Veterinary Surgical & Clinical Support Technician

We are seeking a Veterinary Surgical & Clinical Support Technician who will serve a wide role focusing on providing anesthesia and clinical support for pigs, dogs, cats, rabbits, nonhuman primates, sheep and ferrets. The Veterinary Surgical & Clinical Support Technician will provide technical support to recovering post-operative animals, support research protocols and assist veterinarians during clinical surgeries and case management.

Specific Duties & Responsibilities

Clinical and Research Support

• Administer medications for treatment via multiple routes including oral and parenteral.
• Perform routine sedation and monitoring for anesthetic procedures, diagnostic work-up, sample collection, and clinical care, including post-operative monitoring and palliative care.
• Perform sedation and minor procedures for protocol support such as euthanasia, examination and diagnostic sample collection.
• Perform health maintenance for large animal species, including but not limited to hoof and nail trimming, TB testing and collection of routine weights.
• Provide technical support for faculty and resident veterinarians during clinical and surgical care, including anesthesia and monitoring.
• Provide post-operative monitoring and care.
• Maintain a clean and prepared Recovery facility, including set up, break down, sanitization, and stocking appropriate supplies and drugs.
• Understand the procedures, humane endpoints, and experimental goals of large animal research protocols and ensure compliance with those protocols, applicable regulations and policies.
• Perform pre-release examination on all non-human primates in quarantine including final chest radiograph, body weight, TB testing and phlebotomy
• Other duties as assigned.

Veterinary Surgical Support

• Perform anesthesia induction for protocol-driven and clinical procedures.
• Prepare animals for procedures by pre-anesthetic administration, IVC placement, intubation, clipping and scrubbing animals, drug administration and monitoring.
• Endotracheal intubation of difficult species including sheep, macaques, rabbits and swine.
• Act as the operating room nurse and surgical assistant.
• Mitigate and take initiative during anesthetic emergencies including emergency notification to the veterinarian and performing CPR.
• Maintain the OR suite by preparing each operating room for procedures including but not limited to staging, break-down, sanitization, packaging instruments and taking inventories of controlled substances, drugs and supplies.
• Maintain all clinical and surgical equipment including but not limited to radiology and anesthesia machines, ECG, cautery and autoclaves.
• Operate special equipment including but not limited to mechanical ventilators, invasive blood pressure monitoring, radiography machines and syringe pumps for CRI administration.
• Assist investigators in various research protocols including but not limited to maintaining anesthesia in large animal species while performing MRIs, PET scans, and other research studies.

Teaching

• Teach investigators, veterinary residents, and technical staff to perform various technical procedures.
• Train personnel in routine clinical care, daily maintenance of animals under medical treatment, maintenance and monitoring animals during all phases of anesthesia, including but not limited to proper dosage and proper route of anesthesia for a variety of species.

Administrative Responsibilities

• Maintain clinical animal records (paper and electronic).
• Complete monitoring forms, treatment sheets, and any project-specific documentation required for post-procedural care or other research support.
• Stock the OR and Recovery facilities with appropriate supplies and drugs, and notify when stock is low.
• Maintain accurate controlled substance logs.
• Prepare charges for services provided.
• Participate in staff meetings as required.
• Prepare anesthesia sheets including drug calculations.

Special Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Knowledge of regulations, policies and principles for the care and use of laboratory animals.
• Knowledge and skill with catheterization, intubation, drug calculation and anesthetic monitoring, preferably with ventilator experience.
• Ability to handle and restrain laboratory animals without causing injury or harm to animal, self, and others.
• Ability to understand and follow detailed oral and written instructions.
• Ability to read and write in order to maintain records, read instructions, labels, etc.
• Ability to interact and work with faculty, students, staff, and visitors in a knowledgeable, respectful and courteous manner.
• Ability to discuss animal related projects with investigators and report these discussions to the veterinarians and manager.
• Ability to work under environmental conditions that require the use of safety equipment.
• Ability to lift, carry or otherwise move and position objects and materials weighing up to 50lbs.

• Associate’s Degree in veterinary technology or related discipline.
• Some related experience.
• Additional experience may substitute for required education, to the extent permitted by the JHU equivalency formula.

• Bachelor’s Degree in Animal Science or related field.
• Registered Veterinary Technician license strongly preferred.
• Registered Laboratory Animal Technician strongly preferred.

Classified Title: Veterinary Surgery Technician 
Job Posting Title (Working Title): Veterinary Surgical & Clinical Support Technician   
Role/Level/Range: ACRO40/E/02/CE  
Starting Salary Range: $19.75 - $35.35 HRLY (Commensurate with experience) 
Employee group: Full Time 
Schedule: M-F/8:30a-4p 
Exempt Status: Non-Exempt 
Location: School of Medicine Campus 
Department name: ​​​​​​​Research Animal Resources  
Personnel area: University Administration