Flemish equine veterinarians' perceptions on the use of and client communication about complementary and alternative veterinary medicine

BACKGROUND

Complementary and alternative veterinary medicine (CAVM) is increasingly popular in horses. As CAVM usage could have risks, client-veterinarian communication about CAVM is crucial.

OBJECTIVES

Evaluating equine veterinarians' attitude towards CAVM, their CAVM usage and veterinarian-client communication about CAVM.

STUDY DESIGN

Cross-sectional study.

METHOD

A telephone survey was conducted among equine veterinarians providing ambulatory care on a daily or weekly basis. The first section of the survey included questions about the veterinarians' attitude towards CAVM and their CAVM usage. The second section focused on veterinary-client communication about CAVM.

RESULTS

When herbs are included as CAVM modality, 83% of the participants applied CAVM. Nighty-eight percent had already communicated with horse owners about CAVM and 81% agreed to be open to talk about CAVM. However, 95% agreed that sometimes CAVM usage takes place without disclosure to the veterinarian. The majority of participants communicated about CAVM on a weekly (40%) or daily (22%) basis, most often in person during consultations (99%) or via phone (32%). The median percentage of conversations about CAVM initiated by the owner was 50% (range 50%-80%). When the veterinarian initiated the conversation, this was usually by mentioning it as a treatment option, mostly in addition to conventional treatments. Some participants directly asked about CAVM use in the information-gathering phase.

MAIN LIMITATIONS

A convenience sample was used due to lack of data on the number of equine veterinarians in Flanders. Potential favourability bias with higher participation of veterinarians interested in CAVM.

CONCLUSION

Equine veterinarians generally had a positive attitude towards CAVM use, although this depended on the specific modality. Veterinarian-client communication about CAVM occurs frequently in ambulatory care. An open dialogue with horse owners about CAVM is important to provide information about CAVM and thus enable them to make informed decisions concerning CAVM usage, together with their veterinarian.

Medication errors in veterinary anesthesia: a literature review

OBJECTIVE

To provide an overview of medication errors (MEs) in veterinary medicine, with a focus on the perianesthetic period; to compare MEs in veterinary medicine with human anesthesia practice, and to describe factors contributing to the risk of MEs and strategies for error reduction.

DATABASES USED

PubMed and CAB abstracts; search terms: [("patient safety" or "medication error∗") AND veterin∗].

CONCLUSIONS

Human anesthesia is recognized as having a relatively high risk of MEs. In veterinary medicine, MEs were among the most commonly reported medical error. Predisposing factors for MEs in human and veterinary anesthesia include general (e.g. distraction, fatigue, workload, supervision) and specific factors (e.g. requirement for dose calculations when dosing for body mass, using several medications within a short time period and preparing syringes ahead of time). Data on MEs are most commonly collected in self-reporting systems, which very likely underestimate the true incidence, a problem acknowledged in human medicine. Case reports have described a variety of MEs in the perianesthetic period, including prescription, preparation and administration errors. Dogs and cats were the most frequently reported species, with MEs in cats more commonly associated with harmful outcomes compared with dogs. In addition to education and raising awareness, other strategies described for reducing the risk of MEs include behavioral, communication, identification, organizational, engineering and cognitive aids.

James Anthony Giles Gilling

Well-known for his quirky sense of humour, Giles helped many people and animals during his 38 years as a vet. He will be remembered for his love of animals and enjoyment of endurance riding.

Effectiveness of rural internships for veterinary students to combat veterinary workforce shortages in rural areas

Veterinarians are a pivotal force in addressing animal health and welfare surveillance, with a critical role in improving public health security and increasing the profits of livestock farmers. Yet, the veterinary profession is adversely affected by personnel shortages, particularly in rural areas. Since the health of people, animals and their shared environment are interconnected in a One Health perspective, a set of policies are required to ensure public health by attraction and retention of veterinarians in rural areas. In France, a tutored internship programme, financially subsiding students and mentors to execute a training period in remote rural areas, was promoted to better integrate and retain veterinary students ending their veterinary training. This paper aims to evaluate how veterinarians' tutored internships influences students' choices for rural practice, using three different statistical methods derived from causal inference theory. Using survey data for the period 2016-2020, we show that: (i) the average effect of the tutored internship on veterinarians' work in food animal sector is not significant; and that (ii) the tutored internship leads veterinarians with a low share of work in the food animal sector to have a rural practise after they graduated between 13 and 20% greater than those who did not participate in the tutored internship.

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The True Benefits of Veterinary Practice Ownership

Many believe that the era of independent veterinary practice ownership is over but evidence suggests that now is a great time to be a practice owner. Corporate consolidation is becoming more prevalent but this presence in the industry provides benefits for independent owners. For those willing to learn and develop the necessary business skills, practice ownership has numerous advantages, and individuals who decide they want to own their own practice have several routes they can take to reach their goal. The future of veterinary medicine has never been brighter, and now is a wonderful time to invest in yourself.