Dana is the General Manager, Nursing Services and has worked at Lort Smith for nine years. Her role of managing the entire nursing program, including approximately 90 vet nurses, involves; recruitment, training, retention, professional development, rostering, relationship management, OH&S, improving systems and processes and managing the Melbourne Polytechnic nursing students (80-100).

There are various areas of nursing at Lort Smith; surgery, accident and emergency, critical care, wildlife and exotic, and inpatients.

“At Lort Smith, you are working with lots of people with different skillsets. The opportunity to learn is great. The types of cases you see in a day would be the same as what you would see in a year at a general vet practice,” explains Dana.

As part of Lort Smith’s nursing program, we have a nurse educator whose role it is to provide mentoring and upskilling opportunities. Access to the variety of shifts, knowledge base and skillsets is immeasurable.

Vet nurses at Lort Smith use state-of-the-art technology including; CT scanner, advanced anaesthetic monitoring, and x-ray imaging which they may not have access to at smaller practices.

“Our nurses come from a variety of backgrounds and possess a real team mentality. Strong friendships are formed between the vet nurses and they offer great support to each other,” says Dana proudly.

“When I think about working for an organisation so old, and one that carries the same values I have, I feel proud. Lort Smith gives everyone the same opportunity to have and love a pet, and to experience the human-animal bond. I’m proud of the fact that a female created Lort Smith and it is still here today.”