Narrative Medicine In Veterinary Practice

This is the first guide to Veterinary Narrative Medicine, a cutting-edge approach in human medicine with multiple applications in veterinary medicine. The text combines the latest research with numerous real-world examples and practical techniques to improve client communication, patient care, and veterinary well-being. Narrative Medicine maintains that a patient should be viewed as an individual rather than an example of a disease process, and that this can be accomplished by using narrative. This book explores methods and theories from leaders in the human Narrative Medicine field while addressing topics unique to veterinary medicine. Readers will gain tools to help navigate difficult conversations and situations in clinical practice, including those involving the end of life. Narrative Medicine in Veterinary Practice also addresses the important issue of veterinary wellness. The ability to view the veterinarian's own stories and those of clients and patients as narratives may help practitioners maintain both emotional and work-place boundaries as well as decrease burnout and compassion fatigue. The book describes basic techniques to promote self-reflection and mindfulness, skills often overlooked in the veterinary profession which can improve resilience and increase the enjoyment of veterinary practice. This is important reading for veterinary practitioners, students, veterinary nurses, technicians, social workers, and all veterinary clinic staff.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Calling all animal lovers! A heartwarming memoir about one woman's career as a vet and the unique role pets play in our lives • “Filled with compassion and wisdom, Karen Fine is a healer whose own wounds have deepened her gifts for bringing animals and their people comfort and peace.” —Sy Montgomery, bestselling author of The Soul of an Octopus A tribute to our furry, feathery, scaley, and wet family members, All Creatures Great and Small meets Being Mortal in this compelling memoir of one woman's dream to become a veterinarian. Karen Fine always knew that she wanted to be a vet and wasn't going to let anything stop her: not her allergy to cats, and not the fact that in the '80s veterinary medicine was still a mostly male profession. Inspired by her grandfather, a compassionate doctor who paid house calls to all his (human) patients, Dr. Fine persevered, and brought her Oupa's principles into her own practice, which emphasizes the need to understand her patients’ stories to provide the best possible care. And in The Other Family Doctor, Dr. Fine shares all these touching, joyful, heartbreaking, and life-affirming tales that make up her career as a vet. There's: • The feral cat who becomes a creature out of a fable when he puts his trust in a young vet to heal his injured paw • The pot-bellied pig who grows too big to fit in the car but remains a cherished part of her family • The surprising colony of perfectly behaved ferrets • The beloved aging pet who gives her people the gift of accompanying them on one final family vacation • The dog who saves his owner's life in a most unexpected way Woven into Dr. Fine's story are, of course, also the stories of her own pets: the birds, cats, and dogs who have taught her the most valuable lessons—how caring for the animals in our lives can teach us to better care for ourselves, especially when life seems precarious.

A practical guide to help veterinarians improve the welfare oftheir patients in their everyday work. A concise and accessibleintroduction to welfare that is both interesting and valuable inpractice. The book describes ways to evaluate patients, developin-practice quality of life assessments, resolve difficult clinicaldilemmas, and turn good decisions into real welfare outcomes. Itreviews available scientific information, legal issues and ethicaldilemmas, and relates these to everyday case studies throughout. Itprovides ways for all veterinary professionals to develop theiranimal welfare understanding, without assuming prior knowledge,while advancing the wisdom and abilities of experiencedpractitioners. Key features: Presents practical and realistic methods for working withowners to improve patients' welfare within the constraints ofeveryday practice. Provides useful advice for work within many legaljurisdictions. Includes summaries of research, vital references, and furtherreading sources. Key points are recapped at the end of each chapter. Suitable for all those working in the veterinary and relatedprofessions, including veterinarians, veterinary nurses, animalwelfare scientists, animal behaviourists, paraprofessionals and laystaff. Published as a part of the prestigious Wiley-Blackwell –UFAW Animal Welfare series. UFAW, founded 1926, is aninternationally recognised, independent, scientific and educationalanimal welfare charity. For full details of all titles available inthe UFAW series, please visit ahref="http://www.wiley.com/go/ufaw"www.wiley.com/go/ufaw/a.

A Call to Life aims to help veterinary caregivers increase self-efficacy, decrease unnecessary suffering, and increase sustainability in their mission to support animal health around the world. The veterinary profession is powered by dedicated, bright, and selfless individuals. Unfortunately, the long-standing and dysfunctional culture in classrooms and practices around the world expects veterinary caregivers to be ready to sacrifice everything – their time, their health, their personal lives – in the name of being deemed qualified and ‘worthy.’ Integrating real-life stories from a range of veterinary caregivers with evidence-based theory, practical activities, discussion and reflection points, and insights drawn from the author’s own experiences, the book empowers veterinarians by showing that they have the ability and the control to choose a healthier way forward for themselves and for their profession. It describes how to: Normalize the conversation around mental and emotional health challenges in caregiving environments Discuss and collaboratively create systemic solutions that promote healthier ‘ecosystems’ for vets to work within Develop the skills of reframing, mindfulness, and self-care strategy implementation supporting holistic veterinary well-being Collectively choose to shift the framework of professional conversations towards psychological safety, optimism, and purpose-driven experiences. Creating Wellbeing and Building Resilience in the Veterinary Profession: A Call to Life uniquely combines shared experiences (personal stories) with academic research into the contributing factors of compassion fatigue and how to counter these. Normalizing the conversation in the profession, it provides a wide array of possible solutions to build resilience and to shape a culture of collaboration and support where caregivers can flourish.

Precautions often apply to pregnancy in any workplace, but being a vet in practice presents additional specific risks. There are concerns and uncertainty about potential hazards, from radiation and inhalant anesthesia exposure, to zoonoses, and the additional mental stress in a profession that already carries high suicide risk. This book reviews considerations for professionals in clinical veterinary medicine (large and small animal) while pregnant and after giving birth. Veterinarian and veterinary writer, consultant, and mentor Dr Emily Singler speaks directly to veterinary team members (veterinarians, technicians, CSRs, assistants, students) who are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. She delivers scientific information on the specific risks to the mother and baby that may be encountered during pregnancy while working in veterinary medicine, with some of her own and others’ experiences to add perspective and humor. The book also covers topics related to mental health challenges, announcing a pregnancy and planning for parental leave, navigating the fourth trimester, and returning to work. We hope that having read this book, veterinary professionals – whether pregnant or working with pregnant colleagues – will feel better supported and empowered to make informed decisions.

We are surrounded by thousands of animals, alive and dead. They are an intimate and ever-present part of our human lives. As a society, we privilege veterinarians as experts on these animals: they are our educators and teachers in what they say, what they do, and the decisions that they make. Yet, within the field of education, there is little research on the curriculum, pedagogy, and experiences of veterinary school and students. What do veterinarians learn in veterinary school? How do their experiences during those four years shape their perceptions of animals? How do the structures, curriculum, and pedagogy of veterinary college create and influence these experiences? Learning Animals opens up this conversation through an exploration of the complicated, fascinating and often painful stories of a cohort of veterinary students as they make their four-year journey from matriculation through graduation. The book examines how the experiences of veterinary students shape how humans relate to animals, from public policy and decision-making about the environment and animals slaughtered for food, to the most personal decisions about euthanizing companion animals. The first full-length, critical, qualitative study of the perspectives of our primary teachers about animals, this will be a thought-provoking read for those in the fields of both educational research and veterinary education.

This issue of Veterinary Clinics of North America: Exotic Animal Practice, Edited by Drs. Nicola Di Girolamo and Alexandra Winter, focuses on Evidence-Based Clinical Practice in Exotic Animal Medicine. Topics include: Why should we direct our efforts toward evidence-based practice and knowledge creation?; Practical application of evidence-based practice; Evidence-based advances in avian medicine; Evidence-based advances in reptile medicine; Evidence-based advances in rabbit medicine; Evidence-based advances in ferret medicine; Evidence-based advances in rodent medicine; Evidence-based advances in fish and aquatic animal medicine; Evidence-based analgesia in exotic animals; Evidence-based anesthesia in exotic animals; Evidence-based reptile housing and nutrition; Evidence-based rabbit housing and nutrition; Basic statistics for the exotic animal practitioner (numerical outcomes, P values, t-test, anova); Advanced statistics for the exotic animal practitioner (categorical data, logistic regression, confidence intervals); Basics of systematic review and meta-analysis for the exotic animal practitioner; Evidence-based information resources for the exotic animal practitioner; and How to report exotic animal research.

Ethics IN Veterinary Practice An incisive examination of relevant and contemporary ethical issues facing veterinary practitioners, students, instructors, and animal researchers In Ethics in Veterinary Practice: Balancing Conflicting Interests, a team of distinguished scholars delivers a foundational exploration of animal ethics and a guide to examining contemporary issues and dilemmas that arise regularly in veterinary practice. The book offers comprehensive, quickly accessible, and up-to-date information on veterinary ethics with content devoted to unique issues by practice type. The authors offer a primary resource for veterinary ethics useful for veterinarians, faculty, instructors, senior undergraduates, and veterinary students that focuses on recognizing and addressing real-life ethical dilemmas and relevant philosophical discussions about the moral status of animals, animal rights, and interests. Ethics in Veterinary Practice presents material on integrative medicine, animal pain, moral stress, and the future of veterinary ethics. Readers will also find: A thorough introduction to a theoretical basis for veterinary ethics, including discussions of animal welfare, ethical theories, and legal issues Comprehensive explorations of clinical veterinary ethics, including discussions of veterinary advocacy, ethical dilemmas, professionalism, economic issues, and medical errors Practical discussions of ethical concerns by practice type, including companion animals, equines, and animals used for food In-depth examination of emerging ethical concerns including animal use in veterinary education and animal maltreatment Perfect for practicing veterinarians, veterinary students, and veterinary technicians and nurses, Ethics in Veterinary Practice: Balancing Conflicting Interests will also earn a place in the libraries of instructors teaching veterinary ethics, as well as biomedical and animal ethicists. “As veterinary medicine becomes more technologically and socially complex, interest in ethics is growing. Ethics in Veterinary Practice provides a needed reference from the North American perspective, for anyone facing ethical dilemmas (i.e., all of us). Suitable for practitioners, students, and technicians, the book supplies factual background and practical guidance for navigation accompanied by a clear ethical analysis of common dilemmas in all aspects of veterinary medicine.” Lisa Moses Veterinary Specialist in Internal Medicine Center for Bioethics Harvard Medical School, USA “Ethics in Veterinary Practice is a statement of both the influence of Bernie Rollin’s lifetime work and of the coming of age of veterinary ethics. From the moral status of animals to veterinary ethical dilemmas, from medical errors to professionalism, from economic issues to end-of-life decision making, Ethics in Veterinary Practice leaves no stone unturned. A must-read for students and professionals alike.” Manuel Magalhães Sant'Ana European Veterinary Specialist in Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Law University of Lisbon, Portugal “This book makes a valuable contribution to the subject, hosting writing from a number of prominent scholars in the field. The book bravely tackles several contemporary issues including veterinary corporations, moral stress and medical errors as well as providing updated insights into the history of the profession and veterinary professionalism. Throughout, the complex and contested place of animals within our society is openly and thoughtfully explored from a veterinary perspective. “ Vanessa Ashall European Veterinary Specialist in Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Law University of York, UK