Companion care vets

Re: Companion care vets

vickicannings — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 12:31:05 GMT

Hi Amy,

Just to help answer a couple of questions;

When I worked there we did the same hourse as Pets at Home, in fact a little longer. We consulted until 7pm weeknights and had 15 minutes to clear up, Saturdays we consulted until 6pm and Sundays until 4:30pm. It was a bit difficult because our cold storage, bins and toilets were in a seperate part of Pets at Home and they set alarms when they left so if we ran late we couldn't use this area.

We used to work Monday-Friday and if you were on that weekend you would then so Saturday and Sunday also then not have a day off until Thursday. Ten days was a long shift especially as weekends never ran smoothly.

I used to find that because we were open people would come to us rather than pay to go to their own emergency service at weekends so we would get more emergencies and be a lot busier on a Saturday and Sunday.

Our weekday shifts used to run as; 10.15-7.15/9-6/8-5/730-430

Monday-Friday we did ops from 9am-2pm and conults ran all morning with one hour break then all afternoon. At weekends it would be concults all day with break for lunch. There is only one nurse on at weekends and one receptionist so often getting a lunch break was impossible.

Also I do agree with Julie Cozz, very good point that there were no windows in the practice so that did used to feel quite horrible, especially during winter. We also had no staff room so had to sit in the corridor to eat lunch.

I know I am quite negative about my time there but I know some people really love it and have had different experiences at different branches, so the more opinions you can get the better!

Hope I've helped a little.

Vic

Re: Companion care vets

julie cozze — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 12:22:31 GMT

Hi Amy I worked at a companion care for three months. As the previous comments said they are all franchised and so will be rrun differently. the people I worked for were lovely but i found the hours very long when you were on a weekend. the premises are very oppressive as theres no windows and it was so busy I felt that patient care was lacking, it was almost conveyor belt like with ops and I didnt like that. having said that I think the benefits are good and I know of another who works at another branch and she loves it so I think its all very individual.

Re: Companion care vets

amylaura87 — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 12:12:36 GMT

The message above was ment for alison but thankyou everyone for your replys and if you want to comment aswel go ahead!! will be much appreciated

amy x

Re: Companion care vets

amylaura87 — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 12:09:28 GMT

Hi Alison

Thanks for your speedy reply ive had a busy week so not managed to reply to you until now sorry. Your a head nurse amazing theres a vaccancy for a head nurse position at a new practice thats opening and i would have to organise the rota so thats why im asking so many questions about hours etc. and i do have many more questions if you dont mind me mithering you??

As a head nurse what are you main jobs compared to normal VN job role?

What times do your 8 hour shifts cover?

Are your surgery hours same as the pets at home opening hours? or do you e.g. consult till say 6.30pm in week to give time to tidy up, or do your 8 hour shifts cover after pets at home has closed?

So you work 40 hour weekdays and day off for working weekend, do you have one VN on own on weekends? and do you then get paid extra each time you work a weekend then?

Do you operate as normal days over weekends or do you just do consults etc?

Sorry for so many questions- im just trying to see how other practices work.

hope you dont mind

amy x

Re: Companion care vets

vickicannings — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 16:57:16 GMT

Hi Amylaura,

It's a hard one to say whether they are a good company as they are franchised and therefore managed by the partners in that particular branch. So it really all depends on the manager at that site, at my branch I must say I noticed very little head office intervention/management, I would treat it as an individual practice in that respect. I worked at a companion care for 18 months and whilst I did enjoy it I found I didn't enjoy it as much as private practice. Whether or not it was just my branch or all of them, I found there was less client interaction for nurses. This was possibly due to the fact it was in the back of a PAH shop, the surgery felt very closed off from reception, I missed the friendly atmosphere of a smaller practice.

I worked similar hours as above, nurses rota ran from 7am-7pm Mon-Fri, 8am-6pm Saturday and 10am-4pm Sunday. I used to have to do a 10 day stretch which I found quite long and we had 5 nurses so not sure how two nurses would cope with those hours?

I know all of my comments sound negative and don't want to upset anyone but wanted to give you my honest opinion so you can see the negatives too.

The benefits at companion care are good, health cover, pension and an ok wage (not great though) plus some CPD paid for. And I guess you always have that back up of HR departments, IT departments etc.

Hope this helps!

Vic

Re: Companion care vets

Sal the 1st — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 11:30:25 GMT

I did a locum for a Companion Care practice some time ago - I enjoyed it a lot, yes the hours were long (but I was the only nurse there) I found the practice to be well equipped and friendly.If working for a corporate given the choice of Companon Care and Vets4Pets I would choose Companion Care from my experiences

Re: Companion care vets

alison perfect — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 08:43:04 GMT

Hi, I'm currently a head nurse at one of their practices...overall they are a good company to work for with regards to benefits etc. You would need to be on the weekend rota and in a new clinic this could mean 1 in 2 or 1 in 3 I suppose, we do 1 in 4 which isn't too bad with a day off in lieu.We are open 9-7 weekdays, 9-6 saturday and 11-4 sunday.During the week you would work 8 hours with 30 mins unpaid break.If you wan't to know anything else let me know.Ali

Re: Companion care vets

Lee484 — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 23:14:26 GMT

Oops, I meant 11.00 til 7.30:)

Re: Companion care vets

Lee484 — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 23:11:51 GMT

Hi! I locumed at one for 6 months and really enjoyed it. I found they are very much independent practices in that it's up to the partners, usually a vet or one vet, one nurse, as to how the practice is run on a daily basis and Companion Care as a company are more there for support. I worked with a great team where everyone was listened to and we could put our own ideas forward, I pretty much felt like I was working for an independent practice rather than a chain. I guess the downside to this is that I may have just got lucky with the team, but that's a risk we always take I think. Not going to lie, the hours can be long, esp if your working the weekend and is pretty much the reason why I couldn't work full time there. I got a day off on the Friday for working the full weekend, although I think the day and hours vary between practices and what your vet wants. My shifts were either 8.30 til 5 or 11.00 til 7 with 30mins lunch so pretty average days really. There are no OOH though. Overall I'd recommend them, I'd certainly locum there or any other branch again. I met a few head office staff as they drop by to check your ok and meet with the partner, and dealt with HR a few times, all lovely people:) If you don't mind the hours I'd say give them a try:) good luck, hope this helps a bit.