The practice of veterinary medicine entails crucial decisions about patient care on a daily basis. Whether to admit patients displaying symptoms, whether to pursue diagnoses or prioritize therapeutic trials, whether to advise overnight stays after routine surgery, whether to refer patients; the answers to questions like these can significantly influence patient outcomes and standards of care. However, veterinary clinicians are seldom trained to analyze their patterns of decision-making, relying instead on the existing culture of a practice to dictate their behaviors. This can lead to irrational decisions, institutional inertia, reluctance to comply with evidence-based medicine, and failure to optimize patient outcomes.
Decision-Making in Veterinary Practice provides the first-ever dedicated guide to rational principles for decision-making in veterinary practice. Rooted in the study of normative ethics, it seeks to pose important questions and develop processes by which they can be answered. The book promises to transform the clinical performance of clinicians and practices that utilize it.
Decision-Making in Veterinary Practice readers will also find:
Discussions of key issues based on extensive clinical experience and evidence
Detailed discussion of important decision determinants like time of day, patient weight, criteria for stopping treatment, and more
Essential insights on clinical decision-making and clinical reasoning
Decision-Making in Veterinary Practice is ideal for all veterinary practitioners, veterinary students, and clinical skills instructors.
Table of Contents
How to determine your success as a clinician
How to obtain a patient history
Informed consent
Risks, benefits, and ageism
The most important things an owner needs to know
Euthanasia
Referrals
The influence of economics on decision-making
How to optimize patient outcomes
Medical errors
The influence of patient weight on decision-making
