Veterinary Nurse

- Do you have a passion for patient advocacy?
- Engage in exciting organisation wide learning and development opportunities
- Permanent Fulltime based at Burwood East

It's time to think about joining the team at RSPCA Victoria

About Us

RSPCA Victoria is a non-government, community-based charity that works to prevent cruelty to animals by actively promoting their care and protection.

Our organisation's purpose is to work with the community to achieve outstanding animal welfare through education, advocacy, and animal care and protection. RSPCA Victoria is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an environment that is underpinned by our values: respect, consideration, clarity, accountability, expertise, and collaboration.

About the role

We are currently looking for full - time nurses to join us. We are a large Clinic with a rotating staff of approximately 50 nurses and 25 vets, which includes veterinarians with advanced education in internal medicine, orthopaedics, shelter medicine, soft tissue surgery, ophthalmology and emergency and critical care. Accompanying this inspiring group is a varied skill set of nurses who encourage, support and inspire each other to continually improve.

Our facility incorporates five operating theatres, eight consulting rooms, four shelter hospital wards, two private patient hospital wards, a cat specific isolation ward, digital x-ray capability as well as dental x-ray, in-house pathology capability, ultrasound capability and ECG.

This role will provide you with

• Exposure to wide range of routine and non-routine surgical procedures.
• Exposure to a wide case load of hospitalised patients including but not limited to the management of ophthalmic procedures post op, orthopaedic procedures post-op, various zoonotic and infectious disease management, exotic medicine, wound management, and the management of medicine cases
• Opportunity to advocate for preventative care through nurse consults providing the community with animal care information on husbandry, nutrition, parasite control and pet behaviour
• Continual CE conducted in house during rostered hours
• Continued professional development with career progression further than just becoming certified, including recognition and renumeration for continued professional development in special interest areas
• Paid study leave benefits
• Nurse annual CPD allowance
• Nurses come under an enterprise agreement

The successful candidate will want to commit to an environment of continual improvement and continued professional development. This role entails:

• Working a rotating roster.
• No on call or after hours care
• Working in a collaborative environment where vets, nurses, animal attendants, behaviour teams, customer service officers and foster coordinators work to achieve the best possible outcomes
• A roster that includes a variety of shifts, working in a different area each day. Your week could have any of the following shift types incorporated into it.
• Wards – Private patients, shelter cats, shelter dogs, isolation, including wards support roles assisting your nursing team
• Theatre including availability to progress into roles working with ophthalmology teams, orthopaedic teams, and or minor procedures (dental, x-rays, minor procedures etc)
• Reception, Phones, Consulting
• Support roles such as assisting the vets in consults and managing the shelter and private inpatients. A case load that can extend to over 40
• Responsibilities of:
• Providing a high level of customer service both verbally and written
• Inpatient care: TPR, walking, feeding, cleaning and administration of prescribed medications.
• Communication of treatment plans and liaising with other departments (Foster, Adoptions, Shelter)
• Wound management.
• IV catheter placement and management of intravenous fluids and CRI'S
• Admission and discharge of hospitalised and surgery patients as well as triage of emergencies and providing grief support.
• Surgical nursing including preparation of post op instructions and communication of plans and patient recovery.
• Sterilization and preparation of instruments
• Utilisation and use of all in house pathology equipment as well as pathology collection; specifically, but not exclusively blood collection.
• Safe animal handling.

How are we different?

Here at RSPCA, you will be enabled to follow through the patient's plan, incorporating shelter medicine into your skill set enabling you to see a patient and follow their journey from surrender or stray to post-op care to adoptions and all the odd bits in-between.

Our nurses are protected by an enterprise agreement, currently under negotiations. This can be located on fair work website.

• Encouraged work-life balance and a broad range of leave entitlements, including annual leave, personal leave, additional leave (6 days per year pro-rata), purchased leave, paid parental leave, study leave and paid family and domestic violence leave.
• Access to our Employee and Volunteer Assistance Program (EVAP)
• Discount on products and services, including Royal Canin pet food, Hush Puppies and RSPCA Victoria retail products.
• Salary packaging and novated lease arrangements on offer with leading provider, Maxxia.

What we are looking for from you

• Well-developed veterinary nursing knowledge and skills.
• Experience working in a veterinary nursing role, including extensive knowledge of animal anatomy, behaviour, disease recognition and safe/calm handling practices.
• Willingness to work in a fast paced environment, whilst showing great care and compassion to the animals in our care.
• Demonstrated experience working collaboratively in a team environment.
• The ability and commitment to work on a rotating roster, which includes some weekends and some public holidays.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Strong problem solving and organisational skills.

Qualifications and other requirements

• Certificate IV in Veterinary Nursing.
• Evidence of current tetanus vaccination required.
• Willingness to perform a National Police Check.

How to Apply

To learn more about our organisation and this job opportunity, please visit our website at  and apply online via our Employment Opportunities page. If you have any questions in regards to this role, please contact our Recruitment Team at 

** Please note that we are actively reviewing applications and to apply as soon as possible **

RSPCA Victoria is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive work environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and we strongly encourage people from all cultural backgrounds to apply, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Applicants are welcome to access RSPCA Victoria's Diversity & Inclusion Policy by visiting our website.