A Huge Milestone for our Head Vet Nurse Layne!!

By Scott Lackenby | Dated October 6, 2016

October marked a huge milestone for Layne at Gordon Vet Hospital. Its her 15 year GVH anniversary!!  That’s right, Nurse Layne has been working at GVH for an impressive 15 years!! So, in honor of that, we sat down with Nurse Layne for a special interview.

Nurse Layne started with GVH back in 2001. She had been managing the children’s wear department at Target when a family friend saw we were advertising for a Vet Nurse and thought she should apply. Nurse Layne had never considered a career in the animal industry, which was funny, because she had spent every school holidays at her Great Aunt and Uncle’s farm where she loved working with a variety of animals. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense. And the rest, as they say, is history!!

Nurse Layne became our Head Nurse after the late Nurse Bianca left to have a baby and then moved up to be closer to her family. As our Head Nurse, Nurse Layne not only performs Vet Nurse duties, she also looks after our ordering, the roster, she liases with our drug reps, is involved in hiring new staff and also helps out with the training of new staff members. On top of all of this, Nurse Layne is also the unofficial social co – ordinator for all of the fun social events.

Layne plays a huge part in getting everyone together outside of work time!

Over the years, Layne has seen some big changes, not only at GVH, but in the veterinary industry as a whole. There have been lots of staff changes, a few minor clinic makeovers and more uniform changes than she can remember! The advances in medical knowledge and new and more effective drugs means that we can now not only diagnose your pets better, but treat them better. But one of the biggest changes Layne has seen is the addition of social media! Now we can keep you up to date on a whole heap of platforms!!

The white fluffy dog gang

Layne is a self confessed Small-White-Fluffy-Dog person. She currently has four puppies, Bonnie a 13year old West Highland Terrier who she adopted from a client here, Shandee an 11year old Maltese, Tootsie an 8year old Bichon Frise and Muffie an 8year old Toy Poodle, a pair she also adopted from a client here. So if you ever need to re-home a small white fluffy dog, Nurse Layne is the person to talk to!!

We asked Layne if there was a particular incident that stuck in her mind, apart from the day I adopted GVH. There are obviously a lot to choose from over the 15years, but she said one particularly memorable moment was from quite a few years back. It was late one weekend and the GVH staff were in the middle of surgery and there was a big accident on Ryde Rd. GVH lost power right as an emergency hit by car arrived. They had to finish the original surgery by torchlight and treated the animal that had been hit in the car park using the lights of the owners car! Obviously this was well before modern mobile phones with torches on them!

To celebrate Layne’s big milestone, we did what we do best, presents and cake! We all loved that Nurse Dani pointed out that when Layne started at GVH, Dani was only 6years old!!! So, on behalf of everyone at GVH, happy 15year anniversary Nurse Layne!! Let’s do it all again in another 15years!