Nurse Lead Position
About Us
Owned and run by vets Charlie and Martin, Cedar Vets has been established in the local community for 130 years. We are extremely proud of our history and work hard to maintain our “why” which is because “we care”.
We care about our clinical standards and work hard to continually improve, aiming to be the best primary care practice we can be. We care about our people, their wellbeing and career development. We care about our clients and aim to go above and beyond informing their decisions and achieving contextualised care.
Our practices are based in Alton and Alresford with a small branch surgery in Four Marks. We are lucky to have the best of all worlds being on the edge of the beautiful South Downs National Park with the New Forest and South Coast within a short drive. We are also a short train ride from London from either practice. Both the main practices are new purpose-built premises. Alresford is the smaller practice and was completed in 2019. Alton was completed in October 2022 moving to a significantly larger site with expansion room for the future.
Our Environment
Being purpose built, our practices are fully ventilated and air conditioned, providing a great environment to work. It is impossible to offer high standards without the right equipment. We are continually investing in equipment such as:
- Dental X-Ray
- Video Endoscopes
- Laparoscopy
- CT
- Multiple Multiparameter Monitors
Our Team
Our practice thrives on teamwork, and we work hard to encourage this. We have very low staff turnover and work hard to communicate with our teams, making them feel involved and encourage them to share their ideas. An established senior team of Vets and Nurses work hard to ensure that colleagues meet their development targets within a supportive environment, already set-up as a VNTC and Surrey Vet School IMR provider.
I am a nurse again, not someone who runs around just about managing to keep my head above water, I have time for every single one of my patients, to nurse appropriately, care for and to give them a high standard of care that I am happy with and what I want for my patients.
I love how things that need tweaking or changing gets approved and changed so quickly
Staff Wellbeing
Wellbeing is not just a buzzword at Cedar Vets! We know work life balance is important to people and aim to achieve this in a number of ways:
- Regular, protected breaks
- Flexible working
- Providing a psychologically safe environment with positive communication encouraged, enhanced with practice meetings and VetSafe reporting
- Supporting out of work activities such as Tuesday evening “Spin club” and a new, very popular Cedar Walking Group
Vets and Nurses have the time and are not too stressed to answer my questions and teach me. Previously at a corporate vets there were not enough qualified veterinary staff that had the time to even check in on me. I love that I get weekly check ins now with my clinical coach, this gives me time to ask questions about anything I’m stuck on from college, practice practical skills and helps me work on my onefile properly. I also appreciate the routine check ins with my line manager, this gives me reassurance I can voice anything I am concerned about and it’s received well.
Over to you…
Are you a passionate and dedicated person seeking a fulfilling opportunity to make a real difference? Look no further! We are seeking a Registered Veterinary Nurse with established leadership and management capabilities to join our Nurse Lead team.
As well as the provision of an exceptional clinical service, the purpose of the Nurse Lead is to ensure the smooth and efficient running of the nurse team and clinical workload on a day-to-day operational basis. They will promote and role model clinical standards as well as driving and implementing clinical improvement. They are the first point of contact for clinical staff queries as well as providing excellent line management to their team. The ideal candidate will show strong ability to:
- Provide an exceptional service to Cedar Vets’ clients through the delivery of excellent veterinary services.
- Motivate and manage a team of highly skilled nurses who work together as a high performing team to deliver an exceptional clinical and client service.
- Provide engaging supervision of the team to ensure that members of the team feel supported by a senior nurse day-to-day.
- Manage and implement the personal objectives and professional development plans of the team through on-the-job feedback, and structured review of performance against agreed tasks and objectives, ensuring they continue to learn and grow.
- Implement and report back on nursing focused KPIs to ensure the senior leadership team are aware of day-to-day performance and progress.
- Act as the first point on contact for all staff queries in the team ensuring that colleagues have access to relevant practice information in a prompt and reliable manner.
- Work with the clinical teams to develop and implement ideas for clinical improvement.
- Work with other members of the management team to ensure that the clinical team is fully compliant with professional and legislative standards.
- Work with other members of the management team to efficiently manage clinical workflow.
As a rough guide this position is approximately 60-70% clinical and 30-40% management.
The ideal person for this role will possess the following:
- Experience supervising a team
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
- Caring and empathetic nature
- Effective teamworking skills
- Strong attention to detail and organisation skills
- Flexible and able to remain calm in unpredictable situations
- Mentoring approach
Key Terms:
- Remuneration based on experience
- TOIL for overtime in the week. Time and a half for Saturday hours (approx. 1 in 6 Saturday)
- 25 days holiday plus Bank Holidays with an extra day off on your Birthday
- CPD allowance: 3 days and £300 with study for additional qualifications (e.g. Schedule 3 or ILM) funded and encouraged
- Generous staff discount scheme for own pets (meds at cost, 75% on fees)
- Predictable, reoccurring Rota
The main things that stood out to me when I joined Cedars was the amazing support and how accepted I felt into the team straight away and by day 3 already felt like I had been here for a few months! The team work together really well and everyone is very supportive of helping with things your unsure on and not beating you down as well as helping you grow and supporting your own views and ideas! The long travel is absolutely worth it to feel a real part of the team and actually feel like I’m a respected nurse and not just a number 🙂