Mount Laurel Animal Hospital to hold career fair to fill vacant positions

Animal hospitals across the country are recruiting to help fill a shortage of veterinary technicians. One New Jersey hospital is even going as far as having a career fair this weekend.
“Being a 24-hour hospital, we need to be here at all hours of the day and night to accommodate our clients,” says Mount Laurel Animal Hospital administrator Krista McDermott.
But McDermott says that staffing needs became difficult during the pandemic, with more pets coming through their doors.
“There are times where we have to refer to other emergency services in the middle of the night because we have 30, 40, 50 patients in the hospital that we’re caring for,” she says.
McDermott says the hospital currently has 15-20 openings. One of the hardest positions to fill is veterinary technicians – the nurses of the animal world.
“There’s a big discrepancy between a veterinary technician salary and a nurse’s salary, even though we essentially perform the same type of duties. The pay is just not there yet, but we’re working extremely hard to get it there,” she says.
Mount Lauren Animal Hospital says because of that shortage, they are hosting a career fair this Saturday in the hopes of filling positions in fields like billing, customer service and veterinary technicians.
“We’re always looking for the right people. We are never not hiring,” McDermott says.
But she says that while the field is rewarding, it can also be difficult. Burnout and compassion fatigue are common. But McDermott says the animal hospital is committed to making sure its staff stays mentally healthy.
"The pressures that our team puts on themselves just to provide the best care possible, it's a lot and we're always looking to identify if somebody's having a difficult time or somebody’s stressed out and let's reach out to them and try and help them,” she says.
The career fair is Saturday at Mount Laurel Animal Hospital in two sessions - one in the morning and one in the afternoon with on-the-spot interviews. There is also a virtual option.