll send you our values and behaviour statements so you have clarity on what you are getting into!
You’ll have a great way of making clients feel confident in your abilities. You’ll also have confidence in your own abilities and this translates into actually getting the clients to take the action their pet needs more often than not.
You’ll be able to perform dentals, routine soft tissue surgeries, and medical workups. You’ll be able to use imaging like X-rays and be keen to learn more about ultrasound (we can train you in this if you like so don’t worry if this is not a skill you have) to help you make good clinical decisions.
You’ll be the type of vet who is OK with working with and helping to advance our standards of care. (Not all vets like this, which is fine, but we like to have some basic guidelines to work with to improve patient outcomes and client consistency.)
You’ll be a person who can manage time, priorities, and gets the work done each day.
There are a few other things we’d like you to feel good about:
• "us" - your vet tribe.
• Your clients - if you can do clients then you can do vet med. If you can't then you are in trouble.
• Your patients (obvs).
• You.
• Really, YOU in quite a big way.
• Money and not be embarrassed or ashamed of it. It'll never come first, but it is there and we all need to work on this.
• We want you to be willing to learn and grow.
• We want you to help others in the team learn and grow.
• We want you to be willing to be amazing.
• We want you to leave your ego at the door.
• We want to laugh and cry with you at the crazy stuff we have to deal with.
• We want to be able to have a beer (or wine/soft drink of your choice) with you after work.
• We want you to understand that the owners of this practice care very deeply about helping you get where you want to go and helping you become what you can be.
• We want you to accept that you are not perfect, that none of us is and that's OK. Failure is OK as long as you learn.
• We want you to be happy.
If you can do that, we'd be very, very proud to call you a teammate.
(And if you can be that, or be willing to work towards it.... could you also never leave?)
The Role
OK, so thanks for reading all the way down. We'd better talk about this role then.
We are looking for a full-time vet for five 8-hour shifts each week, some of these shifts will be available to take as learning and development days depending on your experience and future goals. You’ll also work a Saturday morning (8:30am-12:30pm) every third weekend.
During your workdays, you’ll be consulting, performing dentals, work-ups, and medical/surgical treatments - all the things you’d expect to do in a modern practice. We don’t refer a lot and when we do we like to think the specialists have to scratch their heads a little.
There is no on-call and only occasional need for anyone to care for an inpatient overnight.
We are situated a short walk from the Jubilee line station so access to and from all parts of London is relatively easy.
Next Steps
If this role sounds exciting and our culture sounds like a place you’d like to work then we’d love to hear from you. To apply, please click on the apply now button and complete the short application form you find there.
If you wanted an informal pre-application chat then DM Dr Dave Nicol on Instagram at @drdavenicol.
ACE BEAN
"The treatment that we got for Ace was brilliant. The team kept us informed at all times and the friendly atmosphere of the practice also gave us a lot of confidence that we made the right choice"
LOKI O'BRIEN
“Everyone in the lovely Roundwood Vets team is so warm and conscientious. I’m so impressed with the care and treatment they’ve provided for my nervous rescue dog”
Whiskey benjamin
"Dr Hannah and her team are the most caring professionals, my pets cannot be in better hands."