End-of-life decisions: A focus group study with German health professionals from human and veterinary medicine

Selter, Felicitas; Persson, Kirsten; Kunzmann, Peter; Neitzke, Gerald

doi:10.3389/fvets.2023.1044561

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 39 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…At first appearance, human and (companion animal) veterinary medicine appear to share difficult processes in end-of-life (EOL) decision-making. However, there are significant differences between the therapeutic alternatives offered by the two professions [ 28 ]. The ethical implications are likely more complex in human medicine, and, together with the lack of literature, do not allow for a direct comparison of results obtained here for veterinarians with a similar situation for physicians.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The shame over the animal's death was one of the significant emotional responses that 38.8% of professionals in this survey reported experiencing. Sleep and eating disorders are common emotional responses to stress, and Seligman [28] claims that they are linked to low self-esteem and can result in feelings of guilt for everything that goes wrong [31].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The Emotional Impact of Patient Loss on Brazilian Veterinarians

Moreira Bergamini,

Uccheddu,

Riggio

et al. 2023

Veterinary Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Veterinarians, unlike human physicians, could potentially care for the patient for several years, from conception to end-of-life care. Because of their close relationship with the animal, healthcare providers (for example, veterinarians and staff) are more likely to be affected by bad events and end-of-life care. The purpose of this study was to assess the emotional impact of patients’ deaths on Brazilian veterinarians; 549 Brazilian veterinarians (78.3% females) completed a 20-item online questionnaire. Females were more emotionally affected than males by having to talk to the owner about their animal’s death and more emotionally affected by the animal’s death itself. Furthermore, the emotional impact of an animal’s death was heavily influenced by the number of animals euthanized and varied greatly across veterinarians based on their age, with vets over 50 years old being less affected than vets between the ages of 31 and 40. The majority of responders (91.0%) were not trained to deal with grief during their degree. Those who had some training reported being less affected by bereavement. These findings indicate that patient death is a significant emotional concern for veterinarians. Specific education during the degree course, aimed at preparing future veterinarians to deal with death and death communication, is lacking but necessary.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Emotional Impact of Patient Loss on Brazilian Veterinarians

Moreira Bergamini,

Uccheddu,

Riggio

et al. 2023

Veterinary Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There is tension created by the tendency to overestimate the potential benefits of continuing to live weighed up against the difficulties of foreseeing potential harms [52,54]. All decision-makers and the diversity of people affected by a pending end-of-life decision are influenced by their emotions as well as their training, experience, personal beliefs, and extraneous factors [55,56]. When there are many people involved, consensus on the optimal approach may, therefore, be challenging to achieve.…”

Section: Why Assess Quality Of Life?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Quality-of-Life Assessments in Zoo Animals: Not Just for the Aged and Charismatic

Campbell-Ward

2023

Animals

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Zoos should aim to provide all of their animals with a good quality of life (QoL) throughout all life stages. In parallel with the evolution of QoL assessment questionnaires and tools in human and domestic animal settings, in recent times, some individual zoos and zoo industry associations have incorporated such instruments into their animal management practices. This has been conducted predominantly to inform, monitor, and document end-of-life decision-making for large, charismatic mammals. There is scope to expand the use of these tools to improve their utility, validity, reliability, and value to an animal welfare program. Assessment of QoL is a complex task given that the notion being measured is abstract and self-determined, and the design and purpose of the tools to do this require careful consideration. This review explores the QoL concept as it applies to animals, the assessment indications and methodologies relevant to a zoo setting, and the importance of considering QoL at any life stage across species. An overview of current thinking and the applications and limitations of QoL evaluation of captive wild animals is offered to promote and aid facility practice reviews and to help direct future innovations that leverage concurrent and converging advances in zoo animal welfare science.

show abstract

“…Veterinary anthropology, a philosophical reflection on human-animal relations (50), focuses on the diverse relationships between humans and animals in a sociocultural context. It is an emerging interdisciplinary field that brings together the medical sciences, humanities, and social sciences through the study and care of animals (49)(50)(51)(52)(53).…”

Section: Veterinary Anthropology: What Would You Do If It Were Your A...mentioning

confidence: 99%

An anthropologist’s voice in a veterinarian’s noise: gearing up for new cultural realities

Šterk

Brložnik

2023

Front. Vet. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Over the past three decades, the veterinary profession has faced a cultural shift towards postspeciesism that requires a reassessment of the foundations of the existing distinctions between human and non-human animals proclaimed by the speciesism paradigm, which represents institutionalized discrimination against species and recognizes only the subjectivity of humans. Based on ethnographic observations in anthropological fieldwork and using speciesism/postspeciesism distinction, we aimed to explain the main causes of small animal practitioners’ work-related stress and apply humanistic knowledge to recommend ways to alleviate the negative effects of the work environment. The explanatory model of disease, illness, and sickness, the example of the concept of family, and the circumstances of the feminization of the veterinary profession are discussed to illustrate the divergence between speciesist naturalistic veterinary knowledge and the postspeciesist cultural framework and its consequences. By failing to accommodate the changing values towards animals and by failing to challenge the anthropocentric hierarchy of values, the speciesist rationale of the veterinary profession contributes to many of the problems faced by practicing veterinarians. The incorporation of a modern moral-philosophical mindset towards animals may not even be possible because veterinary science is subject to a paradigm that is irreversibly tied to institutional discrimination against species and defies reflection on veterinary science itself. However, the veterinary profession has a privileged position in establishing an alternative ontological thinking and an alternative conception of “animal life.” Anthropological knowledge was applied to anticipate further intervention of social and cultural sciences in the problems of small animal practitioners. Rather than further diversifying and increasing expectations towards veterinarians by expecting them to acquire additional skills, we propose another practitioner who can support, mediate, and enhance veterinary performance – the cultural anthropologist. With their deep knowledge of cultural differences and social dynamics, they can collaborate with veterinarians to act as a liaison between cultures, paradigms, and species.

show abstract

End-of-life decisions: A focus group study with German health professionals from human and veterinary medicine

Cited by 5 publications

References 39 publications

The Emotional Impact of Patient Loss on Brazilian Veterinarians

The Emotional Impact of Patient Loss on Brazilian Veterinarians

Quality-of-Life Assessments in Zoo Animals: Not Just for the Aged and Charismatic

An anthropologist’s voice in a veterinarian’s noise: gearing up for new cultural realities

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About