OVTAA - Oregon Veterinary Technician and Assistant Association

Veterinary Volunteers Needed- Portland Animal Welfare Team June 20th

If you have a few volunteer hours to share in June, please considering coming to join us at the June 20 Portland Animal Welfare Team veterinary clinic. The Portland Animal Welfare Team (PAW Team) is a not-for-profit all volunteer organization with the mission of providing basic veterinary care to the pets of Portland’s homeless and in-transition populations. For more information about us please see www.portlandanimalwelfareteam.org/index.php We are holding our summer Veterinary Clinic on Saturday, June 20, 2009 in conjunction with the Compassion Connect SE. (Please see www.bethecompassion.com if you would like to know more about the Compassion Connect organization). If past events are any indication, our veterinary service day will be fast paced, challenging, and very satisfying with a job-well-done!

We provide basic health exams, vaccinate as appropriate, and send home medications. Our veterinary volunteers will also implant the donated AVID microchips and review patient discharge instructions at pick-up. Non-medical personnel will be organized by Compassion Connect and will be providing animal check-in, kenneling, MCAS paperwork and tags, and food distribution so that we can focus on patient health care. Since this is a multi-service event where folks can receive services for themselves as well as their animals, most of our patients will be “drop-off appointments”.
We expect patients will begin arriving for drop-off kenneling as early as 8:30am. PAW Team clinic coverage hours are 9am to 4:30pm. Veterinary shifts have been broken into overlapping 3-hour time-blocks (9a – 12p, 10:30a – 1:30p, 12p – 3p, 12:30p – 3:30pm, 1:30p – 4:30p). We are staffing for 2 veterinarians working per shift so that at the peak of the day we will have 6 “exam tables” available to see patients. We would like to staff each table with one veterinary technician and one veterinary assistant per veterinarian. Additional veterinary medical support staff is needed for the microchip, flea treatment/grooming, and discharge tables. You are welcome to accept multiple shifts or shifts with different responsibilities.
Arrival time for volunteers: at least 15 minutes before the start of the shift you choose for orientation. Our volunteer orientation will be given via email or fax due to the staggered shift start times; you just need to be there to sign-in and find your station and check it out.
Location of the Clinic: Woodmere Elementary School, 7900 Duke Street, Portland, Oregon 97206. On street parking around the school area; directions and parking maps will be emailed to all volunteers the week of the clinic.
What to wear: Please wear comfortable clothes that you don’t mind getting a little dirty. It is June in Portland; it may be cold and damp or bright and sunny, so please dress accordingly. Most of us will be working outside under canopies, although for this clinic we will have some indoor exam table areas in the mobile clinic vehicles generously loaned to us by MCAS.
To volunteer or if you have questions: please contact Marilee Muzatko at 503-764-5503 or marilee@muzatko.us . If you are volunteering, please let me know if you are a vet, a certified vet tech, vet assistant and what shift (you are welcome to stay for more than one!) you’d prefer or if you are flexible.
PAW Team sincerely thanks you for your participation!

All volunteers at PAW Team clinics must be at least 18 years old.

Posted on 31 May 2009 by april brown