At Houston Methodist, the Animal Care Technician position is responsible for delivering exceptional animal care to the research animals at Houston Methodist Academic Institute (HMAI) Comparative Medicine Program (CMP) under the direction of the Comparative Medicine Animal Care Technician Supervisor. This position performs daily animal care and husbandry of laboratory animals including operating specialized cage wash equipment in a research environment, ensuring animal room records are maintained in conformance with institutional policies and federal regulations including the Animal Welfare Act, Good Laboratory Practices and the standards required for Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care accreditation.

PATIENT AGE GROUP(S) AND POPULATION(S) SERVED
Refer to departmental "Scope of Service" and "Provision of Care" plans, as applicable, for description of primary age groups and populations served by this job for the respective HM entity.

HOUSTON METHODIST EXPERIENCE EXPECTATIONS

• Provide personalized care and service by consistently demonstrating our I CARE values:
  • INTEGRITY: We are honest and ethical in all we say and do.
  • COMPASSION: We embrace the whole person including emotional, ethical, physical, and spiritual needs.
  • ACCOUNTABILITY: We hold ourselves accountable for all our actions.
  • RESPECT: We treat every individual as a person of worth, dignity, and value.
  • EXCELLENCE: We strive to be the best at what we do and a model for others to emulate.

• Practices the Caring and Serving Model

• Delivers personalized service using HM Service Standards

• Provides for exceptional patient/customer experiences by following our Standards of Practice of always using Positive Language (AIDET, Managing Up, Key Words)

• Intentionally collaborates with other healthcare professionals involved in patients/customers or employees' experiential journeys to ensure strong communication, ease of access to information, and a seamless experience.

• Involves patients (customers) in shift/handoff reports by enabling their participation in their plan of care as applicable to the given job

• Displays cultural humility, diversity, equity and inclusion principles

• Actively supports the organization's vision, fulfills the mission and abides by the I CARE values

PEOPLE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Establishes and maintains working relationships and communicates effectively with the Houston Methodist Academic Institute (HMAI) animal care, veterinary and research teams.

• Practices Houston Methodist ICARE values in a dynamic, multi-cultural and international work environment. Contributes towards improvement of department scores for employee engagement, i.e., peer-to-peer accountability.

SERVICE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Provides daily animal husbandry and care for a variety of laboratory animal species including routine cage change out, daily health checks and feed/water maintenance.

• Performs animal handling for a variety of laboratory animal species and effectively communicates related issues to the CMP Animal Care Supervisor.

• Performs sanitization of caging and equipment using tunnel and rack washers, bulk autoclaves and other specialized laboratory equipment.

• Performs daily animal census using an electronic Radio Frequency Identification scanning system.

QUALITY/SAFETY ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Ensures that animal room records are maintained in conformance with institutional policies and federal regulations.

• Ensures the CMP facility remains prepared for routine Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspections and meets occupational health and safety standards.

• Performs scheduled room and equipment sanitation to meet established CMP quality control standards in animal housing areas.

FINANCE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Identifies and communicates cost saving initiatives within the department. Self-motivated to independently manage time effectively and prioritize daily tasks, assisting coworkers as needed.

GROWTH/INNOVATION ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Generates and communicates new ideas and suggestions that improve quality and service for a variety of husbandry animal care procedures and facility support practices.

• Embraces opportunities to acquire additional knowledge regarding guidelines and regulations that affect CMP's animal research facility.

• Seeks opportunities to identify self-development needs and expands learning beyond baseline competencies with a focus on continual development as a technician and takes appropriate action. Ensures own career discussions occur with appropriate management. Completes and updates the My Development Plan on an on-going basis.

This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive; the employee will also perform other reasonably related business/job duties as assigned. Houston Methodist reserves the right to revise job duties and responsibilities as the need arises.

EDUCATION

• High School diploma or equivalent education (examples include: GED, verification of homeschool equivalency, partial or full completion of post-secondary education, etc.)

WORK EXPERIENCE

• One-year animal handling and husbandry technician experience

LICENSES AND CERTIFICATIONS - REQUIRED

• N/A

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES

• Demonstrates the skills and competencies necessary to safely perform the assigned job, determined through on-going skills, competency assessments, and performance evaluations

• Sufficient proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing the English language necessary to perform the essential functions of this job, especially with regard to activities impacting patient or employee safety or security

• Ability to effectively communicate with patients, physicians, family members and co-workers in a manner consistent with a customer service focus and application of positive language principles

• Ability to operate various cage wash and laboratory equipment include rack and tunnel washers, autoclaves and pressure washing systems

• Ability to perform animal husbandry duties using specialized IVC equipment and species-specific caging

• General animal handling skills involved with cage cleaning and animal transporting

• Ability to recognize animal health concerns

SUPPLEMENTAL REQUIREMENTS

WORK ATTIRE

• Uniform No
• Scrubs Yes
• Business professional No
• Other (department approved) No

ON-CALL*
*Note that employees may be required to be on-call during emergencies (ie. DIsaster, Severe Weather Events, etc) regardless of selection below.

• On Call* No

TRAVEL**
**Travel specifications may vary by department**

• May require travel within the Houston Metropolitan area No
• May require travel outside Houston Metropolitan area No

Houston Methodist Research Institute was formed in 2004 to rapidly and efficiently translate discoveries made in the laboratory and the clinic into new diagnostics, therapies, and treatments. The research institute was created to provide the infrastructure and support for these endeavors, and to house the technology and resources needed to make innovative breakthroughs in important areas of human disease. A 540,000 square foot building dedicated to research, the research institute houses over 1,500 staff and trainees, 284 principal investigators and has more than 570 ongoing clinical trials.